Is it ¡°racist¡± for non-Japanese to wear kimono? That question has been fiercely debated since protesters entered Boston¡¯s Museum of Fine Arts in late June to decry an exhibition encouraging visitors to try on a red uchikake kimono in front of a 1876 painting by Claude Monet of his wife wearing a similar garment.
The original protesters ¡ª who, though not Japanese, identified as Asian-American ¡ª said the museum was perpetuating a racist stereotype that exoticized Asian culture. That stereotype has its roots in the colonial era, when Europeans viewed non-Western cultures as an oversimplified selection of traits in a way that dehumanized them ¡ª known by cultural theorists as an ¡°Orientalist¡± perspective.
The museum stopped allowing visitors to try on the kimono but continued allowing them to touch it. By July 16, protests had increased and become part of a wider advocacy movement protesting modern Orientalism on social media through the hashtag #whitesupremacykills on Twitter and ¡°Stand Against Yellow Face¡± Facebook group.
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