CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND ¨C The legacy of imperialism is one that lingers uncomfortably in both Japan and Britain. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insists on making visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Japan¡¯s war dead along with Class-A war criminals. In Britain¡¯s case, many Oxbridge colleges have become a focal point for unprecedented tensions over the legacy of Britain¡¯s imperialist past, be it with the recent repatriation of a bronze cockerel from Jesus College to Nigeria, or the campaign to take down the statue of arch-imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College.
Edward Said, author of ¡°Orientalism,¡±?comes up in every discussion of cultural imperialism or ¡°appropriation.¡± As his nearly religious adherents are keen to tell us, any ¡°Western¡± comment on or borrowing from ¡°Eastern¡± culture is at best totally inappropriate, at worst an attempt to exert cultural control.
This time a Cambridge college, Trinity Hall, has been forced by these adherents to change the theme of its summer party from a ¡°Tokyo to Kyoto¡± celebration of Japanese culture to the foolproof, if bland, ¡°Metropolis.¡±
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