The Sublime Object of Orientalism: Asian Physical Culture in the West

The Sublime Object of Orientalism proposes that globalised Asian physical cultural practices such as taiji, qigong, yoga, and meditation can be understood by examining the intimate connection between Western orientalism and the Romantic aesthetic notion of the sublime. The book recasts 'orientalist physical culture' as practices animated by the sublime and argues that this relationship is stronger than has hitherto been recognised by commentators.
Bowman combines new readings of philosophers and cultural critics such as Slavoj ?i?ek and Jane Iwamura with analyses of film, media, and Asian physical practices and their entrepreneurial forms to shed light on the quest to articulate a philosophy of orientalist physical culture.