RE: Messaging and Hidden Meaning In Film Posters
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Orientalism, in one word. I generally lump all orientalism into the white savior stories (like Dances with Wolves and the Last Samurai) and dismiss it as white people fantasy, dreaming of when it was acceptable to pretend they were superior to all other races. That said, Madame Butterfly has been successfully performed in Japan for years, so reaction to it is definitely mixed and not all bad.
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I won't pretend I know the full history of orientalism. However, what I also won't ignore is the huge contribution Western civilisation has made to the world. Yes of course there are darker sides to it, just like with all civilisations.
Fortunately Madame Butterfly still survives, despite rampant political correctness. What's sad about the demise of Western civilisation is that it is being done from within.
It's a complex situation and nuance is definitely needed. It's not all good or all bad. Western civilization did contribute a lot to the modern world, but the rise of the west was funded by stealing from and exploiting the east. Again, nuance is needed, and it's certainly true that had the west not exploited the east, the reverse may have happened. It is the story of humanity after all. But speculation like that is much harder to do and it's always best to just work with the facts.
At any rate, unwinding all of this is always tough, in a large part because so many people take offense at just about everything, reading much more into what is said that what is intended, and so it's really hard to talk about. Everyone loves to talk about the good things their culture has done, but they get uptight when we talk of the bad things their culture has done and they want to lash out at others. Again, nuance is needed. We should be able to separate ourselves enough to see both the good and the bad in all cultures, including our own. That is the mark of a good historian, one who is able to talk about all sides, even their own, while keeping an open mind and not allowing their bias to get in the way.