Picture of Our Forces Bringing About the Fall of Pyongyang by Kobayashi Toshimitsu, 1894-1895 (detail) [2000.380_03] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
PUNCH, August 11, 1894
PUNCH, August 11, 1894, page 62
PUNCH, August 11, 1894, page 63
PUNCH, August 11, 1894, page 63
Punch, September 29, 1894, page 149
MIT Visualizing Cultures
Orientalism—the War in English Eyes

When Japanese lampooned, denigrated, and dehumanized the enemy, they were treading both familiar and unfamiliar ground. Caucasian artists (and writers) routinely ridiculed peoples of different races and colors, portraying themselves as the epitome of “civilization” in the process.

The entries here convey this flavor as presented in pictures, prose, and verse about the Sino-Japanese War that appeared in the celebrated English satirical journal Punch (which often leavened its wit with a healthy dose of self-criticism).

What was new on the scene where racial and cultural stereotyping was concerned in 1894 and 1895 was the sudden emergence of the “little Japanese” as powerful in Western eyes—and, on the other hand, the Japanese themselves joining in the game of stereotyping Asians where China, at least, was concerned.




Throwing Off Asia, by John W. Dower

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
© 2008 Visualizing Cultures
Punch, September 29, 1894, page 149
PUNCH, August 11, 1894, page 62Punch, September 29, 1894, page 150
Punch, September 29, 1894, page 150
Punch, October 20, 1894, page 182
Punch, October 20, 1894, page 182
Punch, October 20, 1894, page 183
Punch, October 20, 1894, page 183
Punch, November 17, 1894, page 233
Punch, November 17, 1894, page 233
Punch, November 17, 1894, page 234
Punch, November 17, 1894, page 234
Punch, December 22, 1894, page 290
Punch, December 22, 1894, page 290
Punch, December 22, 1894, page 291
Punch, April 27, 1895, page 194
Punch, April 27, 1895, page 195
Punch, December 22, 1894, page 291 Punch, April 27, 1895, page 194 Punch, April 27, 1895, page 195