The Orientalism Debate and the Chinese Wall: An Essay on Said and Sinology

In 1978 a hefty monograph, entitledOrientalism, appeared that would, in its own way, come to constitute a landmark in the history of Asian studies - to the satisfaction of some and the resentment of others. The author of this work, American-Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said, appealed to a wide intellectual circle, which was also shown by the sheer number of reviews in Anglo-Saxon papers and periodicals: there were at least sixty of them in the period following publication.