Eastern Philosophy and Its Influence on Western Art and Film

Introduction: The Eastern Turn in Western Culture

The American-English poet T.S. Eliot references the Upanishads in his most famous poem "The Waste Land," a work that essentially chronicles the breakdown of Western civilization and looks to Eastern philosophy for guidance in the wake of Western philosophy's decline. Since then, Westerners — whether in literature or in film — have continued to look to the East for inspiration and representations of virtuous living. Hollywood, for example, has for decades been borrowing themes and narratives from Hong Kong cinema, whether in the works of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, or the Wachowski Brothers. This paper examines the ways Eastern philosophy has influenced the West culturally — primarily through the media of literature and film, and through the avenue of spirituality.

The Spirit of the East: Karma, Samsara, and Moksha

Karma may be defined as the cycle of cause and effect. Like samsara — which may be interpreted as continual flow — karma represents the Eastern philosophical equivalent of the Western maxim, "What goes around, comes around." Release from this continuous cycle is what is meant by moksha, or the attainment of nirvana (a state free of suffering, according to Buddhism). The Eastern religions and philosophies all offer varying accounts of karma, samsara, moksha, and nirvana.

As Jack Sikora (2002) states, "Moksha is not equivalent to the Western term/concept of 'salvation;' however, out of convenience many writers will employ the term 'salvation' to indicate moksha, Nirvana, or some other ultimate spiritual goal" (p. 3). The distinction is significant. While salvation is something offered primarily through the Christian God, Eastern religion seeks a different ideal: liberation from the cycle — freedom from samsara — in other words, moksha. Depending upon one's good or bad karma, moksha is either near at hand or still at some spiritual distance.

This concept of liberation from an earthly cycle of suffering is highlighted in Eliot's "The Waste Land" through the petition for "shanti" — the peace that passes all understanding. In other words, the Western poet looks to an Eastern expression to convey a distinctly Western longing for peace. This same "shanti" is present in several examples of Western cinema influenced by Asian culture. Asia's impact on Western cinema has been "formative rather than marginal," as Meaghan Morris (2004) states in her analysis of action cinema (p. 183). From Jean-Claude Van Damme and Tom Cruise to Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Hollywood has displayed far more than a passing interest in the wuxia school — whether through kung fu, gangster, or serious drama genres. This interest is demonstrated, too, in the Hong Kong crossover to an all-English-speaking cast in Wong Kar-Wai's My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones.

One piece of Eastern literature that has had a particularly large impact on Western art is the Arabian Nights. Themes of magic and supernaturalism pervade the Nights, and in turn these tales have permeated Western literary canons and civilization — not least during the great age of science that ended the medieval period and introduced the modern. As Saree Makdisi (2008) states, "The Nights added a supernatural dimension to the Enlightenment; the tales offered an avenue into modernity through its magical opposite, an alternative to European identity, and an antidote to neoclassicism" (p. 4). Since the Western world had become thoroughly dissatisfied with the ancient traditions of its own culture, it is no surprise that it looked to the East to supply forms that might hold its moral compass in check. The Nights had served a similar function in the East for as long as they existed. As Bruno Bettelheim (2010) argues: "It should be recalled that in Hindu medicine — and the Thousand and One Nights cycle is of Indian-Persian origin — the mentally deranged person is told a fairy story, contemplation of which will help him overcome his emotional disturbance" (p. 88). Thus, the king who has been betrayed by womankind requires 1,001 nights of storytelling to free him from the melancholy that has warped his perspective and turned him into a slaughterer of women. The magic of the fairy tale, as Bettelheim suggests, illustrates an Arabic sense of what is today known as "magical realism" — a crossroads between the real and the hyper-real, the natural and the supernatural.

Magical Realism and the Remystification of Western Narrative

Magical realism has been on the rise in Western literature throughout the twentieth century. Wendy Faris (2004) defines it as the combination of "realism and the fantastic so that the marvelous seems to grow organically within the ordinary, blurring the distinction between them… [including] different cultural traditions… [and reflecting] the hybrid nature of much postcolonial society" (p. 1). Faris locates magical realism at the crossroads of modernism and postmodernism, as a kind of fairy-tale reminder woven into existence itself. Though she limits her study to novels, the analysis could readily be extended to film. "Because it reports events that it does not empirically verify," the narrative voice of magical realism is of "uncertain origin" and is considered "defocalized" (p. 3). Part of the purpose of such defocalization is to enable the reader to escape the realism of the novel's world and enter into an interplay with the world's unresolved mysteries — those that realists cannot and have not settled. As Faris notes, magical realism has remystified the world through literature in the West.

Remystification has not occurred only in literature — it is also happening on screen. The Hong Kong–American hybrid Kung Fu Hustle is a perfect illustration of how Asian cinema serves as a platform from which Western cinema can explore both magical realism and Eastern philosophy simultaneously.

Conclusion

In conclusion, faith, honor, comedy, and horror — for a brief moment — regain their proper place atop the ever-increasing junk heap of modern tangibles, and for a brief moment we are all made children again, regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity, in a world that is as equally slapstick and wonderful as it is dangerous and corrupt. The Asian influence on Western art — seen in such disparate works as "The Waste Land," the literature of magical realism, and the cinema of Stephen Chow — is full of an old-world philosophy that upholds nobility and spirituality, ideals that tend to dismantle the Western machismo of Rambo and John Wayne. In their place, we see a new, prayerful, contemplative kind of hero — best represented by the Wachowskis' Neo in The Matrix — a film to which the Eastern filmmaker Chow pays homage in Kung Fu Hustle.

References

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