An Orientalism Analysis In Lost Horizon

James Hilton's Lost Horizon was published in 1933 with Shangri-la as the image of a Utopia, which brought him great success and popularity, thus he got the Hawthornden Prize. From then on, although at abroad this novel was not paid wide attention to, the notion of "Shangri-la" had been widely popular, even far more popular than the novel itself. Even in China, more and more attention is paid to the study and the exploration of the myth of "Shangri-La", but less is to the novel itself, let alone from the perspective of Orientalism. This thesis tries to explore the tendency of Orientalism in Lost Horizon, through a comprehensive analysis of the West's economic manipulation, political interference and ideological infiltration in Lost Horizon.This thesis is comprised of five parts. The introduction summarizes James Hilton's life, works and current studies of James Hilton's Lost Horizon. Then it comes to the brief introduction of Edward Said's Orientalism. And next, it ends the introduction part with the tendency of Orientalism embodied in the novel Lost Horizon. It explains the argument, the research method and main contents of this thesis and illustrates the significance of this thesis. The research method I use here is Postcolonial criticism-Edward W. Said's Orientalism and discusses the tendency of Orientalism in James Hilton's Lost Horizon.The main body of the thesis is organized in three chapters as follows:The first chapter focuses on economic manipulation the West has carried out at Shangri-la. It discusses the West's exploitation of the resources at Shangri-la. As rulers at Shangri-la, the Occidents take the upper hand overwhelming Shangri-la in terms of its gold resources and even its labour forces. The Occident leaders treat the Chinese either as servants or labours who have to stand silently behind the Westerners and to be the Other. These arguments form the basis to discuss the tendency of Orientalism in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. The second chapter studies the West's interference in the political field embodied in Lost Horizon. This chapter presents western political means and system in order to rule the lamasery. After they set foot on Shangri-la, westerners make use of their superiority to keep the traditional Chinese idea of "moderation" to themselves. What's more, in this lamasery---actually their political organ---the westerners produce a set of pyramid-style hierarchy system with some westerners as the top leaders, the oldest Han people Mr. Chang in second place and the native Tibetans at the bottom of this hierarchy. Through implementing these measures, westerners intent to make their dream, that is, to rule Shangri-la, come true. This chapter further supports a tendency of Orientalism in Lost Horizon.The third chapter mainly studies ideological infiltration from his description of religion, literature and art in Lost Horizon. This chapter further discusses the Occidents' Eurocentrism idea with an intention to infiltrating their superiority into people's mind at Shangri-la. By analyzing the Occidents' implantation of Christianity and infiltration of literature and art at Shangri-la, Lost Horizon indicates a tendency of Orientalism.The conclusion part makes a summary of the previous three chapters and indicates the tendency of Orientalism in James Hilton's subconsciousness in writing Lost Horizon. Hilton creates an otherized and imaginative Shangri-la from which he can pursue comfort to escape the damage of economic crisis and WWI, but he still can not escape the influences of his superiority as a westerner. He can not help putting the West as a "center" and the Orient as an "other". As a westerner, he still keeps a European thought to value the Orient. In the end, Hilton insists on the viewpoint that West is superior to the Orient.