Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

The East and the West: From Holism to Dialogue through Confrontation 

 

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M. Eisenstein and V. Meyerhold. There was also great interest in the (male) 

Chinese actor, Mei Lan-Fang, who played the roles of women.  

S. M. Eisenstein studied Japanese at the Department of Oriental 

Languages of the General Staff Academy,

16

 and was particularly interested 

in Mei Lan-Fang and Kabuki theatre. Eisenstein never missed a 

performance, and also communicated with Mei Lan-Fang during his visits 

to the Cinematography Institute (the Russian State University of 

Cinematography, named after S. A. Gerasimov, Moscow).

17

 Given this, his 

influence by the traditions of Eastern dramatic arts when director of the 

Moscow theatre was quite natural. Eisenstein carefully researched the 

compositional principles of Japanese poetry and the features of Far Eastern 

painting; he considered them to be the key to universal expressive 

manifestations. In his memoirs, recalling his own linguistic and cultural 

studies, he writes: “It is this” unusual “course of thinking that helped me to 

understand the nature of the installation.”

18

 

Eisenstein deserves great credit for opening up new methods of film 

editing. The director himself explained the essence of this method, citing 

the nature of the hieroglyphs he had learned when studying the Japanese 

language. In the article Behind the Scenes, Eisenstein discusses the nature of 

the symbol and explains how the image of an object gradually becomes a 

conventional sign-symbol.

19

 He shows how the transition from an image of 

an object to the transfer of concepts by hieroglyphics is made by means of 

“editing.” This editing in hieroglyphics interested him as an analogy to 

editing in cinematography. Eisenstein’s greatest innovation was to suggest 

that scenes should not be edited according to the text (as theatre tended to 

push the director towards) but according to their associative semiotic 

relations. Through this, he discovered some very important principles and 

laws, but he came to these discoveries through studying features of the 

culture and performing arts of Japan and China. 

Unfortunately, World War II interrupted this process of cultural 

interaction between the East and the West, but the post-war years brought 

dramatic change to the Western European world. The spiritual “flight to the 

East” began in the West in the early 1960s and gathered pace over time. 

The impact of philosophical and aesthetic postulates from the Chang/Zen 

                                                 

16

 This was an educational unit, established in 1920, for training diplomats and military 

intelligence officers of the Red Army to become fluent in Oriental languages; it is now 

known as the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian 

Federation, Moscow. 

17

 Kuleshov 1975, p. 206-207. 

18

 Eisenstein 1964, p. 99. 

19

 Eisenstein 1998, p. 29-30. 

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R. R. Muhametzyanov 

 

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school of Buddhism proved significant for Western culture.

20

 The influence 

of Eastern philosophical and religious concepts and of Eastern 

philosophers was very strong, particularly among the youth. For many, 

Eastern philosophies represented a means of protest against the mass 

consumption society, against the “one-dimensional man.” This was a 

movement that changed the face of Western culture. 

This situation lasted until the mid-1970s. Since the beginning of the 

integration process in Europe, there had been a change in attitude towards 

the East. There was no longer a search for an alternative to the European 

consciousness and European ways of development. Instead, people started 

to search for answers to the urgent questions of the West in the historical, 

spiritual experience of the East. 

The flight to the East was also connected to the scientific and 

technological revolutions which changed the face of the West during the 

second half of the twentieth century. The cult of engineering and 

technology generated a sense of alienation, prompting a desire to go “back 

to the source,” to return to a natural state when people lived in peace and 

harmony with their environment and themselves. Eastern aesthetics still 

influence the nature of Western art and literature; their effect can be found 

in design, literature, films and philosophy. The European intelligentsia 

continue to seek various forms of interaction between Western and Eastern 

cultures. 

During this period of time, the East was living within its cultural and 

historical paradigm, protecting it and trying to preserve it unchanged. This 

situation lasted until the 19

th

 century, when the pressure of Western 

European countries became especially strong. A desire to adapt to these 

new historical conditions came in response to this “challenge,” as can be 

seen, for example, in the reform movement in the Arab-Muslim world

21

 

(Islamic modernism).

22

 But at the same time, we also see the appearance of 

forces ready to defend their traditional cultural norms to the end. The desire 

to maintain traditional norms and institutions has led to some appalling 

scenarios. However, an alternative example of positive interaction can also 

be seen: the integration of the norms and values of Eastern cultures into the 

international system. Of particular pertinence in this regard are the role of 

                                                 

20

 Zavadskaya 1977, p. 23; Macfie 2003, p. 315-322. 

21

 A movement in Islam focused on reconsidering Islamic culture from the perspective of 

the changed conditions of modern life. Islamic modernism is a reaction to imperialist 

policies and economics and the dominance of the West, an attempt to reform the law, 

society and educational systems. 

22

 Kirillina 1989, p. 138. 

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