Part 6

"Her dark hair was drawn back, held by a band of printed silk -"

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Here, the combination of references to "dark hair" and "printed silk" bring the racialized portrayal of Linda Lee into full focus. Both phrases are understood by the reader as signifiers of Lee's "Asianness," and the appropriation of Asian cultural elements is one of the aspects that most definitively characterizes the world created by Gibson, as explored in a more limited sense in Part 4. Gibson's use of Orientalism transcends the traditional definition of the term in the sense that he actually writes about Asian characters in an Asian geographic location, rather than just using cultural aspects of Asian culture in his work. However, given that the primary characters are mostly white and his work seems more to use Asian characters as a reinforcement and legitimization of the cultural tokens he weaves into his aesthetic, Orientalism is still a characteristic feature of his work.

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