Inventing Asia: American Perspectives Around 1900

These essays examine the widespread presence and myths of Asia in American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In subjects ranging from art collecting and criticism, spirituality and personality cults, to photography and Hollywood movies, the anthology explores the persistence of America's fascination with Asia and its transnational effects across the Pacific and the Atlantic. 

Edited by Alan Chong and Noriko Murai, the essays are based on a symposium held at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, in conjunction with the exhibition Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. 

Part of the Fenway Court Series
Edited by Alan Chong and Noriko Murai
216 pages
Published by Asian Civilisations Museum, 2009
7.5 x 0.5 x 9.7 inches
Paperback