The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient

Few Westerners escape the images, expectations and misperceptions that lead us to see Asia as exotic, sensual, decadent, dangerous, and mysterious-from the tea-pouring, sexually available geisha girl to the Dragon Lady dominatrix and the effeminate or asexual Asian male. The Asian Mystique lays out a provocative challenge to see Asia and Asians as they really are, with unclouded, de-eroticized eyes. It traces the origins of Western stereotypes in history and in Hollywood, examines the phenomenon...