From the time of the ancient Greeks onward, the West's relationship with Asia consisted mostly of gruesome tales of strange monsters and creatures, of silk and spices shipped across vast distances, and a queasy sense of unknown empires fantastically far away. By the 20th century, large parts of Asia may have come under Western rule after centuries of warfare, but its intellectual, artistic, and spiritual influence was resisting. *The Light of Asia* is a wonderfully varied and entertaining history of the many ways in which Asia shaped European and North American culture over centuries of intertwined and dynamic encounters, and of the pivotal importance of this tangled and often ambiguous relationship. From Marco Polo onward, Asia has been a source of real fascination and real failures of understanding. China, India, and Japan were regarded as great civilizations, but in a primitive way, seen as having been overtaken by Western civilization. From Chicago to Calcutta, from ancient times to the new millennium, this is a rich and engaging story of misunderstanding and honest connection, of inspiration and falsehood, of geniuses, adventurers, and con artists.

Christopher Harding's engaging exhibition of people and places celebrates Asia's influence on the West in all its diversity.