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

A prize-winning journalist and Asia expert issues a provocative critique of the West's eroticised illusions about Asia and how profoundly they colour our social, cultural, business, personal and political interactions Despite - and because of - centuries of East-West interaction, the stereotypes of Western literature, stage and screen remain pervasive icons: the tea-pouring, submissive, sexually available geisha girl; the steely cold Dragon Lady dominatrix; as well as the portrayal of the Asian male as effeminate and asexual. These 'Oriental' illusions colour our social, cultural, business, and personal interactions, and affect East-West relations. This book challenges these images and explores Asia and Asians as they really are, with unclouded, de-eroticised eyes. It demands that we move beyond our misty-eyed myths of exotic difference, and reveals instead the fully dimensional human beings beyond our usual perceptions.

Sheridan Prasso has been writing about Asia for more than fifteen years, most recently as Asia Editor and a Senior News Editor for Business Week. Her articles have appeared in many publications including Time, The New Yorker and The New York Times. An advisor to the Asia Society's Social Issues Programs and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the National Committee on US-Chinese Relations, Prasso lives in New York City.