Asia in the Eyes of Europe: Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries

Asia In the Eyes of Europe

Exhibition curated by Professor Donald F. Lach.

This exhibition examines one of the most important and enduring themes in Western thought. From the time of the Renaissance onward, Western consciousness has been shaped by a multitude of diverse and rapidly changing images of Asia and its peoples. Explorers, traders, missionaries, and scholars returned from the East with stories of strange plants, animals, and cultures beyond the limits of European experience. Incorporated within developing fields of knowledge from astronomy to botany, these reports formed the basis of new and constantly altered visions of what lay beyond the Eastern horizon. In many important ways, the process of Western exploration and discovery of Asia continues to the present day. From the Persian Gulf to Vietnam to China, the West is still contending with a host of powerful and barely-understood images conjured by the ancient cultures of the East.

Exhibit Publications & Documents

Online Exhibit Catalog
Catalogue 48p. (perfect bound)

Exhibit Text