The result is an examination of what I call "The Asian Mystique," a distorted prism of images that affects how we in the West view Asia and Asian people. After years of exploring this phenomenon and talking with hundreds of people, I realized that this mystique affects everything from cross-cultural marriages to business interactions to international relations. We like our well-intentioned fantasies of "the Orient," but they are not only impractical but perilous in the modern world. Everyone who reads and absorbs the arguments presented in this book, I believe, will never be able to see Asia with the same eyes again.