1: East Asia as a laboratory for early globalization

When thinking about pre-modern globalization, the rst images that usually come to mind are those of the Roman Empire or of the pre-contact societies in the Americas. In contrast, one of the most enduring images of pre-modern East Asia is of an isolated and stable cultural sphere. This representation originates in the idealized descriptions, found in the Chinese classics, of a self-sucient civilization that has no interest in or need for contacts with societies outside its borders. It was canonized by early Western visitors to the region, who described it as the “unchanging East.”