ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the role of Asian cultural translators or “long-distance cultural specialists”—understood to include artists, anthropologists, historians, intellectuals, writers, and other cultural producers—whose practices have the distinctive feature of traversing different worlds. It looks at the foundations in the anthropology and history of art to engage the reader with the complexities of current approaches to art, agency, and material culture. The book considers the way Vietnamese artists dealt with the aesthetic regimes of both the French and Japanese colonial administrations, and the historical legacy of Sinic culture, in their endeavors to redefine a locally viable Asian aesthetic. It discusses the technique of perforation to refer to the practice of weaving, and often combines words and passages from Theravada Buddhism or Lao spiritual traditions with motifs and symbols from Lao textiles.
