Tourists in Asia are often told to leave the cities, temples of Western materialism and seek the true spirit of the East in dusty villages. This sweeping dichotomy of spiritual Asia and the materialistic West is challenged by the author, who spent a year travelling in eight countries, from Burma's rural isolation to the sexual Disneyland of Thailand and the sterile suburbia of Singapore. This book is a blend of history, personal observation, interviews and informed reportage which portrays an Asia suffering a crisis of cultural identity. The author also wrote A Japanese Mirror.