To imagine that we confront Asia for the first time in the twenty-first century is to deny our history and the self-awareness that comes from understanding that we have been here before. Asia appears throughout modern Australian history as a source of anxiety or hope. Generic Asia has been imagined, visited and invoked, as have the individual nations that make up the Asian continent. It has been a presence both within and outside Australia, shaping who we are as well as our engagement with the wider world. In Australias Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century, David Walker and Agnieszka Sobocinska have assembled an impressive group of scholars across a range of disciplines to present a broadly conceived cultural history that places Asia at or near the centre of our national story.
