Two-Way Mirrors Cross-Cultural Studies in Globalization

In Two-Way Mirrors, Chen Eugene Eoyang engages in cross-cultural study, shedding light not only on the object of study but also on the subject conducting the study. The book's leading metaphor is that of the shop window, which is at once transparent (allowing a view of the merchandise on display) and reflective (offering an image of the prospective shopper). Eoyang shows the different and oppositional premises in Eastern and Western poetics juxtaposed not as contradictory but as complementary, allowing for a mutual illumination of values. He confronts the question of globalization and postmodernism bidirectionally, from an Asian as well as a Western perspective. Eoyang concludes by speculating on the continuing development of comparative literature, a discipline particularly well suited to new modes of discourse both reflective and reflexive, as illuminating as a two-way mirror.

Eugene Chen Eoyang is chair professor of humanities and director of general education, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.