Since the end of the Cold War, there has been much talk about a new kind of conflict, a conflict between civilizations, that has revived the notion, which never quite disappeared, of an absolute division between East (from Iraq to Japan) and West (western Europe and North America). The Missionary and the Libertine explores this confrontation. Ian Buruma's essays explore Eastern sexuality - Japanese sex in the movies, Banana Yoshimoto and the erotic dreams of young girls; the conflicts between the East and the West in individuals - Benazir Bhutto, Imelda Marcos, Cory Acquino, V. S. Naipaul; Hong Kong, Britain's last colony in Asia, and the Olympic Games in South Korea; the legacy of Pearl Harbour; the legacy of Hiroshima; Japan bashing and racial war. Intimate knowledge of the traditions of the East allow him to disentangle the knotty thickets that bind culture and politics together. The Missionary and the Libertine confirms Ian Buruma as one of the leading writers of his generation on the relationship between Asia and the West.
