This book is representative of a new movement in Graeco-Roman reception studies, which sees the expansion of such studies to include worlds outside those of the ‘West’, in this case East Asia. It would be customary to compare the work under review with the existing literature, yet truth be told there is no comparable volume on the market – this volume is the first of its kind, and a welcome and timely work of reference for scholars who are venturing into these research areas.

In the introduction the editors discuss the aims and objectives and give an overview of the trajectories of the book. The volume is set ‘to contribute to the contemporary discussion of globalization by focusing on its very root’, specifically ‘the processes by which knowledge about Classical Greco-Roman antiquity has been transferred to and received by East Asian educated elites over the longue durée of history’ (p. 1). The study of receptions of Greek and Roman antiquity in East Asia is, as the editors rightly acknowledge, not an entirely new topic, despite the fragmentary nature of previous inquiries. A sketch summary in the introduction, however brief, of the existing works would have been helpful in providing some form of grounding for the reader.

One striking feature of the volume lies in its eclectic nature, not merely in terms of the themes and time periods covered, but more noticeably in the approaches and styles adopted by the contributors. Some chapters are documentary and descriptive, while others are more scholarly and analytical, as the editors themselves acknowledge (p. 3). Moreover, some contributors choose to recount personal experiences and are frank about their subjective points of view, while others maintain a distance between themselves and the actors in the works. On a minor note of inconsistency, both the Wade–Giles system of romanisation and pinyin are adopted for Chinese (e.g. Matteo Ricci's treatise on friendship is spelt either Chiao-yu lun or Jiaoyou lun). According to J.T. Hamilton in the foreword, the ‘kaleidoscope quality’ of the volume best captures the complexity of the project (p. ix). Indeed, given the tremendous scope of the work, one might well choose to see what might appear to be an initial lack of uniformity as an inevitable and arguably attractive aspect of the volume.

The 23 chapters are divided into 5 parts according to thematic focus or chronology rather than by geographical region, beginning with Part 1, ‘Encountering Traditions: Early Exchanges and Transfers of Knowledge’. A. Müller-Lee offers a survey of the portrayal of Graeco-Roman culture in a range of Jesuit authors such as Matteo Ricci and Giulio Aleni, ending with a discussion on the question of response, which takes the forms of unspoken integration of elements of Graeco-Roman antiquity in Chinese canons of writings, the acculturation of elements of Graeco-Roman culture in Chinese scholarly practice, and criticism and refutation. N. Golvers undertakes a bibliographical investigation into the classical Latin texts that were circulated during seventeenth- to eighteenth-century China by the Jesuit missionaries to argue that, while there is some evidence of assimilation, the bilingual intertextuality between Latin and Chinese literary texts seems to have been very limited. In the final chapter of this part I. Taida provides an outline of the 400-year reception of Classical studies in Japan, which began with the Christian missionaries who taught Latin in mission schools, then a period of self-imposed national isolation under the Tokugawa government, followed by the rise in popularity of Rangaku (‘Dutch learning’) and the opening up to Western studies during the Meiji period.

In contrast to the broad time span examined in the first part of the volume, Part 2, ‘Receiving Texts: the Travel of Tropes and Literary Fusions’, contains four chapters that deal with twentieth-century China and Japan. J. Liu undertakes a case study focusing on 1920s–1930s China, which saw fervent debates between the ‘traditionalists’ and the May Fourth iconoclasts who led the New Culture Movement. The Xueheng journal (The Critical Review), Liu argues, was heavily invested in using Graeco-Roman materials to challenge existing discourses on the role of the Chinese past in national salvation and modernisation, using translations or rather ‘rewritings’ of the works of Plato and Aristotle to establish commonality between Chinese and Western antiquities and thereby emphasise the relevance of traditional Chinese ethics. L. Zhang's chapter likewise touches on the theme of the ‘traditional’ vs the ‘new’. Focusing on the intellectual Zhou Zuoren, it shows through detailed linguistic analysis that Zhou's translation of Theocritus’ Idyll 10 experimented with vernacular prose that was free from the style and form of traditional Chinese. In Japan, too, intellectuals sought to engage with the Classical ‘West’ in their responses to contemporary affairs in their own societies. I. Amano shows that Graeco-Roman antiquity was a source of inspiration for Japanese intellectuals such as Mishima Yukio, who employed the image of St Sebastian in critiquing the cultural norms of post-war Japan. Mishima figures again in L. Cardi's contribution, which explores literary adaptations of Euripides’ Medea by Kurahashi Yumiko and Mishima, written respectively in 1948 and 1969. Here, the past and the present, the ‘East’ and the ‘West’ are interwoven to create narrative experiments: Kurahashi combines Euripides’ tragedy with elements from Japanese Noh theatre, while Mishima questions the decay of morality in Japan by setting the story of Medea in post-WWII Tokyo. Cardi's chapter is, therefore, a fascinating study that not only concerns reception and adaptation, but also intracultural comparison.

Part 3, ‘Negotiating Terms: the Discourse of Antiquity and Modernity’, continues the themes of Part 2 in revealing how the classical past is interpreted or appropriated as a response to contemporary affairs, reflecting in particular nationalist ideology. H. Nara addresses the phenomenon of philhellenism in Japan, illustrating the various ways in which the Japanese sought to assimilate to the West in the process of modernisation, imagining and reimagining their cultural identity against the romanticised notion of the ancient West. Likewise in modern China, as X. Fan, X. Liu and S. Bartsch show, the reception of classical western antiquity is closely tied to the formation of cultural identity, with social and political repercussions. Fan discusses how the reception of western historical concepts has led to the negotiation by Chinese scholars of a new term for ‘Classical antiquity’, which has contributed to the transformation of modern Chinese historiography. Liu explicates the significance of Leo Strauss in China's reception of western philosophy, believing Strauss's teaching to be instrumental in helping today's scholars to deal with the crisis of Chinese civilisation as well as that of the West. For Bartsch ‘a current strand of anti-Western thinking in China has replaced the idealization of Western political and philosophical thought earlier in this century’ (p. 253), in that the Classical West is now being put to use in critiques of ideals such as democracy, capitalism and individualism.

Part 4, ‘Pluralizing Legacies: Visual, Material, and Performing Cultures’, showcases a variety of ways in which Graeco-Roman antiquity is brought to life in comics, plays, exhibitions and architecture. S. Kawana discusses the Japanese manga series Thermae Romae, which introduces the world of ancient Rome to readers by inviting them to appreciate the mutual resonances between the two societies separated by space and time. C. Scilabra further explores the various forms of representations of ancient Greece and Rome in Japanese comics, where the interest in myth is a driving factor in their popularity. The two following chapters deal with the phenomenon of Greek tragedy taking on a localised form: after Cardi's treatment in Part 2, we see Euripides’ Medea making a return in T. Yu's chapter, which shows how the Chinese writer Guo Moruo is inspired by ancient Greek tragedy to create the figure of Queen Hudijin in The Peacock's Gallbladder; Y.-J. Hwang's chapter focuses on the 2005 Korean production of Agamemnon – The Ghost Sonata, which transformed the ‘universal value’ of Greek tragedy ‘into the particular context of urban daily life in Seoul’ (p. 339). C.-L. Hsu's chapter illustrates the ways in which the use of Classical architectural elements in Taiwan was subject to the cultural and political shifts that were taking place during Japanese colonisation and rule by the Chinese Nationalist Party.

Part 5, ‘Sharing Traditions: Western Classics in Contemporary East Asia’, consists of seven chapters. Those by Y. Huang and F.-H. Mutschler complement each other well: concentrating on the Greek half of the classical world, Huang shows how Classical Studies held economic and political relevance for twentieth-century China, while Mutschler gives a much more personal account of how he has witnessed changes in the Chinese Classical scene, in terms of academic institutions, the Church, the performing arts and even tourist attractions. Three of the chapters concern Korea, with D. Kim focusing on the study of the reception of ancient history, J. Ahn on the reception of literature and B.J. Choe on the influence of Roman law. In the remaining two chapters on Japan, E. Craik takes an approach similar to Mutschler in recounting her personal experiences of teaching Classics at Kyoto University, while R. Nakamura shows how students at Tokyo University of the Arts recreated the Olympian gods of the Parthenon frieze in three dimensions over a period of several years.

This rich volume will appeal to anyone interested in reception studies and in cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and will no doubt become an indispensable handbook for scholars working on the reception of Graeco-Roman Classics in East Asia in particular. Admittedly not all the contributions will cater for a broad readership, since a few of the chapters are peppered with linguistic analysis and may be of more interest to those who have a grasp of the relevant East Asian languages. Therefore, there is a sense of discrepancy in the assumptions of the contributors about whom they are addressing and the extent to which the reader is familiar with the materials at hand. Given the anticipated broad readership, more help could have been given to the reader to provide orientation. As is evident from the outline above, certain themes and figures emerge more than once across the chapters and more cross-referencing throughout the volume would have been welcome. On a related issue, there is an index of names but regrettably no general index, which would have helped the reader navigate between the chapters and locate the sections that are relevant for their needs, particularly given the frequent thematic overlap between the chapters. These quibbles aside, there is not a shadow of doubt that the editors and contributors have undertaken a remarkable project, paving the way for current and future scholars to engage in this fascinating subject of enquiry.