The course will critically examine processes of globalization, cross-cultural exchanges, the application of multiple cultural sources in the arts – from the 19^th c., the colonial epoch, and the taking-over of Western empires in Asia. We will discuss political, racial and commercial interests, paying special attention to trans-cultural encounters. We shall discuss how the encounter with the West has created a hierarchical and exploitive relationship, the influence of Western culture on local traditions, and the discontinuity of local practices. We shall consider questions of cultural representations – the large 19^th century industrial expositions; art museums, and ethnographic museums; post-colonialism and globalization in the arts; the international great biennales exhibitions through the 20^th c. and biennales in the geographical and the social periphery of Japan; the place and influence of Asian and African artists, and their activities in the large metropolitan cities of Europe and the USA; what are the questions concerning authenticity, influence, contemporaneity, and hybridity, that  emerge from these practices.