Inspired by the East: Orientalism at the British Museum (part 1)

"Rather than the manufactured clash of civilizations, we need to concentrate on the slow working together of cultures that overlap, borrow from each other, and live together in far more interesting ways than any abridged or inauthentic mode of understanding can allow." Edward W. Said, Orientalism (1978)

In the Madrasa by Ludwig Deutsch (1890)

wonder | wander | women couldn't wait to see the new exhibition co-curated by the British Museum and the Malaysian Islamic Arts Museum. 'Inspired by the East: How the Islamic world influenced Western art' is more than an exhibition of Orientalist art - it's a dialogue between cultures of mutual influence.

Mooncake Festival : Asia's Mid-Autumn Feast

In the Orient it is the moon that rules, with special occasions plotted on the lunar calendar. Thus the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon. For 2015 this translates to September 27 or 28 in the solar or western calendar.

An assortment of moon cakes laid out prettily.

An important part of the festival celebration is moon worship.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Mooncake Festival. For millions of Chinese across Asia and around the world the Mid-Autumn Festival is a big deal and second only to Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. 

Houyi helplessly looking at his wife Chang'e 

flying off to the moon after she drank the elixir.