Since the media began calling the 1990s the “decade of the Pacific rim”, there has been much talk of the decline, if not demise, of the “hegemony of the West”. This was clearly the signal I got attending the 'Asia Initiative Roundtable' of art museum directors, curators and critics from Asia, and their counterparts in the US, Canada and Australia, meeting in New York in the fall of 1992. Organised by the Asia Society of New York, this conference was one step forward to bringing contemporary Asian art to Western gallery-goers.