With the trade rela­tions between Europe and the Far East since the Baroque era — for exam­ple, with the estab­lish­ment of trad­ing com­pa­nies in the Nether­lands — and the simul­ta­ne­ous Chris­t­ian, espe­cial­ly Jesuit, mis­sions, knowl­edge about the large­ly unknown cul­tures in Chi­na and Japan reached Europe. Leib­niz and Voltaire wrote about Chi­na. Con­tem­po­raries were fas­ci­nat­ed by import­ed Chi­nese porce­lains, fab­rics and fur­ni­ture. The ide­al­ized image of a hedo­nis­tic giant empire emerged. In a broad the­mat­ic arc, we want to trace the effects of this Chi­na and Japan fash­ion on fine art and archi­tec­ture: from Dutch still lives and pre­cious Meis­sen porce­lains to Pill­nitz Palace near Dres­den, which was built in the Chi­nese style. A sep­a­rate chap­ter explores the effect of Japan­ese wood­block prints on painters such as Manet, Mon­et, and Van Gogh.