"Popular images of China in Western culture date back as far as the publication of Marco Polo's memoirs in the early fourteenth century. But China exercised a particularly profound influence on the avant-garde in the twentieth century. The American poet Ezra Pound, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, and the writers associated with the Parisian avant-garde literary journal Tel quel developed especially strong passions for China. Eric Hayot examines these writers' infatuation with China, demonstrating that Pound, Brecht and the writers of Tel quel looked to the East and found a new vision for both themselves and the West."--Jacket