Accounts the growing prominence of Asians in the world of Western classical music, this book explores the history of East Asian nations' adoption of Western music to explain why the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese are the most visible Asian groups in the field. It is also about the lives and work of individual musicians devoted to their art.

In the first book to account for the growing prominence of Asians in the world of Western classical music, Mari Yoshihara grapples with the significance of this trend. This is a book about the about the origins of a social and cultural phenomenon, but it is also about the lives and work of individual musicians devoted to their art.