The Full-Length Mirror

In The Full-Length Mirror, Wu Hung recounts how reflective glass did more than cater to vanity over the millenniums. As the book suggests, there was anxiety over reflections, too, which long predated vampire novels and starlets. -- Eve M. Kahn * The New York Times *
As has been the case with the numerous other books Wu Hung has offered us, The Full-Length Mirror is a significant work that aptly displays his original ideas, lucid writing and unparalleled erudition: no full-length mirror will ever be large enough to reflect the towering presence and shadow he has marked on art history and Sinology. * J. P. Park, June and Simon Li Professor in the History of Art, University of Oxford *
In an impressive sweep across time and space, enlivened by penetrating insights, this very readable study uses the full-length mirror as a point of entry into a highly stimulating range of questions about technologies, representations and the connections between them. * Craig Clunas, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, University of Oxford *
In this highly original and enthralling study, Wu Hung takes readers on a journey across time, space and media to explore how emperors as well as ordinary individuals in both China and Europe used full-length mirrors to express power, desire, memory and the self. The images are as stunning as the insights. * Meredith Martin, Associate Professor of Art History, New York University *