Francophonie and the Orient : French Asian Transcultural Crossings (1840 1940) This book offers a pioneering study of Asian cultures that officially escaped from French colonisation but nonetheless were steeped in French civilisation in the colonial era and had heavily French influenced largely francophone literatures. It raises a number of provocative questions including whether colonisation is the ultimate requirement for a cultures being defined as francophone or how to think about francophone literatures that emerge from Asian nations that were historically free from French domination. The ultimate result is a redefining of the Asian francophone heritage according to new transnational paradigms.