This book tells two stories about the full-length mirror. One story, through time and space, crisscrosses the globe to introduce a broad range of historical actors: kings and slaves, artists and writers, merchants and craftsmen, courtesans and commoners. The other story explores the connections between object, painting and photography, the full-length mirror providing a new perspective on historical artefacts and their images in art and visual culture. The Full-Length Mirror represents a new kind of global art history in which 'global' is understood in terms of both geography and visual medium, a history encompassing Europe, Asia and North America, and spanning over two millennia from the fourth century BCE to the early twentieth century.

'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