OF ALL THE UNUSUAL situations Sheridan Prasso faced when researching her new book, one night in Indonesia topped them all. Ms. Prasso found herself, she writes in her book, "running through the lobby of a Jakarta luxury hotel at 3:30 in the morning, hand-in-hand with an ethnic Chinese woman, fleeing an ex-headhunting tribesman-conventioneer who has bought you a tuna sandwich and expects you to have sex with him."

A night out with a Chinese-Indonesian party girl, a visit with a former geisha, evenings in Manila bars and lunches with Cathay Pacific flight attendants were part of the research Ms. Prasso conducted for her new book, "The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient" (PublicAffairs, 2005). The book examines myths about Asia, in particular, Western perceptions of Asian women as exotic, submissive, sexually available, loyal -- but rarely as complex, mature, three-dimensional individuals.

Debunking ethnic stereotypes such as the meek Japanese housewife, the easy Thai bar girl, and the Chinese dragon lady required getting to know women -- including Ria, with whom Ms. Prasso shared her early-morning sprint through the Jakarta hotel. The research was, in many ways, a woman's job; Ms. Prasso, a journalist who has spent more than 15 years covering Asia, doubts that a man would have been able to elicit the candid responses she drew from her subjects. "When I first went to Japan, people had warned me not to expect to be invited into Japanese homes," she recalls. However, "Japanese women frequently invited me into their homes, and that can't happen if you are a man."

And it took a female perspective, she says, to identify the inaccuracies in Western views of Asia, namely because "so many of our misperceptions in the West are based on what Western men have written about Asia for centuries."

Ms. Prasso also suggests that Western perceptions of Asia as weak and effeminate have colored foreign policy; she cites America's underestimation of Vietnamese strength during the Vietnam War. These prejudices are prevalent today, she says: "Just at this moment, there's a real resurgence of yellow peril because of Cnooc's attempts to buy Unocal," she points out, referring to the Chinese company's recently-scrapped bid for the U.S. oil company. "In the West, we're only able to cast Asia as either dominant or submissive to Western concerns and interests."

Personal Journal asked Ms. Prasso to recommend five works of non-fiction about Asia.

1. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," by Ian Johnson (Pantheon, 2004): Journalist Ian Johnson tells the stories of three people who challenged state corruption: an architecture student, a woman whose mother died at the hands of the police, and a rural lawyer. "It gives a very realistic picture of some of the issues facing China today, that has a different voice from either the gangbuster economy or the rising world threat," says Ms. Prasso. "It's important to remember that China faces its own very compelling domestic concerns."

2. "Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam," by Robert Templer (Little, Brown and Company, 1998): "Thank God we have gotten away from the whole `Vietnam as a war presentation'," says Ms. Prasso. "The point of this book is that Vietnam is not a war, it's a country." Mr. Templer examines contemporary culture and society in a book that Ms. Prasso praises as "probably the most up-to-date, modern non-fiction work on Vietnam today."

3. "Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City," by Stella Dong (William Morrow, 2000):"I think that only when we understand where China has come from, that we can understand where it's going," says Ms. Prasso. This book examines Chinese history from 1842 to 1949 through the story of Shanghai -- a racy read, say critics, with tales of opium dealers, gangs and entrepreneurs.

4. "The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices," by Xinran Xue (Chatto & Windus, 2002): Xinran Xue based this book on stories she heard as host of the radio show "Words on the Night Breeze," a forum for Chinese women to call in and discuss their lives. "It reminds us that China is full of people who have issues and problems and concerns," says Ms. Prasso.

5. "The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future," by Elizabeth C. Economy (Cornell University Press, 2004): The author argues that unless China comes up with enlightened solutions to its environmental problems, eventually the entire world will have to face them. "I think that's a really important message," says Ms. Prasso.