A PARTICULAR THRILL OF MY THIRTY-YEAR CAREER IN THE WORLD OF EAST Asian Art studies was to "ride shotgun" with Bob Moore in his old workhorse Ford station wagon as we cruised nonstop—or so it appeared to me on my visits—through Los Angeles traffic. A resident of the central district for more than half a century, Bob would take us effortlessly towards our destinations of the day through disparate ethnic as well as solid middle-class white American neighborhoods, scoot down side streets, descend onto freeways seemingly clogged, and then magically swoop up and out of the fray into yet another fascinating realm of unfamiliar church and shop signs and sidewalk folk—Philippino? ... Russian? ... maybe Cambodian? ... America's future, with barely a tap of the brakes, a vista straight out of movies.