Chinoiserie is an oddity.  It is a wholly European style whose inspiration is entirely oriental.  True Chinoiseries are not pallid or incompetent imitations of Chinese objects.  They are tangible and solid realizations in the West of a land of the imagination: an exotic, remote country, famed for its riches, that through the centuries remained cloud-wrapped, obstinately refusing to allow more than a handful of foreigners beyond its gates. 

—  Dawn Jacobson, Chinoiserie