As objects from China and Japan made their way into American collections during the nineteenth century, museums faced the categorical problem of how best to classify and display them. For some, these objects belonged in the category of "fine art"; for others, they belonged more properly in the category of anthropology or ethnology. By the 1920s, this debate had largely been resolved in favor of "art." At stake, of course, was the larger question of how Americans would ultimately view the cultures that produced the objects.