New Books Network
Chinese Studies
East Asian Studies May 7, 2021

Empire and Righteous Nation

600 Years of China-Korea Relations

Odd Arne Westad

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Being arguably each side’s most enduring international bond, the China-Korea relationship has long been of great practical and symbolic importance to both. Moreover, as Odd Arne Westad observes in his …

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Political Science May 3, 2021

Mobilizing for Development

The Modernization of Rural East Asia

Kristen E. Looney

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Dr. Kristen Looney’s Mobilizing for Development: The Modernization of Rural East Asia published by Cornell University in 2020 interrogates how countries achieve rural development and offers a new way of …
Medicine April 30, 2021

Mass Vaccination

Citizens' Bodies and State Power in Modern China

Mary Augusta Brazelton

Hosted by Laura Stark
Mary Brazelton’s new book, Mass Vaccination: Citizens’ Bodies and State Power in Modern China (Cornell UP, 2019) could hardly be more timely. During the Covid-19 pandemic, China was in the headlines …
East Asian Studies April 23, 2021

A Monastery on the Move

Art and Politics in Later Buddhist Mongolia

Uranchimeg Tsultemin

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
How, and why did a ger (yurt) develop into the largest and most important monastery in Mongolia, and how did it support the authority of its main resident, the Jebtsundampa …
East Asian Studies April 22, 2021

Building a Religious Empire

Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa

Brenton Sullivan

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
How did Geluk Buddhism become the most widespread school of Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Asia and beyond? In Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa (University …
Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work April 16, 2021

Reinventing Licentiousness

Pornography and Modern China

Y. Yvon Wang

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Y. Yvon Wang draws on previously untapped archives--ranging from police archives and surveys to ephemeral texts and pictures--to argue that pornography in China represents a unique configuration of power and …
Asian Review of Books April 15, 2021

Long Peace Street

A Walk in Modern China

Jonathan Chatwin

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Changan Jie, or Long Peace Street, stretches across central Beijing. Along it are several critical historical sites, including Zhongnanhai, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City: all important to Beijing’s history …
East Asian Studies April 6, 2021

Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance

Essays on the Shishuo xinyu

Jack W. Chen

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu
Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance: Essays on the Shishuo xinyu (Harvard UP, 2021) is a study of the Shishuo xinyu, the most important anecdotal collection of medieval China—and arguably of the …
Law April 1, 2021

The Art of Political Control in China

Daniel C. Mattingly

Hosted by Jane Richards
The Art of Political Control in China (Cambridge University Press, 2019) shows how China's authoritarian state ensures political control by non-violent mechanisms. Daniel C. Mattingly demonstrates how coercive control is achieved through …
Religion March 29, 2021

Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions

A Discussion with Stefania Travagnin

André Laliberté and Stefania Travagnin

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
The study of religion in China has a long history across a number of interrelated disciplines. In recent years, scholars have been reassessing past scholarship and synthesizing it in new …
Political Science March 29, 2021

China's Gilded Age

The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption

Yuen Yuen Ang

Hosted by Susan Liebell
How do we make sense of the “durability and gigantic scale” of China’s economic expansion alongside the reports of “rising” and “explosive” corruption? How has China moved from an “impoverished …
Critical Theory March 24, 2021

Red Creative

Culture and Modernity in China

Justin O'Connor and Xin Gu

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Red Creative: Culture and Modernity in China (Intellect Books, 2020) is an exploration of China’s cultural economy over the last twenty years, particularly through the lens of its creative hub of …
East Asian Studies March 24, 2021

Politics and Literature in Mongolia (1921-1948)

Simon Wickhamsmith

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
How does revolution literature help to engage Mongolia’s nomadic population with the utopia of a “new society” promised by the Mongolian People’s Revolution Party? In Politics and Literature in Mongolia …
Law March 24, 2021

The War on the Uyghurs

China's Internal Campaign Against a Muslim Minority

Sean R. Roberts

Hosted by Jane Richards
There are currently eleven million Uyghurs living in China, but more than one million are being held in so-called reeducation camps. A cultural genocide is taking place under the guise of …
East Asian Studies March 22, 2021

Beyond Pan-Asianism

Connecting China and India, 1840s-1960s

Tansen Sen and Brian Tsui

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
What were the stories of modern China-India relations in the age of empires? How did India and China engage with each other beyond pan-Asianist and anti-colonialist interactions? In Beyond Pan-Asianism …
Nordic Asia Podcast March 19, 2021

The state of regional connectivity between China and Southeast Asia with Xiangming Chen

Xiangming Chen

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
In this episode, Professor Xiangming Chen from Trinity College in Hartford joins Andreas Bøje Forsby from NIAS to talk about his new co-authored book The Belt and Road Initiative as …
East Asian Studies March 19, 2021

Rethinking the Modern Chinese Canon

Refractions Across the Transpacific

Clara Iwasaki

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu
The texts that are examined in this study move in and out of different languages or are multilingual in their origins. Texts and authors do not move randomly; rather, they …
Asian Review of Books March 18, 2021

Land of Big Numbers

Stories

Te-Ping Chen

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
An old farmer, trying to build a plane in his village. A young man that gambles everything on the roaring stock market. A community transformed by a magical fruit that …
Chinese Studies March 11, 2021

Utopian Ruins

A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era

Jie Li

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era (Duke University Press, 2020) Jie Li traces the creation, preservation, and elision of memories about China's Mao era by envisioning a …
Asian Review of Books March 11, 2021

Monkey King

Journey to the West

Wu Cheng'en (Trans. Julia Lovell)

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Journey to the West, and especially the character of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is beloved by readers across China, East Asia, and beyond. The story and its characters have …