New Books Network
Korean Studies
East Asian Studies February 17, 2021

Comfort Women Activism

Critical Voices from the Perpetrator State

Eika Tai

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Eika Tai’s Comfort Women Activism: Critical Voices from the Perpetrator State (Hong Kong University Press, 2020) tackles the complex histories of Japanese “military sexual violence” and the activism by women …

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Law February 8, 2021

Asia's New Geopolitics

Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific

Michael R. Auslin

Hosted by Jane Richards
Is the Indo-Pacific already the most dominant in terms of global power, politics, and wealth? In his newest book, Michael R. Auslin considers the key issues facing the Indo-Pacific which have ramifications …
East Asian Studies January 25, 2021

Constructing Empire

The Japanese in Changchun, 1905–45

Bill Sewell

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
What happens to everyday-life in a city when it becomes subsumed into an empire? Who becomes responsible for the everyday building and management of the new imperial enclave? How do …
East Asian Studies January 21, 2021

Being in North Korea

Andray Abrahamian

Hosted by Ed Pulford
As well as presenting practical challenges, addressing the question ‘what is it like in North Korea?’ raises ethical concerns around who is entitled to interpret life in a place so …
East Asian Studies January 13, 2021

Seeing Like a Child

Inheriting the Korean War

Clara Han

Hosted by Ann Choi
Intertwining autobiography and ethnography, Clara Han’s touching new book Seeing Like a Child: Inheriting the Korean War (Fordham University Press, 2020) asks how scholarship can be transformed from a child’s …
Economics January 8, 2021

Money Games

The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank

Weijian Shan

Hosted by Andrea Bernardi
Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank (Wiley, 2020) by Weijian Shan’s, is a riveting tale of one of the most successful buyout deals ever …
East Asian Studies December 22, 2020

Seeds of Control

Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea

David Fedman

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
David Fedman's Seeds of Control: Seeds of Control: Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea (University of Washington Press, 2020) is hard to categorize. In a good way. Put simply, it is …
East Asian Studies December 16, 2020

The Cost of Belonging

An Ethnography on Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown

Sharon J. Yoon

Hosted by Ann Choi
How vulnerable can you be as a researcher? Why, in a commercially successful city like Wangqing, are Chinese Koreans more successful in their businesses than entrepreneurs from Korea who often …
Gender Studies November 25, 2020

Embodied Reckonings

“Comfort Women,” Performance, and Transpacific Redress

Elizabeth Son

Hosted by Ann Choi
In a bustling city-center of Seoul, women in yellow vests protesting over the “final” resettlement between the Japanese and Korean governments every Wednesday is an iconic sight, testifying to the …
East Asian Studies October 23, 2020

Elusive Belonging

Marriage Immigrants and 'Multiculturalism' in Rural South Korea

Minjeong Kim

Hosted by Ann Choi
Studies on marriage migration often portray marriage migrants as victims of globalization and patriarchy. Although there are intersecting oppressions among female migrant workers, the tendency to conflate marriage migration with …
East Asian Studies July 28, 2020

From the Mountains to the Cities

A History of Buddhist Propagation in Korea

Mark A. Nathan

Hosted by Trevor McManis
From the Mountains to the Cities A History of Buddhist Propagation in Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 2018), written by Mark A. Nathan, is a history of P’ogyo (Buddhist Propagation) …
East Asian Studies January 6, 2020

King Chŏngjo

An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea

Christopher Lovins

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Though traditionally regarded as a monarch who failed to arrest the gradual decline of his kingdom, the Korean king Chŏngjo has benefited in recent decades from a wave of new …
East Asian Studies December 23, 2019

Dying for Rights

Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses on the Record

Sandra Fahy

Hosted by Sarah Patterson
“The things that are happening to North Korea are happening to all of us…they are part of the human community. To say that this is just a problem for North …
East Asian Studies June 25, 2019

Cultural Policy in South Korea

Making a New Patron State

Hye-Kyung Lee

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why does Korean cultural policy matter? In Cultural Policy in South Korea: Making a New Patron State (Routledge, 2018), Hye-Kyung Lee, a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries at …
Literary Studies May 2, 2019

Colonizing Language

Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea

Christina Yi

Hosted by Ed Pulford
The fact that Korea’s experience of Japanese imperialism plays a role in present-day Japan-Korea relations is no secret to anyone. Questions of guilt, responsibility and atonement continue to bubble below …
East Asian Studies February 12, 2019

North Korea's Hidden Revolution

How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society

Jieun Baek

Hosted by Ed Pulford
With recent events having raised hopes that significant change may be afoot in North Korea, it is important to remember that DPRK society has in fact been undergoing steady transformation …
East Asian Studies January 28, 2019

North Korea and Myanmar

Divergent Paths

Andray Abrahamian

Hosted by Ed Pulford
At an often-stressful time in global affairs, and with the very idea of the ‘international community’ seemingly under threat, it can be beneficial to look at the 'global order’ from …
East Asian Studies November 6, 2018

Marching Through Suffering

Loss and Survival in North Korea

Sandra Fahy

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Amidst an atmosphere of hope on the Korean Peninsula over the past year, questions over the wellbeing of North Korea’s population have again come to global attention. But this is …