New Books Network Podcast

Chinese Studies December 11, 2023

Laws of the Land

Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China

Tristan G. Brown

Hosted by Julia Keblinska

Welcome to another episode of New Books in Chinese Studies. I am your host, Julia Keblinska, and I am speaking today to Prof. Tristan Brown about his book, Laws of …

Food December 8, 2023

Chinese Menu

The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods

Grace Lin

Hosted by Laura Goldberg

Newbery and Caldecott honoree and New York Times bestselling author Grace Lin joins New Books Network to talk about her new, groundbreaking, lushly illustrated, book that explores the whimsical myths …

Asian Review of Books December 7, 2023

Bernardine's Shanghai Salon

The Story of the Doyenne of Old China

Susan Blumberg-Kason

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 1929, Bernardine Szold Fritz left Paris on a train bound for China. She was on her way to her fourth wedding, and her fourth husband: An American investment banker …

Comics and Graphic Novels December 6, 2023

Cartooning China

Punch, Power, & Politics in the Victorian Era

Amy Matthewson

Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

Dr. Amy Matthewson's Cartooning China: Punch, Power, & Politics in the Victorian Era (Routledge, 2022) explores the series of cartoons of China and the Chinese that were published in the popular …

Ministry of Ideas December 6, 2023

What Is Modernity?

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 2

Hosted by Zachary Davis

We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet people have …

East Asian Studies December 4, 2023

Power for a Price

The Purchase of Official Appointments in Qing China

Lawrence Zhang

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos

The Qing dynasty's office purchase system (juanna) allowed men to legally and openly pay for appointments in the civil service — enabling them to skip the much-lauded civil service examination …

Taiwan on Air December 4, 2023

Eco-Translation from Taiwan and Wu Ming-yi’s "The Stolen Bicycle" 單車失竊記

A Book Chat with Darryl Sterk

Darryl Sterk

Hosted by Taiwan on Air

In this episode, our host, Ti-han, invited Dr Darryl Sterk, a Canadian eco-translator who is now based in Lingnan University in Hong Kong and dedicated his work in Taiwanese eco-literature …

Nomads, Past and Present December 2, 2023

Empires of the Steppes

A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization

Kenneth W. Harl

Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The “barbarian” nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the …

Buddhist Studies November 29, 2023

Chinese Cosmopolitanism

The History and Philosophy of an Idea

Shuchen Xiang

Hosted by Jessica Zu

A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference. Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic …

East Asian Studies November 28, 2023

The Perils of Interpreting

The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire

Henrietta Harrison

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos

The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators Between Qing China and the British Empire (Princeton UP, 2021) is a fascinating history of China's relations with the West--told through …

Media November 19, 2023

Propaganda in Autocracies

Institutions, Information, and the Politics of Belief

Erin Baggott Carter and Brett L. Carter

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A dictator's power is secure, the authors begin in this muscular, impressive study, only as long as citizens believe in it. When citizens suddenly believe otherwise, a dictator's power is …

Chinese Studies November 16, 2023

The Party Family

Revolutionary Attachments and the Gendered Origins of State Power in China

Kimberley Ens Manning

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

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Kimberley Ens Manning's book The Party Family: Revolutionary Attachments and the Gendered Origins of State Power in China (Cornell UP, 2023) explores the formation and consolidation of the state in revolutionary …

Asian American Studies November 16, 2023

Chinese Americans in the Heartland

Migration, Work, and Community

Huping Ling

Hosted by Donna Anderson

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This episode features a conversation with Dr. Huping Ling on her two latest books, Chinese Americans in the Heartland: Migration, Work, and Community and Asian American History, both published by …

Anthropology November 13, 2023

The Currency of Truth

Newsmaking and the Late-Socialist Imaginaries of China's Digital Era

Emily H. C. Chua

Hosted by Yadong Li

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China’s news sector is a place where newsmakers, advertising executives, company bosses, and Party officials engage one another in contingent and evolving arrangements that run from cooperation and collaboration to …

Chinese Studies November 13, 2023

Porcelain for the Emperor

Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China

Kai Jun Chen

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos

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Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technology in Qing China (University of Washington Press; 2023) looks at the history of court-sponsored porcelain production in Qing China through the work and career of …

Buddhist Studies November 11, 2023

A Chinese-American Buddhist Healer

A Discussion with Kin Cheung

Kin Cheung

Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Dr. Pierce Salguero sits down with Kin Cheung, a scholar of contemporary Buddhism at Moravian University. We talk about his research on a Chinese-American community healer who happens to be …

Chinese Studies November 10, 2023

Governing Death, Making Persons

The New Chinese Way of Death

Huwy-min Lucia Liu

Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Governing Death, Making Persons: The New Chinese Way of Death (Cornell UP, 2023) tells the story of how economic reforms and changes in the management of death in China have …

East Asian Studies November 9, 2023

Rival Partners

How Taiwanese Entrepreneurs and Guangdong Officials Forged the China Development Model

Wu Jieh-min

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen

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Taiwan has been depicted as an island facing the incessant threat of forcible unification with the People’s Republic of China. Why, then, has Taiwan spent more than three decades pouring …

Food November 6, 2023

Invitation to a Banquet

The Story of Chinese Food

Fuchsia Dunlop

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese labourers began to sojourn and settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese food has the curious distinction …

Chinese Studies November 3, 2023

The Price of Collapse

The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China

Timothy Brook

Hosted by Huijun Mai

In 1644, after close to three centuries of relative stability and prosperity, the Ming dynasty collapsed. Many historians attribute its demise to the Manchu invasion of China, but the truth …