East Asian Studies

East Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of East Asia about their new books.

Don Baker, "Korean New Religions" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

June 20, 2026

Korean New Religions

Don Baker
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Korean New Religions (Cambridge University Press, 2025) is an excellent primer for anyone interested in modern Korea’s religious landscape. The Korea…

Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen, "Meiji Graves in Happy Valley: Stories of Early Japanese Residents in Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2024)

June 17, 2026

Meiji Graves in Happy Valley

Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen
Hosted by Bing Wang

The connections between Hong Kong and Japan began far earlier than many realise. Yet only recently has Hong Kong’s historic Japanese community receive…

Colin Flahive, "The Galaxy's Last Ride: Shifting Gears in Rural China" (Earnshaw Books, 2026)

June 15, 2026

The Galaxy's Last Ride

Colin Flahive
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Colin Flahive is an American entrepreneur and writer who has spent more than two decades living and running social enterprises in southwestern China. …

Michael Dillon, "Shanghai: The Story of China's Most Dynamic City" (Yale UP, 2026)

June 9, 2026

Shanghai

Michael Dillon
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Home to 25 million people, Shanghai is the most populous and wealthiest city in China. A meeting point between China and the wider world, the city …

Eileen Otis, "Walmart: Made in China" (Stanford UP, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Walmart

Eileen Otis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Walmart: Made in China⁠ (Stanford University Press, 2026) by Dr. Eileen Otis tells the story of Walmart's expansion in China, making the case that…

Terao Tetsuya, "Spent Bullets" (HarperVia, 2025)

June 3, 2026

Spent Bullets

Terao Tetsuya and translated by Kevin Wang
Hosted by Anthony Kao

With Taiwan Travelogue winning the 2026 International Booker Prize, Taiwanese literature in translation has achieved new heights of visibility in the …

Weipin Tsai, "The Making of China's Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation" (Harvard UP, 2024)

June 3, 2026

The Making of China's Post Office

Weipin Tsai

How did a vast, nationwide institution like a modern postal system come into being in Qing China — right at the very end of the empire? In The Maki…

Chunmei Du, "Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Everyday Occupation

Chunmei Du
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Chunmei Du is an Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of modern China, specifical…

Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Narrowing Sea

Hannah Shepherd
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

In The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region (U California Press, 2025), Hannah Shepherd examines the shared hist…

Matthieu Felt, "Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 25, 2026

Meanings of Antiquity

Matthieu Felt
Hosted by Jingyi Li

Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, record…

Jeremy Yellen, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War" (Cornell UP, 2019)

May 25, 2026

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Jeremy Yellen
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) is a challenging transnat…

Mengqi Wang, "Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market" (Cornell UP, 2026)

May 19, 2026

Anxious Homes

Mengqi Wang
Hosted by Yadong Li

Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market (Cornell UP, 2026) is a study of the power that shapes the forms of the homes Chinese citi…

Evan N. Dawley, "Taiwan: A People′s History" (Reaktion Books, 2026)

May 18, 2026

Taiwan

Evan N. Dawley
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

While most English-language histories of Taiwan focus on its geopolitical role, Taiwan: A People’s History (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Evan N. Dawley cent…

Gregg A. Brazinsky, "Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

May 16, 2026

Cold War Comrades

Gregg A. Brazinsky
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In this major new interpretation of Sino-North Korean relations, Dr. Gregg A. Brazinsky argues that neither the PRC nor the DPRK would have survived a…

Fyodor Tertitskiy, "Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea" (Hurst, 2026)

May 14, 2026

Pyongyang on the Brink

Fyodor Tertitskiy
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

North Korea has survived wars, sanctions, and isolation—to the point where it now seems that the continuation of the Kim dynasty, and a starkly divide…

Patrick Noonan, "Age of Disaffection: The Aesthetic Critique of Politics in 1960s Japan" (Columbia UP, 2025)

May 10, 2026

Age of Disaffection

Patrick Noonan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

The 1960s in Japan have long been understood as a period of radical political engagement. But as political movements from Old Left Communism to New Le…

J. Michael Cole, "The Taiwan Tinderbox: The Island-Nation at the Centre of the New Cold War" (Polity, 2025)

May 6, 2026

The Taiwan Tinderbox

J. Michael Cole
Hosted by Anthony Kao

J. Michael Cole is a Taipei-based security analyst and writer who has spent over two decades documenting Taiwan’s political and security landscape. A …

David Krolikoski, "Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea" (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)

May 2, 2026

Lyrical Translation

David Krolikoski
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Lyrical Translation: The Creation of Modern Poetry in Colonial Korea (U Hawai'i Press, 2026)is a literary history of modern Korean poetry's origins an…

Andrea Horbinski, "Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989" (U California Press, 2025)

April 30, 2026

Manga's First Century

Andrea Horbinski
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Andrea Horbinski's Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 (U California Press, 2025) centers the fans and creato…

Through the Lens of Taiwan: Film, History, and Identity

April 30, 2026

Through the Lens of Taiwan

Robert Chen

This podcast episode is hosted by Mart Tšernjuk, the Taiwan Coordinator at the University of Tartu Asia who is talking to Prof. Robert Chen, a leading…