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East Asian Studies
Economics August 12, 2022

Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism

Roselyn Hsueh

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Roselyn Hsueh’s Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism (Cambridge, 2022) presents a new framework for understanding how developing countries integrate into the global economy. Examining the labor-intensive textile sector and the capital-intensive …

East Asian Studies

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Interviews with scholars of East Asia about their new books.

Writ Large August 11, 2022

On "The Great Learning"

A Discussion with Peter Bol

Peter Bol

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Sometimes the oldest texts are the most influential. The Great Learning likely first appeared in the Confucian Book of Rites around 2,000 years ago, and its impact can still be …
East Asian Studies August 9, 2022

Opportunity in Crisis

Cantonese Migrants and the State in Late Qing China

Steven B. Miles

Hosted by Huiying Chen
Opportunity in Crisis: Cantonese Migrants and the State in Late Qing China (Harvard UP, 2021) explores the history of late Qing Cantonese migration along the West River basin during war and …
Food August 8, 2022

What a Mushroom Lives For

Matsutake and the Worlds They Make

Michael J. Hathaway

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael Hathaway pushes today’s mushroom renaissance in compelling new directions. For centuries, Western …
Diplomatic History August 8, 2022

China's European Headquarters

Switzerland and China During the Cold War

Ariane Knüsel

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the Cold War, the People's Republic of China used Switzerland as headquarters for its economic, political, intelligence, and cultural networks in Europe. Based on extensive research in Western and …
Japanese Studies August 5, 2022

Middlemen of Modernity

Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan

Christopher Craig

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg
Christopher Craig’s Middlemen of Modernity: Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan (U Hawaii Press, 2021) is a thoroughly research and engaging study of the role of local elites …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 5, 2022

China’s Role in the Future of Green Energy

A Discussion with Einari Kisel

Einari Kisel

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
How green is green energy really? And what role does Asia, more specifically China play in the transition to green energy? On the 7th of July, International Energy Agency came …
Asian Review of Books August 4, 2022

Shrimp to Whale

South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop

Ramon Pacheco Pardo

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
If there’s a country that “punches above its weight”, it’s South Korea. It’s home to some of the world’s largest and most important companies, and the source of pop culture …
Writ Large August 4, 2022

On "The Story of the Stone"

A Discussion with Ronald Egan

Ronald Egan

Hosted by Zachary Davis
The 1750s are remembered as a high point of China's Qing Dynasty: a time of power, prestige, and social harmony. But The Story of the Stone paints a different picture …
East Asian Studies August 2, 2022

Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader

North Korea and the Third World

Benjamin R. Young

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Far from always having been an isolated nation and a pariah state in the international community, North Korea exercised significant influence among Third World nations during the Cold War era …
Japanese Studies August 2, 2022

Sino-Japanese Reflections

Literary and Cultural Interactions between China and Japan in Early Modernity

Joshua A. Fogel and Matthew Fraleigh

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Joshua A. Fogel and Matthew Fraleigh's edited volume Sino-Japanese Reflections: Literary and Cultural Interactions between China and Japan in Early Modernity (de Gruyter, 2022) offers ten richly detailed case studies that …
Japanese Studies August 1, 2022

Eavesdropping on the Emperor

Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War With Japan

Peter Kornicki

Hosted by Jingyi Li
When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who interrogated them? When Japanese maps and plans …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 1, 2022

The Implications of the Ukrainian War for Taiwan’s Relations with China

A Discussion with Sean King

Sean King

Hosted by Julie Yu-Wen Chen
Is a Chinese invasion on Taiwan a storm on the horizon when the West is busy with the Ukrainian war? Will Nancy Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan in August, the …
Grinnell College: Authors and Artists August 1, 2022

Tasting Paradise on Earth

Jiangnan Foodways

Jin Feng

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked to Jin Feng of Grinnell College about her fascinating book Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways (U Washington Press, 2019). Preparing and consuming food is an integral part …
East Asian Studies July 26, 2022

Designing Reform

Architecture in the People's Republic of China, 1970-1992

Cole Roskam

Hosted by Ed Pulford
China’s urban landscapes are full of radically different architectural styles which memorialise different eras in the country’s political past, from the remains of imperial palaces or city walls, to Republican-era …
Chinese Studies July 25, 2022

Chinese Village Life Today

Building Families in an Age of Transition

Gonçalo Santos

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Gonçalo Santos (University of Coimbra), about his new book, Chinese Village Life Today: Building Families in an Age of Transition, which was published …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 22, 2022

Japanese Immigration and the Korean Minority

Sara Park

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Why does Japanese immigration policy have such a bad name? What are the historical origins of tight immigration policies? Where have these policies left immigrants of Korean descent, many of …
Japanese Studies July 21, 2022

Japan’s Occupation of Java in the Second World War

A Transnational History

Ethan Mark

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Ethan Mark draws upon written and oral Japanese, Indonesian, Dutch and English-language sources to narrate …
Chinese Studies July 20, 2022

Cadre Country

How China Became the Chinese Communist Party

John Fitzgerald

Hosted by Dong Wang
Since the founding of the Communist Party in China just over a century ago there is much the country has achieved. But who does the heavy lifting in China? And …
East Asian Studies July 19, 2022

Cultivating Membership in Taiwan and Beyond

Relational Citizenship

Hsin-I Cheng

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen
Citizenship is traditionally viewed as a legal status to be possessed. Cultivating Membership in Taiwan and Beyond: Relational Citizenship (Lexington, 2021) proposes the concept of relational citizenship to articulate the value-laden …