East Asian Studies

East Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of East Asia about their new books.

Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future

October 25, 2024

Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future

Kerry Brown

Why should we focus on Taiwan to understand the future risks facing the world? Professor Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the…

Andrea Benvenuti, "Nehru's Bandung: Non-Alignment and Regional Order in Indian Cold War Strategy" (Oxford UP, 2024)

October 24, 2024

Nehru's Bandung

Andrea Benvenuti
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 1955, the leaders of 29 Asian and African countries flock to the small city of Bandung, Indonesia, for the first-ever Afro-Asian conference. India …

Tamara Jacka, "Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China" (Anu Press, 2023)

October 21, 2024

Ginkgo Village

Tamara Jacka
Hosted by Yadong Li

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China…

Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, "Confucian Feminism: A Practical Ethic for Life" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

October 20, 2024

Confucian Feminism

Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee
Hosted by Jessica Zu

In Confucian Feminism: A Practical Ethic for Life (Bloomsbury, 2024), Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee expands the theoretical horizons of feminism by using ch…

Anna Lora-Wainwright, "Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China" (MIT Press, 2021)

October 20, 2024

Resigned Activism

Anna Lora-Wainwright
Hosted by Elena Sobrino

Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China (MIT Press, 2021) by Dr. Anna Lora-Wainwright digs deep into the paradoxes, ambivalences, and …

Christopher Smith, "Samurai with Telephones: Anachronism in Japanese Literature" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

October 18, 2024

Samurai with Telephones

Christopher Smith
Hosted by Jingyi Li

What is going on when a graphic novel has a twelfth-century samurai pick up a telephone to make a call, or a play has an ancient aristocrat teaching i…

Andrew G. Walder, "China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed" (Harvard UP, 2015)

October 18, 2024

China Under Mao

Andrew G. Walder
Hosted by Carla Nappi

"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that 1949 was actually the beginning, not the end, of the Chinese revolution." Building from this premise,…

Xiaoming Wang, "Muslim Chinese: The Hui in Rural Ningxia" (de Gruyter, 2019)

October 14, 2024

Muslim Chinese: The Hui in Rural Ningxia

Xiaoming Wang
Hosted by Yadong Li

As the predominantly Muslim Chinese who claim ancestry from Persian and Arabic-speaking regions in Central Asia and the Middle East, the Hui people in…

Satoru Hashimoto, "Afterlives of Letters: The Transnational Origins of Modern Literature in China, Japan, and Korea" (Columbia UP, 2023)

October 11, 2024

Afterlives of Letters

Satoru Hashimoto
Hosted by Li-Ping Chen

When East Asia opened itself to the world in the nineteenth century, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean intellectuals had shared notions of literature bec…

Helena F. S. Lopes, "Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

October 11, 2024

Neutrality and Collaboration in South China

Helena F. S. Lopes
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

The South China enclave of Macau was the first and last European colonial settlement in East Asia and a territory at the crossroads of different empir…

Victor C. Shih, "Coalitions of the Weak: Elite Politics in China from Mao's Stratagem to the Rise of Xi" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

October 10, 2024

Coalitions of the Weak

Victor C. Shih
Hosted by Peter Lorentzen

In Coalitions of the Weak (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Victor C. Shih investigates how leaders of one-party autocracies seek to dominate the el…

The Fragility of China: A Conversation with Dennis Unkovic

October 9, 2024

The Fragility of China

Dennis Unkovic
Hosted by Laura Laurent

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we sit down with Dennis Unkovic to discuss his latest book, The Fragility of China (Encounter Books, 2024). Unkovi…

Zach Fredman, "The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949" (UNC Press, 2022)

October 9, 2024

The Tormented Alliance

Zach Fredman
Hosted by Mark Baker

The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949 (UNC Press, 2022) explores the wartime partnership between China an…

Critique, Wonder, and Chinese Anatomy, with Lan A. Li

October 8, 2024

Critique, Wonder, and Chinese Anatomy, with Lan A. Li

Lan A. Li
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

In this episode of the Blue Beryl Podcast, Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with the show’s producer, Lan A. Li, a historian of Chinese science, medicine,…

Juan José Rivas Moreno, "The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

October 7, 2024

The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838

Juan José Rivas Moreno

Economic history has always emphasized the importance of long-distance trade in the emergence of modern financial markets, yet almost nothing is known…

James A. Anderson, "The Dong World and Imperial China's Southwest Silk Road: Trade, Security, and State Formation" (U Washington Press, 2024)

September 30, 2024

The Dong World and Imperial China's Southwest Silk Road

James A. Anderson
Hosted by Huiying Chen

From the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China’s rugged southern periphery, trade in tribute articles and an interregional horse market thrived. …

Ian Williams, "Vampire State: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy (Birlinn, 2024)

September 27, 2024

Vampire State

Ian Williams
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

State capitalism. Socialism with Chinese characteristics. A socialist market economy. There have been numerous descriptions of the Chinese economy. Ho…

Caterina Fugazzola, "Words Like Water: Queer Mobilization and Social Change in China" (Temple UP, 2023)

September 26, 2024

Words Like Water

Caterina Fugazzola
Hosted by Qing Shen

After China officially “decriminalized” same-sex behavior in 1997, both the visibility and public acceptance of tongzhi, an inclusive identity term th…

Kerry Brown, "The Great Reversal: Britain, China and the 400-Year Contest for Power" (Yale UP, 2024)

September 26, 2024

The Great Reversal

Kerry Brown
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I tried to send several letters to her Chinese counterpart, the Wan Li Emperor. The letters tried to ask the…

Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky, "Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

September 24, 2024

Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia

Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky
Hosted by Yadong Li

In the twenty-first century, infrastructure has undergone a seismic shift from West to East. Once concentrated in Europe and North America, global inf…