East Asian Studies

East Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of East Asia about their new books.

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…

Ker Gibbs, "The Fragile Dragon: Trade, Trump, and China's Vulnerabilities" (Earnshaw Books, 2026)

April 25, 2026

The Fragile Dragon

Ker Gibbs
Hosted by Peter Lorentzen

The Fragile Dragon offers a unique exploration of China's rapid transformation and its evolving commercial relationship with the West. Drawing on the …

Charlotte Linton, "Dyeing with the Earth: Textiles, Tradition, and Sustainability in Contemporary Japan" (Duke UP, 2025)

April 24, 2026

Dyeing with the Earth

Charlotte Linton
Hosted by Lucas Tse

The past, present and future of ethical production in fashion In Dyeing with the Earth, Charlotte Linton explores the intersection of small-scale tra…

Mujun Zhou, "The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society" (U Michigan Press, 2026)

April 24, 2026

The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society

Mujun Zhou
Hosted by Yadong Li

In a society undergoing rapid transformation, how do people engage in debates around a foreign concept and in doing so, pursue contested political fut…

Daisuke Miyao, "Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy" (Duke UP, 2026)

April 22, 2026

Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy

Daisuke Miyao
Hosted by Ailin Zhou

Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy (Duke University Press, 2026) re-examines cinema studies through the work of Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu, empl…

Qi Ai, "Feng Xiaogang's New Year Films: Industry, Regulation, Humour and Authorship" (Routledge, 2025)

April 20, 2026

Feng Xiaogang's New Year Films

Qi Ai
Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Feng Xiaogang's New Year Films: Industry, Regulation, Humour and Authorship (Routledge, 2025) offers not only an in-depth study of Feng Xiaogang as a …

Han Jin-myung with Nicolas Levi, "I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service" (Independently Published, 2026)

April 18, 2026

I Was a North Korean Diplomat

Myung-jin Han with Nicolas Levi
Hosted by Anthony Kao

Nicolas Levi is a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has authored numerous books…

The Shawshank Redemption in China: An Interview with Matti Lehtonen

April 17, 2026

The Shawshank Redemption in China

How can an entirely foreign cast perform the American “The Shawshank Redemption” in the Chinese language across China? In this episode of the Nordic A…

New Book Releases 2026 on Japan, Taiwan

April 17, 2026

New Book Releases 2026 on Japan, Taiwan

This episode of the Books on Asia podcast introduces new fiction and non-fiction on Japan to be published this year, 2026, along with two upcoming boo…

Yingyi Ma, "Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education" (Columbia UP, 2020)

April 15, 2026

Ambitious and Anxious

Yingyi Ma

In Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education (Columbia UP, 2020), sociologist Yingyi Ma of…

Daniel A. Bell, "Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future" (Princeton UP, 2026)

April 15, 2026

Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters

Daniel A. Bell
Hosted by Keith Krueger

Daniel A. Bell joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and …

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love”

April 10, 2026

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love"

Books on Asia Podcast

Translator Ted Goossen talks about everything from first landing in Japan in 1968 to the differences between translating Haruki Murakami and Hiromi Ka…

Ruth Mandujano López, "Steamships Across the Pacific: Maritime Journeys between Mexico, China, and Japan, 1867–1914" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)

April 9, 2026

Steamships across the Pacific

Ruth Mandujano López

How did the movement of people, goods, and ships reshape connections between Latin America and Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuri…

Ho-fung Hung, "The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

April 6, 2026

The China Question

Ho-fung Hung
Hosted by Lucas Tse

"The contempt and naive idealization of China are two sides of the same coin. The latter cannot be an antidote to the former." So argues Ho-Fung Hung…

Marty Friedman with Jon Wiederhorn, "Dreaming Japanese" (Permuted Press, 2024)

April 3, 2026

Dreaming Japanese

Marty Friedman with Jon Wiederhorn

Marty Friedman is a multi-platinum recording artist and government-appointed Ambassador to Japan Heritage. He has written three books in Japanese and …

Avner Greif et al., "Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000" (Princeton UP, 2025)

April 2, 2026

Two Paths to Prosperity

Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr, and Guido Tabellini
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

It’s one of the biggest questions in economic history: How did a richer, more advanced China fall behind Europe? Why was Europe the home of the Indust…

Kristina Jonutytė, "Between the Buddha and the New Tsar: Urban Religion and Minority Politics at the Asian Borderlands of Russia" (Cornell UP, 2026)

April 1, 2026

Between the Buddha and the New Tsar

Kristina Jonutytė
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between the Buddha and the New Tsar: Urban Religion and Minority Politics at the Asian Borderlands of Russia (Cornell UP, 2026) by Dr. Kristina Jonuty…