New Books Network
East Asian Studies
Chinese Studies September 24, 2021

Chiang Kai-Shek's Politics of Shame

Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity in China

Grace C. Huang

Hosted by Dong Wang
Once a powerful figure who reversed the disintegration of China and steered the country to Allied victory in World War II, Chiang Kai-shek fled into exile following his 1949 defeat …

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Asian Review of Books September 23, 2021

Ancient Egypt and Early China

State, Society, and Culture

Anthony J Barbieri-Low

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
One would think that comparing civilizations as far removed in time and space as Ancient Egypt and Ancient China might not reveal much. Yet Professor Tony Barbieri’s Ancient Egypt and …
Japanese Studies September 22, 2021

The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan

Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo

M.W. Shores

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Rakugo, a popular form of comic storytelling, has played a major role in Japanese culture and society. Developed during the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, it is still popular …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast September 22, 2021

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Chinese-Inspired Architecture

Dang Qun

Hosted by Howard Burton
Howard chats with Dang Qun, one of the three founding partners of Beijing-based MAD architects, about aesthetics, history, cultural distinctiveness and architecture's unique balance of the concrete and ethereal. Howard …
East Asian Studies September 21, 2021

Taiwan's Green Parties

Alternative Politics in Taiwan

Dafydd Fell

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen
Examining the Green Party Taiwan (GPT) since its establishment through the aftermath of the most recent national elections in January 2020, Dafydd Fell’s Taiwan’s Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan …
East Asian Studies September 17, 2021

The Global White Snake

Liang Luo

Hosted by Huiying Chen
Liang Luo's book The Global White Snake (U Michigan Press, 2021) examines the Chinese White Snake legends and their extensive, multidirectional travels within Asia and across the globe. Such travels across …
Digital Humanities September 14, 2021

The Values in Numbers

Reading Japanese Literature in a Global Information Age

Hoyt Long

Hosted by Katherine McDonough
In The Values in Numbers: Reading Japanese Literature in a Global Information Age (Columbia UP, 2021), Hoyt Long offers both a reinterpretation of modern Japanese literature through computational methods and …
East Asian Studies September 13, 2021

More Than One Child

Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter

Shen Yang

Hosted by John Traphagan
'I broke a law simply by being born.' In the late 1980s, Shen Yang was born during the fiercest years of China's One-Child Policy. As the second daughter of the …
Nordic Asia Podcast September 10, 2021

Porn, Privacy and Pain: The Rise of Image-based Abuse in Asia

A Conversation with Raquel Carvalho

Raquel Carvalho

Hosted by Joanne Kuai
What is image-based abuse? Why has it been on the rise in Asia, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic? What has been done to tackle the issue? Raquel Carvalho, Asia Correspondent …
East Asian Studies September 7, 2021

Imperial Romance

Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905-1945

Su Yun Kim

Hosted by Ed Pulford
As in colonial situations elsewhere, Korean experiences of Japanese empire featured many attempts by the imperial authorities to regulate intimate aspects of Korean life, including intermarriage between colonizer and colonized …
Japanese Studies September 6, 2021

Maiko Masquerade

Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan

Jan Bardsley

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Maiko Masquerade: Crafting Geisha Girlhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2021) explores Japanese representations of the maiko, or apprentice geisha, in films, manga, and other popular media as an icon of …
Japanese Studies September 3, 2021

Resolving the Contemporary Tensions of Regional Places

What Japan Can Teach Us

Anthony S. Rausch

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Resolving the Contemporary Tensions of Regional Places: What Japan Can Teach Us offers a fresh and unique view of regional society, regional economies and the future of regional places. Anthony …
Asian Review of Books September 2, 2021

North Korea: Like Nowhere Else

Two Years of Life and Photos from the World's Most Secretive State

Lindsey Miller

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
It’s a cliche to call North Korea the most isolated country in the world. Those of us living outside the country often have very little idea of what life there …
Economic and Business History September 1, 2021

China and the End of Global Silver, 1873–1937

Austin Dean

Hosted by Ghassan Moazzin
In the late nineteenth century, as much of the world adopted some variant of the gold standard, China remained the most populous country still using silver. Yet China had no …
East Asian Studies August 27, 2021

Meritocracy and Its Discontents

Anxiety and the National College Entrance Exam in China

Zachary M. Howlett

Hosted by Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Every year millions of high school seniors in China take the gaokao, China’s standardized college entrance exam. Students, parents, and head teachers all devote years, sweat, and tears to this …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 27, 2021

Pandemic Precarity and the Livelihoods of Migrant Workers in China and Cambodia

A discussion with Dennis Arnold and Thomas Sætre Jakobsen

Dennis Arnold and Thomas Sætre Jakobsen

Hosted by Arve Hansen
Creating jobs and providing decent employment is central to global development agendas. Indeed, Sustainable Development Goal 8 targets nothing less than decent work for all by 2030. Yet precarious—simply put …
Asian Review of Books August 26, 2021

India and the Silk Roads

The History of a Trading World

Jagjeet Lally

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
When we think about modern trade, we tend to think about the sea: port cities and large ships carrying goods back and forth. It’s a story that tends to put …
Asian Review of Books August 19, 2021

Market Maoists

The Communist Origins of China's Capitalist Ascent

Jason M. Kelly

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We think we know the history of China’s opening to the outside world. Maoist China was closed off, until Deng Xiaoping decided to reform the economy and open up to …
Japanese Studies August 18, 2021

Japan's Aging Peace

Pacifism and Militarism in the Twenty-First Century

Tom Phuong Le

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Since the end of World War II, Japan has not sought to remilitarize, and its postwar constitution commits to renouncing aggressive warfare. Yet many inside and outside Japan have asked …
Gender Studies August 18, 2021

Tastes Like War

A Memoir

Grace M. Cho

Hosted by Ann Choi
The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its …