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About Nicholas Gordon

Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.

NBN Episodes hosted by Nicholas:

Asian Review of Books May 19, 2022

Eight Dogs, or "Hakkenden"

Part One―An Ill-Considered Jest

Glynne Walley

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Hakkenden is a classic work of Japanese literature: the story of the eight warriors, born from Princess Fuse and the dog Yatsufusa, has been adapted to manga, movies and anime …
Asian Review of Books May 12, 2022

Troubling the Water

A Dying Lake and a Vanishing World in Cambodia

Abby Seiff

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Tonlé Sap is one of Southeast Asia’s, if not one of the world’s, natural wonders. Between the dry and wet seasons, the lake expands almost six times in size to …
Asian Review of Books May 5, 2022

Straits

Beyond the Myth of Magellan

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
2019 marked the five-hundred year anniversary of the launch of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world–a milestone marked by commemorative sailings, museum exhibitions, and a joint submission from Spain and …
Asian Review of Books April 28, 2022

Too Far from Antibes

Bede Scott

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Jean-Luc Guéry is a man down on his luck. Middling journalist, gambling addict, alcoholic. Yet when news of his brother’s murder in Saigon reach him in France, Guéry drops everything …
Asian Review of Books April 21, 2022

Beyond Liberal Order

States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean

Harry Verhoeven and Anatol Lieven

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We often neglect the Indian Ocean when we talk about our macro-level models of geopolitics, global economics or grand strategy—often in favor of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Yet the …
Asian Review of Books April 14, 2022

The Impossible City

A Hong Kong Memoir

Karen Cheung

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Hong Kong is almost impossible to explain to those not from the city. Too often, the city has had to struggle with shorthand used by those writing about the city …
Asian Review of Books April 7, 2022

False Allies

India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma

Manu Pillai

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
It can be easy to think of the recent history of India—especially for those who aren’t from there—as a straight line, from the Mughal Empire, through the British Empire, to …
Asian Review of Books March 31, 2022

Eleven Winters of Discontent

The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan

Sherzod Muminov

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
At the end of the Second World War, about 600,000 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner after the Soviet Union swept through Manchuria in the very final days of the war …
Asian Review of Books March 24, 2022

Kingdom of Characters

The Language Revolution That Made China Modern

Jing Tsu

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Tens of thousands of characters. Countless homonyms. Mutually unintelligible dialects across an entire country. This is what faced the Chinese thinkers, inventors and technicians who had to figure out how …
Asian Review of Books March 17, 2022

Afghan Napoleon

The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud

Sandy Gall

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
On September 9th, 2001, Ahmed Shah Massoud—called one of the greatest guerilla leaders in history, alongside names like Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh, was assassinated by two Al-Qaeda suicide …
Asian Review of Books March 10, 2022

Indians in London

From the Birth of the East India Company to Independent India

Arup K. Chatterjee

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
London has always been a galvanizing factor for the South Asian community—whether due to the machinations of empire, the drive for higher education, or the need to make a living …
Asian Review of Books March 3, 2022

Song of Draupadi

Ira Mukhoty

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Mahabharata is one of the central works of Indian literature—its characters, lessons, and tropes are widely known and referenced in Indian popular culture, literary discussions and political debate. And …
Asian Review of Books February 24, 2022

King of Bangkok

Claudio Sopranzetti and Sara Fabbri

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Bangkok, as Thailand’s largest and most economically-important cities, attracts migrants from all over the country. Drawn to its economic opportunities, migrants eke a living working in informal jobs, with few …
Asian Review of Books February 17, 2022

The Ottomans

Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

Marc David Baer

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Ottoman Empire has been many things throughout its long history. One of the greatest and gravest threats to Christian Europe. A source of inspiration for Renaissance and Reformation thinkers …
Asian Review of Books February 10, 2022

Bloody Saturday

Shanghai's Darkest Day

Paul French

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Thirties and Forties were some of the first instances of aerial bombardment of civilian populations—and an indication of their destructive power. We often point to the Nazi bombing in …
Asian Review of Books February 3, 2022

The Amur River

Colin Thubron

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
It’s a great pleasure to welcome Colin Thubron to the Asian Review of Books podcast. Travel writer and novelist, Colin has written countless books that bring faraway sights and peoples …
Asian Review of Books January 27, 2022

Macanese Diaspora in British Hong Kong

A Century of Transimperial Drifting

Catherine S. Chan

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In Hong Kong’s Ice House Street, in the heart of the city’s Financial District, is Club Lusitano: one of the city’s premier social clubs, nestled at the top of an …
Asian Review of Books January 20, 2022

On the Edge

Life Along the Russia-China Border

Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The border between Russia and China is one of the world’s longest, spanning thousands of miles. It’s one of the few extended land borders between two great powers, subject to …
Asian Review of Books January 13, 2022

Kashmir at the Crossroads

Inside a 21st-Century Conflict

Sumantra Bose

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
“Kashmir” carries the burden of being known as one of the world’s biggest flashpoints. If a novel, TV show, or video game wants an easy international crisis, there’s a good …
Asian Review of Books January 6, 2022

Middle Class Shanghai

Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement

Cheng Li

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In mid-November, Washington and Beijing mutually agreed to start granting journalist visas again, putting an end to months of reciprocal visa rejections and denials. A perhaps minor, yet still important …
Asian Review of Books December 30, 2021

Mountain Tales

Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings

Saumya Roy

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In 2016, the city of Mumbai was blanketed in toxic smog. The source? Fires at the nearby dumping ground of Deonar: the country’s oldest. The Deonar fire became an embarrassment …
Asian Review of Books December 23, 2021

Concepcion

An Immigrant Family's Fortunes

Albert Samaha

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
One of the first members of Albert Samaha’s family introduced in his memoir Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes (Riverhead Books, 2021) is his uncle Spanky: a baggage handler in San Francisco’s …
Asian Review of Books December 16, 2021

War and Resistance in the Philippines 1942-1944

James Kelly Morningstar

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
December 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the American entry into the Second World War. In fact, this interview was recorded on December 12th: the 80th anniversary …
Asian Review of Books December 9, 2021

All Roads Lead North

China, Nepal and the Contest for the Himalayas

Amish Raj Mulmi

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
On the sidelines of COP26, Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as part of an effort to find a way to rebuild ties between …