About Nordic Asia Podcast

The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) based at the University of Copenhagen, along with our academic partners: the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) at the University of Turku, Asianettverket at the University of Oslo, and the Forum for Asian Studies at Stockholm University.

NBN Episodes hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast:

Risks of US-China Geoeconomic Rivalry: Enhancing Small State Preparedness

February 16, 2024

Risks of US-China Geoeconomic Rivalry

Ines Söderström, Liisa Kauppila, and Elina Sinkkonen

What happens if the geoeconomic risks of great power rivalry materialise? What can be done to prevent these potential dangers from unfolding in small …

China’s Environmental Footprint in Ghana: Non-State Responses

January 5, 2024

China’s Environmental Footprint in Ghana

Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi

Musicians and community activists in Ghana have raised their voices to increase awareness of the environmental impact of Chinese activities in the cou…

Grammar, Identity, and Ideology in Early 20th-Century Japan

December 29, 2023

Grammar, Identity, and Ideology in Early 20th-Century Japan

Jonathan Puntervold

Have you ever felt that the grammar of Asian languages does not fit with the framework that we use to describe them? In the late 19th century, Asian g…

Between Jesus and Krishna: Christian Encounters with South Indian Temple Dance

December 15, 2023

Between Jesus and Krishna

Stine Simonsen Puri

One of the eight national dances of India, bharatanatyam, partly originates from the area around Tranquebar. During the time that Tranquebar was a Dan…

Cleric, Cadre, Businessman: China’s Development Strategy in Sri Lanka

October 20, 2023

Cleric, Cadre, Businessman

Tabita Rosendal Ebbesen

What does Buddhism have to do with harbors? Find out how China is leveraging religion in its foreign policy and why it is a vital part of China's soft…

India, Asia, and the Global South

October 6, 2023

India, Asia, and the Global South

Raja Mohan
Listen:

How should we understand the emergence of the Global South as a political actor? What is the role of India within this framework? Which challenges and…

Civil Society Elites: Field Studies from Cambodia and Indonesia

August 18, 2023

Civil Society Elites

Astrid Norén-Nilsson, Amalinda Savirani, and Anders Uhlin
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What does civil society look like in Indonesia and Cambodia, and who are civil society elites? In this podcast interview, editors of the recently publ…

Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos: The Landscape of Translation in Southeast Asia

August 11, 2023

Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos

Phrae Chittiphalangsri, Vicente L. Rafael, and Vicente L. Rafael
Listen:

What does a map of Southeast Asia as a pegasus have to do with translation and Southeast Asia? How can we think of translation as anything other than …

Global India: The Pursuit of Influence and Status

June 23, 2023

Global India

Chris Ogden

In 2023, India surpassed China in numbers of total population and holds the presidency of the prestigious G20, shortly after it overtook the UK as the…

Creating Sustainable Value in Social Enterprises in Philippines

June 9, 2023

Creating Sustainable Value in Social Enterprises in Philippines

Assunta C. Cuyegkeng
Listen:

Are there ways to tackle pressing social, environmental and economic problems at once? In this episode, Professor Assunta Cuyegkeng from Ateneo de Man…

Slum Tourism and Affective Economy in Delhi, India

April 14, 2023

Slum Tourism and Affective Economy in Delhi, India

Tore Holst

In Delhi, former street children guide visiting tourists around the streets that they used to inhabit and show how the NGO they work for tries to reso…

Visibility as Threat: The Targeting of Micro-Sized Groups in Indonesia

April 7, 2023

Visibility as Threat

Jessica Soedirgo

Why do very small groups, like the Ahmadiyah sect in Indonesia, become targets of mobilization and repression? How do political entrepreneurs play a r…

Rethinking Community in Myanmar: Practices of We-Formation Among Muslims and Hindus in Urban Yangon

March 17, 2023

Rethinking Community in Myanmar

Judith Beyer

Where does the concept of “community” come from? How does it shape the lives of Hindus and Muslims in metropolitan Yangon? And how do these people nav…

The Iko-Project: A Japanese Project on Intercultural Understanding Education

March 3, 2023

The Iko-Project

Marie Roesgaard

What can a classroom experiment teach us about how and when we start shaping our ideas of ‘the other’? Can the results from such an experiment help us…

Challenging the Malayan Nationhood: Imaginations and Activism by the Peranakan Chinese

February 17, 2023

Challenging the Malayan Nationhood

Bernard Keo

Are there viable alternatives to the ethnocentric model of nation-state in post-colonial societies? How did the Peranakan, a non-Malay community, imag…

The Geopolitics of Microchips: China, the EU, and the US

February 10, 2023

The Geopolitics of Microchips

Hermann Aubié

What would happen if microchips suddenly disappeared from our world? From phones to cars, medical equipment to heating units, they are crucial for the…

Surviving the State: Struggles for Land and Democracy in Myanmar

January 20, 2023

Surviving the State

Hilary Faxon

How do farmers struggle for land and democracy in Myanmar’s hybrid political system? How might a feminist approach to this question look like and enab…

Malaysia’s GE15: Reflections on a Snap Election

January 13, 2023

Malaysia’s GE15: Reflections on a Snap Election

Duncan McCargo

Malaysia held its fifteenth general election on 19 November 2022 after it was called at short notice before the end of the last government’s term. Wha…

“This Claim has been Fact Checked”: A Glimpse into Fact Checking in India

December 16, 2022

“This Claim has been Fact Checked”

Pratik Sinha

Have you ever come across a post in social media which says, “The claim is disputed by third-party fact checkers”? Or have you ever come across the te…

Beyond Meat? Dietary Shifts and Meat Contestations in China, India and Vietnam

September 30, 2022

Beyond Meat?

Helene Ramnæs, Marius Korsnes, Kenneth Bo Nielsen, and Arve Hansen

What explains the uneven meatification of diets in three of Asia’s core ‘emerging economies’? How and why is meat consumption changing today, and what…

Chinese Outbound Tourism: Leisure or Political Tool?

September 9, 2022

Chinese Outbound Tourism

Matias Thuen Jørgensen

How did Chinese tourism grow from almost non-existent to being the largest outbound travel source market in the world over a couple of decades? Is the…

Triumph for Independent Candidates? Observations on the 2022 Local Elections in Nepal

September 2, 2022

Triumph for Independent Candidates?

Nayan Pokhrel and Hanna Geschewski

Nepal's recent local elections, held in May 2022 in 753 urban and rural municipalities, produced a number of surprises. Most prominent in national hea…

Temperatures on the Rise: Adapting to Heat Extremes in South Asia

August 19, 2022

Temperatures on the Rise

Chandni Singh and Emmanuel Raju

Between March and May of this year, large parts of India and Pakistan were hit by a severe heat wave that claimed at least 90 lives and seriously impa…

China’s Role in the Future of Green Energy

August 5, 2022

China’s Role in the Future of Green Energy

Einari Kisel

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, Interna…