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New Books in East Asian Studies

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

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

54 mins; April 03, 2026

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

50 mins; April 02, 2026

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

62 hours 13 mins; April 01, 2026

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, "Everything You Wanted to Know about China*: * But Were Afraid to Ask" (Brixton Ink, 2025)

80 hours 39 mins; March 31, 2026

Peter Mauch, "Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General" (Harvard UP, 2026)

64 hours 22 mins; March 31, 2026

Gregory Smits, "The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

78 hours 4 mins; March 30, 2026

Nellie Chu, "Precarious Accumulation: Fast Fashion Bosses in Transnational Guangzhou" (Duke UP, 2026)

65 hours 18 mins; March 28, 2026

Robert Whiting, "Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders who Shaped Modern Japan (Tuttle, 2024)

35 mins; March 27, 2026

James Lin, "The Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan" (U California Press, 2025)

57 mins; March 25, 2026

Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)

44 mins; March 20, 2026

Christopher Munn, "Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)

70 hours 45 mins; March 17, 2026

Cheng Li, "Contested Environmentalisms: Trees and the Making of Modern China" (Stanford UP, 2025)

49 mins; March 12, 2026

Guoqi Xu, "The Idea of China: A Contested History" (Harvard UP, 2026)

71 hours 6 mins; March 08, 2026

Patrick Chung, "Standardizing Empire: The US Military, Korea, and the Origins of Military-Industrial Capitalism" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)

61 hours 53 mins; March 06, 2026

Christine Loh, "Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2018)

59 mins; March 01, 2026

Reginald Jackson, “Textures of Mourning: Calligraphy, Mortality, and The Tale of Genji Scrolls” (U Michigan Press, 2018)

81 hours 19 mins; March 01, 2026

Honghong Tinn, "Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan's Computing Industry" (MIT Press, 2024)

72 hours 3 mins; February 26, 2026

Bin Chen, "Hui Muslims in the Shaping of Modern China: Education, Frontier Politics, and Nation-State" (Routledge, 2025)

49 mins; February 16, 2026

Sugata Bose, "Asia after Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century" (Harvard UP, 2024)

63 hours 24 mins; February 15, 2026

Competing Visions for International Order

28 mins; February 13, 2026

Kristin Roebuck, "Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War" (Columbia UP, 2025)

58 mins; February 10, 2026

Rosina Buckland and Oleg Benesch, "Samarai" (British Museum, 2025)

71 hours 31 mins; February 07, 2026

Gregory T. Chin and Kevin P. Gallagher, "China and the Global Economic Order" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

66 hours 15 mins; February 02, 2026

Stevan Harrell, "An Ecological History of Modern China" (U Washington Press, 2023)

57 mins; February 01, 2026

Natasha Heller, "Literature for Little Bodhisattvas: Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan" (U Hawai'i Press, 2025)

67 hours 15 mins; January 26, 2026

Jenny Banh, "Fantasies of Hong Kong Disneyland: Attempted Indigenizations of Space, Labor, and Consumption" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

55 mins; January 25, 2026

Cross-Border Intimacies: Affect and Emotions in Marriage Migration Between China and Taiwan

33 mins; January 23, 2026

Anne Sokolsky ed., "Bold Breaks: Japanese Women and Literary Narratives of Divorce" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)

63 hours 10 mins; January 20, 2026

Min Joo Lee, "Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

30 mins; January 18, 2026

Di Wu et. al, eds., "China As Context: Anthropology, Post-globalisation and the Neglect of China" (Manchester UP, 2025)

79 hours 15 mins; January 16, 2026

Q. Edward Wang, "Staple to Superfood: A Global History of the Sweet Potato" (Columbia UP, 2025)

53 mins; January 14, 2026

Alvin K. Wong, "Unruly Comparison: Queerness, Hong Kong, and the Sinophone" (Duke UP, 2025)

69 hours 14 mins; January 13, 2026

Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and Beyond

26 mins; January 09, 2026

Serk-Bae Suh, "Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)

67 hours 40 mins; January 07, 2026

Bo Tao, "Cooperative Evangelist: Kagawa Toyohiko and His World, 1888-1960" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)

84 hours 6 mins; January 06, 2026

Thomas J. Mazanec, "Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China" (Cornell UP, 2024)

74 hours 58 mins; January 05, 2026

Florentine Koppenborg, "Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance" (Cornell UP, 2023)

42 mins; January 05, 2026

Shuchen Xiang, "Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea" (Princeton UP, 2023)

89 hours 30 mins; January 04, 2026

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

37 mins; January 01, 2026

Thomas David DuBois, "China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

73 hours 58 mins; December 28, 2025

Andrea Gevurtz Arai ed., "Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First-Century East Asia" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

82 hours 45 mins; December 27, 2025

Joel S. Wit, "Fallout: The Inside Story of America's Failure to Disarm North Korea" (Yale UP, 2025)

49 mins; December 26, 2025

Suvi Rautio, "The Invention of Tradition in China: Story of a Village and a Nation Remade" (Springer Nature, 2024)

78 hours 40 mins; December 25, 2025

Weila Gong, "Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities" (Oxford UP, 2025)

42 mins; December 24, 2025

Simon Avenell, "A History of Postwar Japan: Recovery, Prosperity, and Transformation" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)

60 hours 37 mins; December 23, 2025

Tourism and a Kyoto in Flux: A Conversation with Dr. Chiara Rita Napolitano

28 mins; December 22, 2025

Gian Piero Persiani, "Poets, Patrons, and the Public: Poetry as Cultural Phenomenon in Courtly Japan" (Brill, 2025)

33 mins; December 19, 2025

Joseph Torigian, "The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping" (Stanford UP, 2025)

47 mins; December 18, 2025

Yan-ho Lai, "Legal Resistance Under Authoritarianism: The Struggle for the Rule of Law in Hong Kong" (Amsterdam UP, 2025)

62 hours 56 mins; December 16, 2025

Machiya, Seikatsu Bunka, and Changing Domestic Culture in the Japanese Urban Environment

31 mins; December 15, 2025

Yasmin Cho, "Politics of Tranquility: The Material and Mundane Lives of Buddhist Nuns in Post-Mao Tibet" (Cornell UP, 2025)

53 mins; December 15, 2025

Liang Qichao, "Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker’s Studio: Essays on China and the World" (Penguin Classics, 2023)

63 hours 43 mins; December 13, 2025

Andrew Bernstein, "Fuji: A Mountain In The Making" (Princeton UP, 2025)

44 mins; December 11, 2025

Shilla Lee , "Crafting Rural Japan: Traditional Potters and Rural Creativity in Regional Revitalization" (Routledge, 2024)

64 hours 36 mins; December 07, 2025

Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis, "Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025)

66 hours 12 mins; December 03, 2025

John Kieschnick, "Buddhist Historiography in China" (Columbia UP, 2022)

49 mins; December 01, 2025

Micah S. Muscolino, "Remaking the Earth, Exhausting the People: The Burden of Conservation in Modern China" (U Washington Press, 2025)

64 hours 35 mins; November 25, 2025

Yanqiu Zheng, "In Search of Admiration and Respect: Chinese Cultural Diplomacy in the United States, 1875–1974" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

72 hours 18 mins; November 21, 2025

Jennifer Yip, "Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937-1945" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

55 mins; November 15, 2025

Yunxiang Gao, "Arise Africa, Roar China: Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century" (UNC Press, 2021)

56 mins; November 08, 2025

Fang Yu Hu, "Good Wife, Wise Mother: Educating Han Taiwanese Girls Under Japanese Rule" (U Washington Press, 2024)

61 hours 17 mins; November 06, 2025

Christopher Nelson, "When the Bones Speak: The Living, the Dead, and the Sacrifice of Contemporary Okinawa" (Duke UP, 2025)

68 hours 0 mins; November 05, 2025

Mark L. Clifford, "The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic" (Free Press, 2024)

89 hours 57 mins; November 04, 2025

Mark L. Clifford, "The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic" (Free Press, 2024)

89 hours 57 mins; November 04, 2025

AI, News, and the State: Reinstitutionalising Journalism in Global China’s Algorithmic Age: A conversation with Dr. Joanne Kuai

34 mins; November 03, 2025

Joe Watkins, "Indigenizing Japan: Ainu Past, Present, and Future" (U Arizona Press, 2025)

44 mins; October 26, 2025

Taru Salmenkari, "Global Ideas, Local Adaptations: Chinese Activism and the Will to Make Civil Society" (Edward Elgar, 2025)

43 mins; October 24, 2025

Yong-Shik Lee, "Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia" (Anthem Press, 2023)

62 hours 36 mins; October 22, 2025

Mia Yinxing Liu, "Literati Lenses: Wenren Landscape in Chinese Cinema of the Mao Era" (U Hawai’i Press, 2019)

101 hours 37 mins; October 21, 2025

Megan Walsh, "The Subplot: What China Is Reading and Why It Matters" (Columbia Global Reports, 2022)

38 mins; October 21, 2025

Stevie Suan, "Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form Beyond Japan" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

58 mins; October 20, 2025

Rehan Abeyratne, "Courts and LGBTQ+ Rights in an Age of Judicial Retrenchment" (Oxford UP, 2025)

62 hours 17 mins; October 16, 2025

Chandra Chiara Ehm, "Queens Without a Kingdom Worth Ruling: Buddhist Nuns and the Process of Change in Tibetan Monastic Communities" (Vajra Books, 2024)

65 hours 34 mins; October 15, 2025

Michelle Wang, "The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

52 mins; October 14, 2025

Robert L. Worden and Jane Leung Larson, "A Chinese Reformer in Exile: Kang Youwei and the Chinese Empire Reform Association in North America, 1899-1911" (Brill, 2025)

134 hours 3 mins; October 10, 2025

Monica Liu, "Seeking Western Men: Email-Order Brides Under China's Global Rise" (Stanford UP, 2022)

41 mins; October 06, 2025

Xiaobo Lü, "Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

57 mins; October 05, 2025

M. G. Sheftall, "Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses" (Penguin Random House, 2025)

53 mins; October 01, 2025

Todd A. Henry ed., "Queer Korea" (Duke UP, 2025)

49 mins; September 27, 2025

Xiang Biao and Wu Qi, "Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

99 hours 40 mins; September 22, 2025

Yu Zhang, "Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

57 mins; September 20, 2025

Christopher Joby, "Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan: A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and Practices" (Brill, 2025)

60 hours 47 mins; September 19, 2025

Sam Dalrymple, "Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia" (William Collins, 2025)

53 mins; September 04, 2025

Margaret E. Roberts, "Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall" (Princeton UP, 2020)

50 mins; September 01, 2025

Maren A. Ehlers, "Give and Take: Poverty and the Status Order in Early Modern Japan" (Harvard U Asia Center, 2018)

68 hours 51 mins; August 31, 2025

Dan Wang, "Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future" (Norton, 2025)

62 hours 50 mins; August 26, 2025

Robert Cribb et al., "Detention Camps in Asia: The Conditions of Confinement in Modern Asian History" (Brill, 2022)

68 hours 4 mins; August 22, 2025

Nan Z. Da, The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton UP, 2025)

29 mins; August 21, 2025

Chile’s Growing Interests in China

27 mins; August 19, 2025

Isabella M. Weber, "How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate" (Routledge, 2021)

51 mins; August 17, 2025

Grace C. Huang, "Chiang Kai-Shek's Politics of Shame: Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity in China" (Harvard UP, 2021)

47 mins; August 09, 2025

Ayo Wahlberg, "Good Quality: The Routinization of Sperm Banking in China" (U California Press, 2018)

72 hours 16 mins; August 08, 2025

Eiko Maruko Siniawer, "Ten Moments that Shaped Tokyo" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

49 mins; August 07, 2025

Professional Chat: Home, Migrant Workers, and Decent Work in Supply Chains, with Bonny Ling

46 mins; August 06, 2025

Ronald C. Po, "Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" (Liverpool UP, 2024)

75 hours 46 mins; August 06, 2025

William Marx, "Libraries of the Mind" (Princeton UP, 2025)

65 hours 38 mins; August 03, 2025

Scott Pearce, "Northern Wei (386-534): A New Form of Empire in East Asia" (Oxford UP, 2023)

76 hours 11 mins; July 30, 2025

Benoit Berthelier and Immanuel Kim, "Hidden Heros: Anthology of North Korean FIction" (Anthem, 2025)

46 mins; July 29, 2025

Frank Jacob, "Japanese War Crimes during World War II: Atrocity and the Psychology of Collective Violence" (Praeger, 2018)

68 hours 7 mins; July 28, 2025

Sarah Teasley, "Designing Modern Japan" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

105 hours 12 mins; July 27, 2025

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