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“Pink Auteur, Red Outlaw: Adachi Masao and Japan’s Cinema of Revolution” by William Andrews
There is an irresistible temptation to read filmmaker Adachi Masao’s life as if it were itself a movie. A Japanese New Wave filmmaker disappears into Lebanon, becomes associated with the Japanese Red Army, spends decades in exile, is imprisoned, and eventually returns home as one of the most controversial figures in postwar Japanese culture. It…
“The Frigate Novara Around the World”
This is a translated excerpt from La Fregata Novara intorno al mondo — The Frigate Novara Around the World; reprinted…
“Entangled Empires: Four Centuries of China-Russia Relations”
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin know each other well. Since 2013, when Xi completed his ascent to the top of…
“Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir and the Mughal Empire” by Munis D Faruqui
The battle lines around Emperor Aurangzeb’s posthumous reputations are clearly drawn. On one side, the monumental five-volume history by Jadunath…
“The Last Emperor of China” by Paul French
For most readers and filmgoers, the emotional architecture of the final Qing court was built not by historians but by…
“Shanghai” by Michael Dillon
Both the subtitle of historian Michael Dillon’s new book Shanghai: The Story of China’s Most Dynamic City and its jaunty pink and yellow cover, punctuated with stylised drawings of the city’s landmarks, suggest this might be a fairly breezy version of the Shanghai story. Certainly, the city seems to encourage such accounts, which often foreground…
“Wedding on the Maharaja Express” by Prakhar Vishwani
The title of Prakhar Vishwani’s debut, Wedding on the Maharaja Express, evokes the classic mystery Murder on the Orient Express. Both, indeed, feature an eclectic cast of characters and a murder on a luxurious train, yet unlike Agatha Christie’s romantically disinterested detective Hercule Poirot, Vishwani’s protagonist Vir Malhotra is head over heels in love with…
“The Bride at Sixty” by Kyoko Hayashi
On 9 August 1945, an American plane dropped a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki at 11:01 am local time. It exploded…
“Northern Tomb” by Isabelle Li
Few novelists dare to take on the backdrop of COVID-19 in China but Isabelle Li does not shy away. In…
“The Pinnacle” by Abir Mukherjee
Once a major Hollywood star, George Abercrombie’s career has quietly cratered after a string of box-office flops. He has moved…
“Hello, Limerence” by Momo Yamaguchi
The unusual word “limerence” in the title of Momo Yamaguchi’s debut novel is never in fact used in the book…
“Fortress Besieged” by Qian Zhongshu
Born one year before the Republic of China, Qian Zhongshu was to become one of its most revered fictional chroniclers. The cast of Fortress Besieged—the only novel he ever completed—characters were to become stand-ins for a generation of the Republic’s fumbling (pseudo-)intellectuals. The novel follows one Fang Hung-chien, starting with his 1937 return from Europe…
“My Wild City: Finding Nature, Meaning, and Hope in India’s Capital” by Neha Sinha
In My Wild City, acclaimed nature writer Neha Sinha takes us on an unforgettable journey through the hidden wildernesses of the bustling metropolis of Delhi, India, where she finds as…
“Chinese Media Improvisations” by Xuenan Cao
Xuenan Cao offers an unexpected angle on China’s technological rise, spotlighting the role of deficit-driven improvisation. As Cao demonstrates, where printing paper, computers, and microchips have been in shortage, media…
“Stormy Seas” by Thung-Hong Lin
How can a small democracy resist the influence of a powerful authoritarian neighbor? Taiwan is frequently praised for its successful economic development and peaceful transition to democracy, serving as a…
“From Lab to Life: How AI Works in China” by Collin Hogue-Spears
From Lab to Life: How AI Works in China argues that China built the world’s first governed AI ecosystem, a market in which regulation, commercial capability, and distribution developed together. Since August 2023, China has required consumer-facing generative AI services to clear government filing before…
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