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“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 the People’s Republic of China, they have met more than 40 times. Perhaps no other two heads of state currently in office have conferred as often. This, the pair maintains, has fostered an unusually close…
“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…
“The Steppe and Its Empire” by Michael Khodarkovsky
When Ivan the Terrible received the English ambassador Jerome Edward Horsey in 1580, he showed him the Kremlin’s treasury room,…
“Alone in Japan” by Tom Feiling
When Japan was first opened to widespread Western contact in the late 19th century, visitors saw it as a glimpse into the past. In its arts and crafts, they perceived an unconscious artistic genius lost to those who lived in industrial societies. At some point in the late 20th century, travellers started to see not…
“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 Northern Tomb, the government’s severe regulations are woven into the background of a story where Mr Zhao, an elderly widow enlists the help of 51-year-old Sister Zhu, a retired cleaner, to be his full-time…
“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 Book of Damascus: A City in Short Fiction”
The Book of Damascus, an anthology of ten short stories and one non-fiction piece, gives English-speaking readers a chance to…
“Plant Lady” by Minyoung Kang
At first glance, Minyoung Kang’s new book, Plant Lady, might be mistaken for yet another addition to the Korean comfort fiction genre. After all, Shanna Tan has translated Korean novels set in bookshops, laundromats, and photo studios, to name but a few. On the cover of the US edition of Plant Lady, a young woman…
“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…
“Unraveling Threads” by Brenda Lin
A memoir-in-essays that, in its exploration of language, family ties, and Taiwanese history, distills how the handmade holds memory, inheritance, and the work of care-taking. “Tactile memory feels like it…
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