China Running Dog, Mark Kitto (Plum Rain Press, March 2025)

Shanghai in the year 2000 was a cauldron of opportunity and danger. Navigating their way through this chaotic, booming city are two young English expats: Johnny Trent, a small-time entrepreneur from the wrong side of the tracks, and upper-class Felix Fawcett-Smith. An unlikely friendship begins—and is sorely tested—as Felix becomes entangled in shady business dealings and government corruption. Johnny tries to save Felix, as well as a young woman for whom they share an interest.

Peppa Pig gets around. Having survived accusations of giving American kids British accents, Peppa Pig has now visited Korea, on paper anyway (she’s been there on TV and video for many years). Peppa Goes to Seoul, a publication of Penguin Random House’s Korean operation, was released in the latter part of last year in a still-rare rare example of a multinational publisher localising a product for Asia.

Asian Celebrity Cultures in the Digital Age, Jian Xu, Glen Donnar, Divya Garg (eds) (Hong Kong University Press, March 2025)

Asian Celebrity Cultures in the Digital Age represents the first comprehensive study on the transformations of celebrity cultures in increasingly globalised and digitalised Asian societies. It discusses relations between Asian celebrities and digital media across emerging phenomena in celebrity practices, cultures, politics, fandom, and economies.

Contesting Inequalities: Mediated Labor Activism and Rural Migrant Workers in China, Siyuan Yin (Stanford University Press, May 2025)

In Contesting Inequalities, Siyuan Yin traces the historical and structural forces surrounding the plight of migrant workers, especially women workers, and examines the relationship between media and different forms of collective action in China. Moving beyond considerations of short-term strikes, she analyzes how mediated practices have been incorporated as both means and ends in labor activism.

The Politics of Sorrow: Unity and Allegiance Across Tibetan Exile, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Columbia University Press, February 2025)

The Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet in 1959 after its occupation by China and established a government in exile in India. There, Tibetan leaders aimed to bring together displaced people from varied religious traditions and local loyalties under the banner of unity. The Politics of Sorrow tells the story of the Group of Thirteen, a collective of chieftains and lamas from the regions of Kham and Amdo, who sought to preserve Tibet’s cultural diversity in exile.

Ethnic Minority Cinema in China’s Nation-State Building, Kwai-Cheung Lo (University of Michigan Press, February 2025)

Kwai-Cheung Lo’s Ethnic Minority Cinema in China’s Nation-State Building investigates the convoluted relations between cinematic productions about non-Han ethnic minorities and China’s nation-state building project from the early Republican era of the 1920s to the current authoritarian regime in the 21st century.