New Book Announcement: “Delicious Hunger” by Hai Fan
From 1976 to 1989, Hai Fan was part of the guerrilla forces of the Malayan Communist Party. These short stories are inspired by his experiences during his thirteen years in the rainforest.
New Book Announcement: “Asian Celebrity Cultures in the Digital Age”, edited by Jian Xu, Glen Donnar and Divya Garg
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.
New Book Announcement: “Contesting Inequalities” by Siyuan Yin
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…
New Book Announcement: “Rustlings” by Gabrielle Tse
Dreamy and playful, Gabrielle Tse’s debut pamphlet Rustlings speaks to memory and domesticity, maintaining a balletic lightness above fractures in language and heritage. With all its subtle sounds and textures, Rustlings is a sensuous exploration of the absences and complications of daily life.
New Book Announcement: “The Politics of Sorrow” by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
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…
New Book Announcement: “Lotusland” by David Joiner
In its revised, ten-year anniversary edition, Lotusland remains one of the only works of fiction by a US author to bridge the literary gap between the Vietnam War and contemporary Vietnam.
New Book Announcement: “Ethnic Minority Cinema in China’s Nation-State Building” by Kwai-Cheung Lo
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.
New Book Announcement: “Beijing Bound: A Foreigner Discovers China” by Glen Loveland
Beijing Bound captures a pivotal moment in China’s recent history through the lens of Glen Loveland, a young American who arrived in Beijing in 2007 with little more than ambition and a tourist visa. Once a congressional press secretary, Loveland chronicles his remarkable transformation from a bewildered expatriate to becoming the first foreign HR professional…
New Book Announcement: “Women’s Transborder Cinema: Authorship, Stardom, and Filmic Labor in South Asia” by Esha Niyogi De
Can we write women’s authorial roles into the history of industrial cinema in South Asia? How can we understand women’s creative authority and access to the film business infrastructure in this postcolonial region? Esha Niyogi De draws on rare archival and oral sources to explore these questions from a uniquely comparative perspective, delving into examples…
New Book Announcement: “Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India” by Hemangini Gupta
Experimental Times is an in-depth ethnography of the transformation of Bengaluru/Bangalore from a site of “backend” IT work to an aspirational global city of enterprise and innovation. The book journeys alongside the migrant workers, technologists, and entrepreneurs who shape and survive the dreams of a “Startup India” knitted through office work, at networking meetings and…
New Book Annoucement: “Misery Beneath the Miracle in East Asia” by Arvid J Lukauskas and Yumiko Shimabukuro
Misery Beneath the Miracle in East Asia challenges prevailing views of the East Asian economic miracle. Existing scholarship has overlooked the severity, persistence, and harmful consequences of the social-welfare crises affecting the region. Arvid J Lukauskas and Yumiko Shimabukuro fill this gap and put a major asterisk on East Asia’s economic record.
New Book Announcement: “Sunset At Lion Rock: A Novel” by Matthew Wong Foreman
A letter from a nephew to his uncle who died before he was born. It serves as a window into parts of a Eurasian child’s life which his family can never know, documenting his attempt to navigate racial confusion, religious trauma, the meaning of friendship, and the struggle for self-discovery in a shifting culture on…
New Book Announcement: “Indians on Indian Lands: Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity” by Nishant Upadhyay
Nishant Upadhyay unravels Indian diasporic complicity in its ongoing colonial relationship with Indigenous peoples, lands, and nations in Canada. Upadhyay examines the interwoven and simultaneous areas of dominant Indian caste complicity in processes of settler colonialism, antiblackness, capitalism, brahminical supremacy, Hindu nationalism, and heteropatriarchy.
New Book Announcement: “Rented Grave” by Charles Philipp Martin
Horace Yang, a downtrodden office worker haunted by failure, betrayal, and brutal imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution, has finally found a way to settle the score. Obsessed with revenge, he presses on to a confrontation that can only end in death.
New Book Announcement: “My Name is Gucci” by Sun Jung
After living in a Singapore dog shelter for five years, Gucci—a vaguely Dalmatian-like crossbred—is losing hope of ever being rescued. One day to his surprise he is adopted by her, a writer, and moves to inner city Sydney. On arrival, however, an anti-dog war breaks out in their apartment block; Gucci’s adopter receives a letter…