“Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River” by Jung Young Moon
There are many novels by Western authors sojourning in Asia. Stories that go the other way around are as rare as hens’ teeth.
“The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India” by Supriya Gandhi
It was 1675, and Londoners were eager to see the King’s Company production of the latest play by John Dryden, playwright and Poet Laureate. Aureng-Zebe, for so it was titled, was a heroic verse-drama written in rhyming couplets based on near-contemporary events in India. It featured an exotic combination of eastern despotism, lust and dynastic…
“Tawaifnama” by Saba Dewan
Dressed like Rajput princesses in bangles, rhinestones and brocade tightly fitted over their svelte bodies, the young women created a stir when they entered the elevator of our nondescript apartment block in Singapore. Only later did I learn that these were bar dancers, dispatched by their needy families in rural Bihar to earn 200 hundred…
“Islamic Empires: The Cities that Shaped Civilization From Mecca to Dubai” by Justin Marozzi
Justin Marozzi starts his survey of Islamic civilization by noting that the Arab world hasn’t had the best of press lately. “Everywhere you look there’s chaos, fighting, bloodshed, dictatorship, corruption, injustice, unemployment,” a Tunisian friend of his tells him.
“The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India” by Supriya Gandhi
Indians continue to engage with the Mughal Empire in a way they don’t with any other dynasty.
“Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink” by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
For those of us who live in Hong Kong, the past six-eight months have been a roller-coaster. The (it is almost now universally accepted) ill-advised extradition bill—the proximate cause of the discontent that has roiled the city—has been withdrawn, but too late to stem the tide of protest, which took on a momentum of its…
“In the Cauldron: Terror, Tension, and the American Ambassador’s Struggle to Avoid Pearl Harbor” by Lew Paper
Lew Paper’s new book In the Cauldron charts the diplomatic road to Pearl Harbor, mostly through the eyes of the then-US Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew. Paper portrays Grew as a voice crying in the wilderness, showing the way to peace when everyone around him in official circles in both Japan and the United States…
“Shanghai 1935: An American lady’s account of the city and its high-society” by Ruth Day
In 1935, Ruth Day paid a six-week visit to her mother and step-father who were at that time living in Shanghai. When she returned, she published a short book on the trip. The book had a run of just 200 copies and seems to have quickly disappeared—but at least one copy found its way to…
“A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century” by Jason DeParle
The Philippine economy has, relative to both its history and many other parts of the world, seen something of a recent boom. Yet although the poverty rate has plunged by about a third in the three years to 2018, Filipinos leaving their country for a future abroad still abound. Longtime New York Times reporter Jason…
“Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life” by Amber Scorah
Amber Scorah’s time in Shanghai was not the typical expat sojourn. “Revolutions do not come without violence,” she writes in her new memoir. “If I hadn’t come to China, I would never have even noticed. Somehow, in one of the most restrictive places in the world, I had found freedom.”
“The First Great Powers: Babylon and Assyria” by Arthur Cotterell
Literary allusions to Babylon and Assyria are often not very complimentary, and they are most certainly based on common misconceptions.
“The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City” by Juan Du
Is Shenzhen now China’s most important city? In August of 2019, the country’s State Council released a statement announcing that Shenzhen was to be developed into a “pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, with the aim of it becoming a “global benchmark city”.
“The Witchhunters: Scandal, Secrets and a Death that Shocked Hong Kong” by Simon J Blake and Nury Vittachi
The 1980 death of Hong Kong police officer John MacLennan shook the territory and made international news, eventually driving the Hong Kong courts to decriminalize homosexuality in 1991.
“Stories of the Sahara” by Sanmao
At first hearing, Stories of the Sahara sounds improbable: about a half-century ago, a young Chinese woman from Taiwan decamps to El Aaiún in the then Spanish Sahara.
“The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century” by Thant Myint-U
Myanmar or Burma? Thant Myint-U begins this timely and important book unraveling the basic question of what to call this country.
