New Book Announcement: “Anarchy of the Body: Undercurrents of Performance Art in 1960s Japan” by KuroDalaiJee
Anarchy of the Body: Undercurrents of Performance Art in 1960s Japan, KuroDalaiJee (Leuven University Press, February 2023)
Anarchy of the Body: Undercurrents of Performance Art in 1960s Japan, KuroDalaiJee (Leuven University Press, February 2023)

In Anarchy of the Body, art historian KuroDalaiJee sheds light on vital pieces of postwar Japanese avant-garde history by contextualizing the social, cultural, and political trajectories of artists across Japan in the 1960s. A culmination of years of research, Anarchy of the Body draws on an extensive breadth of source material to reveal how the practice of performance by individual artists and art groups during this period formed a legacy of resistance against institutionalization, both within the art world and more broadly in Japanese society.

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“Dust Child” by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and “Skull Water” by Heinz Insu Fenkl

With war comes much trauma, and America’s Asian wars had the additional consequence of Amerasian children—too often left behind by both parents—who more times than not ended up on the streets. There is a term in Vietnamese that translates to “children of the dust” and it’s this concept that drives the story and title of Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s second novel, Dust Child. Another recent novel, Skull Water by Heinz Insu Fenkl, also centers around biracial children with GI fathers and Asian mothers during the time of the Vietnam War.

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New Book Announcement: “The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University” by Daniel A Bell
The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University, Daniel A Bell (Princeton University Press, March 2023)
The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University, Daniel A Bell (Princeton University Press, March 2023)

On 1 January 2017, Daniel Bell was appointed dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University—the first foreign dean of a political science faculty in mainland China’s history. In The Dean of Shandong, Bell chronicles his experiences as what he calls “a minor bureaucrat”, offering an inside account of the workings of Chinese academia and what they reveal about China’s political system. It wasn’t all smooth sailing—Bell wryly recounts sporadic bungles and misunderstandings—but Bell’s post as dean provides a unique vantage point on China today.

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“China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord” by Philip Snow

Philip Snow opens his engaging, and refreshingly straightforward, history of Sino-Russian relations with an observation born out ever more frequently in the opinion pages of current (at least English-language) newspapers: “Ever since they emerged from the rubble of the Second World War Western societies have looked with apprehension on either Russia, or China, or both.” Today, it’s fair to say, it’s probably “both”.

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Podcast with Lawrence Osborne, author of “On Java Road”

The star of On Java Road, the latest novel from Lawrence Osborne, is Adrian Gyle, a down-on-his-luck correspondent in Hong Kong, in the midst of its 2019 protests. Adrian spends his time drinking with Jimmy Tang, a royal screw-up from one of Hong Kong’s tycoon families. But a new character—and an unexpected death—threatens to drive a wedge in their relationship, as Hong Kong is mired in an uncertain future.

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“Chloe and the Kaishao Boys” by Mae Coyiuto

When girls in the Philippines turn eighteen, it’s customary to have a debut, or coming out party at which eighteen male friends or family serve as “roses” and eighteen females as “candles”, thereby making up the debut’s entourage. Mae Coyiuto’s own debut—of a literary variety—is centered around the coming of age party of a Chinese Filipina named Chloe Liang. Chloe and the Kaishao Boys is more layered than the typical, often formulaic young adult novel and combines Chloe’s Chinese Filipino culture with more universal teen issues like pleasing parents and finding independence. 

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