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“Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal” by Sandip Roy
A young, aspiring actor joins an itinerant theatre troupe to perform on makeshift stages in remote villages, traveling from place to place by truck, or in the absence of paved roads, by bullock cart. Readers will recall scenes from The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha by Satrajit Ray, or Shakespearewallah, by James Ivory. There is…
“Witness to Korea, 1945-47: The Unfolding of an Authoritarian Regime” by Frank Hoffmann and Mark E Caprio
Histories of the Korean War (1950-1953) published in the United States have been surprisingly numerous for a conflict known as…
“Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in China” by Zheng Liu
Cultural Mavericks traces the rise of independent bookselling in China over the last twenty years. That such a rise should…
“The Race for Universal Monarchy: Apocalypticism and the Ottoman–Habsburg Rivalry in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean”
“The Persian learned men,” wrote Herodotus in his Histories, “say that the Phoenicians were the cause of the feud.” Historians…
“Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and The Politics of Appearance” by Shefalee Vasudev
Shefalee Vasudev’s Stories We Wear unpacks the contradictions behind image and appearance in the vast and diverse land that is India….
“China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy” by Xiaobing Li
In one sense the title of Xiaobing Li’s biography of Chinese Admiral Liu Huaqing, China’s Mahan, is somewhat misleading because the author concludes that Admiral Liu has more in common with the onetime commander of the Soviet Navy Sergey Gorshkov than with the American naval historian and strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. Admiral Liu himself stated…
“No Man River” by Dương Hướng
A sweeping historical novel, Dương Hướng’s No Man River charts Vietnam’s path to independence from the anticolonial struggle against the French to what is known locally as the “American War” and finally the brief Sino-Vietnamese border war in the late 1970s. It covers these conflicts in fewer than 250 pages, and without a single battle…
“The Lady Who Carried the Monk Across the River: A Parable for Ordinary People” by Pavan K Varma
While philosophy has often figured in literature, the Indian philosophical universe of dharma, karma, yoga, consciousness, body, mind, desire, and…
“Questions 27 & 28” by Karen Tei Yamashita
Of the many questions Japanese American internees were asked before they would be released from the World War 2 camps…
“Sisters in Yellow” by Mieko Kawakami
One day Hana Ito, a forty-year-old part-time cashier at a deli shop, clicks on a link to an article detailing…
“Gooday Nagar” by Maithreyi Karnoor
Gooday Nagar is a collection of short stories about the people (or, better, “characters”) of and around the eponymous fictional…
“The Memory Museum” by M Lin
In 2020, when the pandemic forced the world into lockdown, M Lin—who had moved to New York City from Beijing first as a film student—began writing fiction. The result was the stunning collection of nine stories titled The Memory Museum. These stories touch upon a wide range of experiences confronting China’s post-90s generation: seeking a…
“Earthly Playing Field” by Radhika Singh
Roma has a steady job, a mortgage, and a surrogate family in Queens. But as she moves through her daily routines, the powerful Empire that rules her world bares its…
“High Lands, Pure Earth: Place Making, History, and Urban Transitions on the Tibetan Plateau” by Eveline Washul
High Lands, Pure Earth foregrounds Tibetan experiences of urban transitions in China’s late-reform period. In the 21st century, China’s accelerated urbanization has transformed the Tibetan Plateau. Yet Tibetan urban experiences…
“Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand” by Jinwon Kim
In the past decade, Korean entertainment has gained global recognition, with Korean movies and TV shows winning Oscars and Emmys, and K-Pop groups becoming wildly popular. In Manhattan, Koreatown has…
“Owls in the Ginza” by Suzanne Kamata
Thinking of leaving the country? Does the life of a digital nomad beckon to you? Suzanne Kamata has been there, done that, and is still doing it. Living in Japan…
“Nourishing Life: Cultures of Food and Health in Early Modern Japan”
Can food determine your fate? Could indulging in delicacies bring calamity to your community? Joshua Schlachet’s Nourishing Life reevaluates the history of Japanese food culture by examining how ideas of…
“Mantras of the Moon” by Srijani Mitra
Mantras of the Moon is a luminous collection of poems born from the desire to explore the self, memory, and Indian heritage. These poems weave together psychology, mythology, desire, and…
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