New Books in East Asian Studies

Don J. Wyatt, author of 'Slavery in East Asia', discusses the distinctive traits and traditions of slavery in medieval East Asia. He explores the origins of slavery in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, highlighting the role of war, forced migration, and trafficking. They also discuss the challenges of dealing with histories of interactions and giving voices to the marginalized.

David Humphrey’s The Time of Laughter: Comedy and the Media Cultures of Japan (U Michigan Press, 2023) examines the roles of mediated laughter in the media and cultural history of postwar Japan, with a strong focus on the temporality of laughter. As the book shows, comedy has been central to Japanese entertainment from the age of television to the age of social media, identifying the 1980s as a transformative decade. Humphrey’s narrative is particularly attentive to the ambivalent functions of laughter as both unifier and divider. Here, his attention to the gendering of laughter is particularly illuminating. The Time of Laughter is a welcome academic intervention to a critical but, at least in the English-language literature, largely overlooked aspect of the history and culture of Japan over the past seven decades.Nathan Hopson is an associate professor of Japanese language and history in the University of Bergen's Department of Foreign Languages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

In the final episode of Season 3, Annika sits down with James Fenelon, a veteran-turned-historian, who served in the Army for over a decade and is a graduate of the US Army’s Airborne, Jumpmaster and Pathfinder schools. They about his latest book, Angels Against the Sun: A WWII Saga of Grunts, Grit, and Brotherhood (Regnery, 2023), which chronicles the 11th Airborne Division, nicknamed "The Angels," and their campaign.A bit about the book: The Pacific theater of World War II pitted American fighting men against two merciless enemies: the relentless Japanese army and the combined forces of monsoons, swamps, mud, privation, and disease. General Joseph Swing's rowdy paratroopers of the 11th Airborne Division-- nicknamed the "Angels"--fought in some of the war's most dramatic campaigns, from bloody skirmishes in Leyte's unforgiving rainforests to the ferocious battles on Luzon, including the hellish urban combat of Manila. The Angels were trained as elite shock troops, but high American casualties often forced them into action as ground-pounding infantrymen. Surviving on airdropped supplies and reinforcements, the Angels fought their way across nearly impassable terrain, emerging as one of the most lethal units in the Pacific War. Their final task was the occupation of Japan, where they were the first American boots on the ground. Angels Against the Sun is an unforgettable account of the liberation of the Philippines. In the tradition of Band of Brothers, historian and former paratrooper James M. Fenelon offers a grunt's-eye view of the war. This is a soldier's history at its best.Annika Nordquist is the Communications Coordinator of Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and host of the Program’s podcast, Madison’s Notes. She graduated from Stanford University in 2021, where she studied Classics and Linguistics. She was also Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Review and a member of the varsity fencing team. Previously, she was a Research Assistant in Education Policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Yiwen Li, an associate professor of history at City University of Hong Kong, delves into the intriguing dynamics between monks and merchants in her new book. She reveals how, despite a pause in official ties, a robust religio-commercial network flourished between China and Japan from 839 to 1403 CE. Listeners will learn about key historical sources and figures, the resilience of this network during Buddhist persecution, and the transformative role of Chinese merchants in promoting Zen Buddhism in Japan. It's a captivating exploration of faith meeting commerce!

In this episode, our host, Ti-han, invited Dr Gwennaël Gaffric, a French literary translator and a specialist in Taiwanese eco-literature to talk about his academic publication, The Literature in the Age of Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Study of the Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi《人類世的文學: 臺灣作家吳明益的生態批評研究》. We talked about what inspired Gaffric to research Taiwanese eco-literature at the beginning of his academic career as well as why he chose to focus on Wu Ming-yi’s literary works. Gaffric also told us how he applied ecocritical theory from a French philosophical perspective and we talked about how he worked with his wife in translating the book into Chinese. The book offers an in-depth analysis of Wu Ming-yi’s works across different periods of time, and it presents a foundational understanding of theories and worldviews contextualised in the era of Anthropocene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Both before and after the 2011 "Triple Disaster" of earthquake, tidal wave, and consequent meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, anthropologist Satsuki Takahashi visited nearby communities, collecting accounts of life and livelihoods along the industrialized seascape. The resulting environmental ethnography examines the complex relationship between commercial fishing families and the Joban Sea--once known for premium-quality fish and now notorious as the location of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe. Satsuki Takahashi's book Fukushima Futures: Survival Stories in a Repeatedly Ruined Seascape (U Washington Press, 2023) follows postwar Japan's maritime modernization from the perspectives of those most entangled with its successes and failures. In response to unrelenting setbacks, including an earlier nuclear accident at neighboring Tokaimura and the oil spills of stranded tankers during typhoons, these communities have developed survival strategies shaped by the precarity they share with their marine ecosystem. The collaborative resilience that emerges against this backdrop of vulnerability and uncertainty challenges the progress-bound logic of futurism, bringing more hopeful possibilities for the future into sharper focus.Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Vaudine England, author of 'Fortune's Bazaar: The Making of Hong Kong,' explores the diverse communities that contributed to building Hong Kong in the early days of colonization, highlighting the treatment of mixed heritage individuals and forced Chinese women in the sex industry. The podcast discusses the intermarriages and family connections of a famous Hong Kong family, Stanley Ho's challenging upbringing, and the influential figure, Paul Chader, and his contributions to transforming the city. It also delves into the impact of the Japanese occupation on different communities, challenging simplistic narratives about Hong Kong's history.

In world history, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 ranks as a revolutionary watershed, on a par with the American and French Revolutions. In this volume, leading historians from North America, Europe, and Japan employ global history in novel ways to offer fresh economic, social, political, cultural, and military perspectives on the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent creation of the modern Japanese nation-state. Seamlessly mixing meta- and micro-history, The Meiji Restoration: Japan as a Global Nation (Cambridge UP, 2020) examines how the Japanese state and Japanese people engaged with global trends of the early nineteenth century. The authors also explore the internal military conflicts that marked the 1860s and the process of reconciliation after 1868. They conclude with discussions of how new political, cultural, and diplomatic institutions were created as Japan emerged as a global nation, defined in multiple ways by its place in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Is environmental degradation an inevitable result of economic development? Can ecosystems be restored once government officials and the public are committed to doing so? These questions are at the heart of Stevan Harrell's An Ecological History of Modern China (University of Washington Press, 2023), a comprehensive account of China's transformation since the founding of the People's Republic from the perspective not of the economy but of the biophysical world. Examples throughout illustrate how agricultural, industrial, and urban development have affected the resilience of China's ecosystems—their ability to withstand disturbances and additional growth—and what this means for the country's future.Drawing on decades of research, Harrell demonstrates the local and global impacts of China's miraculous rise. In clear and accessible prose, An Ecological History of Modern China untangles the paradoxes of development and questions the possibility of a future that is both prosperous and sustainable. It is a critical resource for students, scholars, and general readers interested in environmental change, Chinese history, and sustainable development.Stevan Harrell is professor emeritus of anthropology and environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington. His many books include Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China. Twitter. Website.Brian Hamilton is chair of the Department of History and Social Science at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Dr. Olga Fedorenko, an ethnographer specializing in South Korean advertising, discusses the clash of advertising freedoms and obligations in late-capitalist South Korea. She explores the historical role of advertising in promoting virtue and the shift in the 21st century towards neoliberal hegemony. The podcast delves into the challenges faced by advertising practitioners, censors, audiences, and activists in navigating this changing landscape.