Asian Review of Books

Mongolia is sometimes seen as one of the few examples of a successful youth-led revolution, where a 1990 movement forced the Soviet-appointed Politburo to resign. In Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East (Penguin Random House SEA: 2020), Aubrey Menard profiles many of today’s young activists in Mongolia, in a wide array of different areas like pollution, feminism, LGBT rights, and journalism.In this interview, we discuss several of the activists profiled in her book, as well as discuss the development of Mongolia's democracy. We talk about whether we can think about young Mongolians as a "generation", and whether the country's experience supports or challenges normal democratic theory. We also touch base on what's been happening in Mongolia since she published her book.Aubrey Menard is an expert on political transitions, elections and democracy, working on democracy and governance issues in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Central America and the United States. She lived in Mongolia as a Luce Scholar from 2015 to 2016. You can follow her on Twitter at @AubreyMenard.You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, where you can find its review of Young Mongols. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.Nicholas Gordon is a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. In his day job, he’s a researcher and writer for a think tank in economic and sustainable development. He is also a print and broadcast commentator on local and regional politics. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

“To mother, from Tsuneno (confidential). I’m writing with spring greetings. I went to Kanda Minagawa-chō in Edo—quite unexpectedly—and I ended up in so much trouble!”This letter, hidden in an archive in Niigata Prefecture, inspired Professor Amy Stanley to write her latest work: Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World (Scribner, 2020). She traces Tsuneno’s life, from growing up in a rural community through her escape to the city of Edo, where she lives in the final decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In this interview with Professor Stanley, we discuss her book: the life of its main character and its historical setting. We touch on how Tsuneno's life tells us more about life, especially the life of women, during this period of Japanese history. We also talk about what inspired her to write about this ordinary woman, and what the research process was like.Amy Stanley is a Professor of History at Northwestern University, where she is a historian of early and modern Japan, with special interest in women's history. You can follow her on Twitter at @astanley711.You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Stranger in the Shogun's City. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

Sarah Mullins, an American woman, arrives at the Kingdom: a fading luxury apartment complex in Bangkok. She is there to lay low, after passing over forged collectors’ items in Hong Kong. She meets the other residents of the Kingdom, including the energetic, yet mysterious Mali. This starts an unfolding story set amidst the fictional backdrop of growing protests, as both the Kingdom’s expatriate tenants and the local Thai staff evaluate what will happen next.Novelist Lawrence Osborne tells this story in his new novel The Glass Kingdom (Hogarth, 2020). In this interview, we discuss his novel, the flawed nature of his characters, and how the choice of a Bangkok apartment complex in a fictional period of Thai social unrest has some uncanny similarities to our present day. We also talk about his research process when it comes to writing a new book.Lawrence is a writer and novelist, currently residing in Bangkok, whose works like The Forgiven, The Ballad of a Small Player and Hunters in the Dark were published to rave reviews and featured on numerous “best-of” lists.You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, where you can find its review of The Glass Kingdom. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.Nicholas Gordon is a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. In his day job, he’s a researcher and writer for a think tank in economic and sustainable development. He is also a print and broadcast commentator on local and regional politics. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

As China grows into a major regional and global power, there are many questions about what this means for the international system. Does China threaten the United States? Does Washington want to aggressively contain China? Are we really facing a “New Cold War”? And what does this mean for everyone else?In Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy (PublicAffairs, 2020), Kishore Mahbubani writes about the relationship between China and the United States: the structural reasons for tensions, the misconceptions and mistakes each side has made, and how further conflict can be avoided.In this interview with Kishore Mahbubani, we discuss how those outside of the United States and China see this great-power relationship, and what a more multipolar world might look like.Kishore Mahbubani is a veteran diplomat and academic, currently serving as a Distinguished Fellow at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute and Coordinator of the Asian Peace Programme. He is Singapore’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, former President of the UN Security Council, and former Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS. You can follow him on Twitter at @mahbubani_k.You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.Nicholas Gordon is a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. In his day job, he’s a researcher and writer for a think tank in economic and sustainable development. He is also a print and broadcast commentator on local and regional politics. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

Trade imbalances have long been a sticking point in international economics, most recently between the United States and China. The conversation about persistent trade imbalances tends to take on a moral dimension, whether praising German thrift, criticising American profligacy, or accusing China of nefarious behaviour.In Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace (Yale University Press, 2020), Michael Pettis and Matthew C. Klein explain the source of persistent trade imbalances with this simple thesis: “Rising inequality within countries heightens trade conflicts between them.” Trade surpluses occur when policies serve to transfer wealth and income away from those who would spend more on goods and services and towards the elite, who instead use the income to purchase financial assets.In this interview with Michael Pettis, we discuss the cause of trade imbalances, the situations where they do harm to national economies, and what kinds of policies might resolve them. We also talk about some of the new policies being developed in China, such as the proposed shift to domestic consumption under the new “dual circulation” strategy.Michael Pettis is Professor of Finance in the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, and an expert of the Chinese financial system. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, where you can subscribe to his China Financial Markets newsletter. You can follow him on Twitter at @michaelxpettis.You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Trade Wars are Class Wars. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.Nicholas Gordon is a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. In his day job, he’s a researcher and writer for a think tank in economic and sustainable development. He is also a print and broadcast commentator on local and regional politics. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review