The Nordic Asia Podcast

In this episode, Edyta Roszko joins Adela Brianso from NIAS Press to talk about her latest book Fishers, Monks, and Cadres: Navigating State, Religion, and the South China Sea in Central Vietnam published by NIAS Press in October 2020. Edyta Roszko and Adela discuss the fascinating geopolitics of the South China Sea, religion in Vietnam, and the pragmatic ways in which people navigate the Vietnamese state in their daily lives. To learn more and buy Roszko’s timely book, visit https://www.niaspress.dk/book/fishers-monks-and-cadres/

Following the resignation of Japan’s Abe Shinzo in September 2020, Suga Yoshihide became the country’s first new Prime Minister in nearly 8 years. Suga served under Abe as his Chief Cabinet Secretary for many years, but what does this change mean for Japan? In this episode, Benedicte Irgens talks to Paul Midford and Dick Stegewerns about Japan’s direction after Abe including domestic politics, foreign policy, the role of the media, immigration, and environmental and energy policy.

Stephen Ranger of the European Centre for International Political Economy speaks with Satoko Naito about his recent publications on the early twentieth century Japanese film industry. Stephen explains the state of the Japanese, European, and American film industries of the time, including the decline of British influence on the international film market and subsequent Hollywood domination. He also discusses the role of Japanese governmental entities in select restrictions on films, as well as the global political and economic factors that brought about the situation.

In this recording from a book launch that NIAS arranged together with FREIA (Aalborg University), Researcher Pauline Stoltz and Director of NIAS, Duncan McCargo, discuss her latest book: “Gender, Resistance and Transnational Memories of Violent Conflicts”. In the book, Stoltz analyses the politics of memories of three violent conflicts that took place in Indonesia, covering the period between 1942 and 2015. By highlighting how people’s memories and experiences of injustices are related to gender, ‘race’, sexuality, nationality, and generation, she addresses not only how these historical conflicts were the result of inequalities, but also how these inequalities still hurt today both in Indonesia and in other parts of the world. In the book launch, McCargo and Stoltz discuss her use of innovative transnational and gender approaches in the research fields of transitional justice and memory politics and an original approach to the narrative analysis of four major Dutch and Indonesian novels.

What has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international and Japanese NGO communities? How has Japanese humanitarian and development NGOs responded to the crisis both at home and abroad? How did Japanese NPOs step up to help vulnerable communities in the country and provided support in cases when governmental measures were not sufficient or absent? In this episode Silja Keva speaks with Kamila Szczepanska and Yoko Demelius to look beyond the response of PM Abe's administration to the pandemic and highlight contributions made by Japanese civil society actors to the ongoing struggle against socio-economic fallout from the COVID-19.

Art historian Minna Valjakka speaks with Satoko Naito to discuss her concept of Socially Engaged Creativity, which aims to both broaden and complicate the notion of civic participation through art and creativity. The conversation focuses on her research on protests in Hong Kong as well as various forms of urban hacking and environmental art, highlighting the wide range of protagonists that actively participate in civil discourse and the diverse expressions of their engagement. Dr. Valjakka also shares her approach to on-site fieldwork, stressing the prioritization of respect for the protagonists.

How did American imperialism affect Thai scholarship? And what does Buddhist cosmology got to do with the Thai royal tours to Burma and the United States in the 1960s? In this fascinating episode, Matthew Phillips talks to Petra Desatova about moving beyond binary readings of Thai history, avoiding existing preconceptions and using images to get a more holistic understanding of the past.

In this episode, Katarzyna J. Cwiertka speaks with Satoko Naito to share her expertise on Japanese food and food packaging. The discussion deals with washoku (“Japanese food”), designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013, as well as the fascinating and interrelated histories of edible meibutsu (noted product of a particular site) and omiyage (souvenir) that developed alongside domestic tourism. Dr. Cwiertka's recent publications, discussed in the episode, include Branding Japanese Food: From Meibutsu to Washoku (with Miho Yasuhara, University of Hawai’i Press, 2020) and Too Pretty to Throw Away: Packaging Design from Japan (with Ewa Machotka, Museum of Japanese Art and Technology Press, 2016, available for download from her website https://www.cwiertka.com/).

In this episode, Hermann Aubié joins Outi Luova to discuss what’s actually at stake with TikTok. While the political storm in the US failed to address the actual concerns with TikTok, this episode looks beyond the headlines and identifies issues that are also highly relevant in the European context.

In this episode Paul Midford joins Henrik Hiim for a conversation about his new book "Overcoming Isolationism: Japan's Leadership in East Asian Security Multilateralism." Based on thousands of pages of declassified documents from Japan's Foreign Ministry and Cabinet Office, and on a quarter of a century of interviews, this book introduces Japan's often overlooked leadership in promoting East Asian Security Multilateralism, starting with its role in helping to establish the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1993, and its consistent leadership ever since. This book challenges stereotypes of Japan as passive and reactive in regional security. You can read more about Overcoming Isolationism here.