The Nordic Asia Podcast

The 2024 Solomon Islands elections were surprisingly peaceful. The deepening economic inequalities, widespread corruption, rogue demagogues manipulating the mob, and other aspects such as the heated debate about the increasing presence and influence of China, did not result in the kind of riots that hit this Pacific Island country twice in the previous decade. In an attempt to explain why, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to Rodolfo Maggio, a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki to understand Sino-Pacific relations, based on his ethnographic research conducted in Marovo Lagoon, Malaita, and Honiara in 2024.Rodolfo Maggio is a social anthropologist of moral and economic values in the Asia-Pacific region. At the University of Helsinki, he is working on an ERC-funded project “properties of units and standards”. Maggio’s ethnographic research takes a grassroots perspective on a topic that, in recent years, has been investigated only from a top-down, geopolitical perspective: is the Pacific becoming increasingly Chinese? While recognizing the coloniality implicit in such a question, he argues that increasingly sophisticate intercultural relations by young leaders enabled the difficult transition from conflict to peace. His argument is supported by the analysis of artifacts, newspapers, interviews, performances, and data collected with participant observation in Marovo Lagoon, Malaita, and Honiara. Previously, Maggio had an episode on Kiribati in the Chinese Pacific with Nordic Asia Podcast that might interest listeners.Julie Yu-Wen Chen is Professor of Chinese Studies at the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki (Finland) and visiting professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University (Thailand). Since 2023, she has been involved in the EUVIP: The EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific Region, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe coordination and support action 10107906 (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03).

While there has been considerable research on digital cultures in the Indian Subcontinent, video games have received scant attention so far. Yet, they are hugely influential. Globally, India is perceived as a ‘sleeping giant’ of the video game industry with immense untapped potential, and Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan also have developed significant gaming cultures. With the already immense and constantly burgeoning smartphone access, the Subcontinent potentially has the largest reach for video games across the world. But how have video games become a part of the culture of the region, keeping in mind its huge diversity and plurality?In this conversation, Xenia Zeiler, professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki, discusses with Souvik Mukherjee on his book Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent (Bloomsbury, 2023). Mukherjee is assistant professor of Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. He is a pioneering researcher on videogames from South Asia and his key interests are videogames as storytelling media, videogames and postcolonialism and gaming cultures in South Asia. He is the author of three monographs on videogames including Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent (Bloomsbury Academic) and is currently researching boardgames in South Asia.Xenia Zeiler is professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research and teaching are situated at the intersection of digital media, culture, and society, specifically as related to India and global Indian communities. Her focus within this wider field of digital culture is video games and gaming research, in India and beyond. She also researches and teaches digital religion, popular culture, cultural heritage, and mediatization processes.

How do Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it? What narratives do they come up with to deal with the daily and all-encompassing reality of life in China? What mental tactics do they apply to dissociate themselves from surveillance? Ariane Ollier-Malaterre explores these questions in her book Living with Digital Surveillance in China (Routledge, 2023).Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Professor of Management and Canada Research Chair on Digital Regulation at Work and in Life at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada talks with Joanne Kaui about her research that investigates Chinese citizens’ imaginaries about surveillance and privacy from within the Chinese socio-political system.Based on in-depth qualitative research interviews, detailed diary notes, and extensive documentation, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre attempts to ‘de-Westernise’ the internet and surveillance literature. In the book, she shows how the research participants weave a cohesive system of anguishing narratives on China’s moral shortcomings and redeeming narratives on the government and technology as civilizing forces.Although many participants cast digital surveillance as indispensable in China, their misgivings, objections, and the mental tactics they employ to dissociate themselves from surveillance convey the mental and emotional weight associated with such surveillance exposure.

How is Buddhism seen and practiced in Taiwan? And how do neighbouring countries influence Taiwanese Buddhism? In this episode we explore the religious landscape of Taiwan in conversation with Dr. Yushuang Yao, a leading expert on religion in contemporary Taiwan.Yushuang Yao is an Associate Professor at Fo Guang University, Taiwan, specializing in contemporary religions of Taiwan. She is also a research fellow at Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, and currently professorial fellow at the University of Tartu with "Taiwan Studies Programme”.Heidi Maiberg, the host of the episode, is the Head of Communication at the University of Tartu Asia Centre.

What types of coalitions can deliver social justice within sustainability initiatives? And how can we avoid reproducing unjust distributions of risk and responsibility in urban sustainability efforts? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Arve Hansen, and Manisha Anantharaman discuss these questions by engaging with Anantharaman’s new book Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability (MIT Press, 2024), a unique ethnographic exploration that links middle-class, sustainable consumption with the environmental labour of the working poor to offer a relational analysis of urban sustainability politics and practice. The focus is on Bangalore in India, but the arguments and findings have much wider resonances. Manisha Anantharaman is Assistant Professor at the Center for the Sociology of Organisations at Sciences Po in Paris. Arve Hansen is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo, and co-leader of the Norwegian Network of Asian Studies. Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based in Oslo, and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

How do Asian nations exercise soft power in the Baltics? Soft power is a political strategy to influence other international relations actors by using a variety of political, economic, and cultural instruments. The rise of Asia aligns with its growing economic, political, and cultural influences worldwide, including in geographically distant Central Eastern and Nordic Europe. In this episode, Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska discusses China’s, India’s and Singapore’s activities in Estonia, drawing on the findings from a new report on “The Political, Economic and Cultural Role of Asia in Northern and Eastern Europe”, published by the University of Tartu Asia Centre.Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska is a research fellow at the University of Tartu Asia Centre Centre. She received her PhD from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. Her current work focuses on two specific themes: China’s and India’s soft power, and the implications of Putin’s nuclear blackmail for the perception of nuclear weapons in South Asia. She also leads a scientific project about China’s environmental diplomacy and its green soft power, funded by Poland’s National Science Centre.Heidi Maiberg, the host of the episode, is the Head of Communication at the University of Tartu Asia Centre.

How do election campaigns in South Korea look like? Why have satellite parties become an important instrument of power politics? What do the election results mean for the Yoon government’s ability to implement its policy agenda? In April 2024, South Koreans went to the polls to elect a new parliament but many regarded the elections also as a referendum on President Yoon Suk-yeol and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. In this episode, Outi Luova talks to Sabine Burghart about her observations during the election campaign in Seoul and Jeonju, the government’s controversial medical reform plans, new political actors and gender differences in voting behavior.Sabine Burghart is University Lecturer and Academic Director of the Master’s Degree Programme in East Asian Studies at the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), University of Turku, Finland.The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the following academic partners: Asia Centre, University of Tartu (Estonia), Asian studies, University of Helsinki (Finland), Asianettverket, University of Oslo (Norway), Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku (Finland) and Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University (Sweden).

What is at stake at the 2024 Indian national elections? And, what can we expect if the incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi wins another five years in office? From April to June 2024, close to one billion Indian voters can cast their ballot at what is set to be the largest democratic exercise in world history. India is often spoken about as the world’s largest democracy, and the current Indian government describes the country as “the mother of democracy”. But there are also indications that Indian democracy is on the decline. Global indices now place India among the top “autocratizing countries” in the world, categorising it as an electoral autocracy. And, under Modi, the space for dissent has narrowed, the freedom of the media been undermined, and religious minorities and oppositional groups in civil society targeted and repressed. In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Arild Engelsen Ruud and Francesca Jensenius about the 2024 elections and the future of Indian democracy. Arild Engelsen Ruud is Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of OsloFrancesca Jensenius is Professor of Political Science at the University of OsloKenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based in Oslo, and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

What does the Miss Tibet beauty pageant tell us about what it means to be Tibetan in a globalized world? And what understandings of Tibetan culture does it convey? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Pema Choedon about representations of Tibet and Tibetan culture on the global stage from the vantage point of the Miss Tibet beauty pageant. While such pageants are often thought of as an example of “low-brow culture” and a site of women’s objectification by the male gaze, Choedon shows how one can also see them as arenas where cultural meanings are produced, consumed, and rejected, and where local and global, and ethnic and national cultural forms are engaged and showcased.Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.Pema Choedon holds a PhD degree from the University of Tartu in Estonia, with a thesis on the construction of Tibet in the diaspora.

How is India tackling its persistent wage management problems? And, are new infrastructural solutions the way forward? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Pamela Das about the new infrastructures that are increasingly being put in place to help Indian cities confront the problem of waste and how to handle it. Estimate suggests that by 2025, India will generate 1.3 billion metric tonnes of municipal solid waste every year. With a recycling rate at below 20 percent, the negative consequences for the environment and for public health are clear and visible in both urban and rural contexts. In policy discussions, the solution is often deemed to be infrastructural – that if only India could get the infrastructure right, the problem of waste would disappear. But infrastructures sometimes produce new and unanticipated social consequences that compound rather than solve existing problems.Pamela Das is an interdisciplinary researcher trained in anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology.Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.