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“Traversing the Belt and Road: The World According to China and China According to the World”
As are many things regarding China’s developing place in the world, the “Belt and Road Initiative” (or BRI)—the term used for China’s international infrastructure investment programme—is contentious. Discussion about the programme’s objectives and efficacy are almost inevitably coloured by one’s geopolitical view of “China’s rise”. Those who are discomforted by the latter are prone to…
“Everyday Tang: On What We Can Learn From a Dynasty” by Xiaolu Guo
A near-desperate Chinese migrant mother, long estranged from her own cultural inheritance, takes her British daughter to China before adolescence…
“Rival Civilizations: The Rise of Japan and Visions of World Order in Britain” by Chika Tonooka
The rise of Japan as a world power in the early 20th century produced in Great Britain a rethinking of…
“Time Will Pass Johnny” by Percy Herbert
For anyone who grew up on British and Hollywood war films of the 1950s to the 1980s, Percy Herbert’s face…
“The Manila Poker Club” by Mark Sy
In the 1930s, up to 20,000 European Jews turned to Asia for refuge before Japan entered the war as an…
“The British Indian Ocean Territory: A Secret and Strategic Cold War History” by Samuel Bashfield
The British Indian Overseas Territory is the sort of place only a stamp-collector will have heard of. It’s more commonly and better known as Diego Garcia, in fact the largest of a group of islands (the Chagos Archipelago) smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and home to a major US military base…
“Bombay Tabloid” by Kersi Khambatta
At the center of Kersi Khambatta’s Bombay Tabloid is Cyrus Kerman, the son of an Iran-born bakery owner, and his lifelong entanglement with Devika Wright, a beautiful Anglo-Indian dancer and model who later becomes a lawyer. Cyrus falls in love with her twice. Their story unfolds between two traumatic periods in the city’s history. The…
“Absolute Jafar” by Sarnath Banerjee
A border is usually imagined as a line on a map. In Absolute Jafar, Sarnath Banerjee shows how that line…
“Taiwan Travelogue” by Yang Shuang-zi
The winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize (and the 2024 US National Book Award for Translated Literature) is a…
“The Final Six” by Akinari Asakura
A prestigious IT company sets six job finalists, all fresh out of university, an unusual task: through a group discussion,…
“What’s a Snow Leopard to You?” by Chen-Fu Hsu
Chen-Fu Hsu, a Taiwanese writer interested in bugs, photography and geography, traveled to Tibet to gain first-hand experience with snow…
“She Walks at Night” by Seishi Yokomizo
She Walks at Night is the eighth Seishi Yokomizo mystery to be published in English since 2019 and features a cast familiar to previous readers of this popular series, which began with The Honjin Murders, published in Japan in 1946. The story brings back the eccentric private detective Kosuke Kindaichi and Inspector Isokawa, his longstanding, trusted…
“Snakes of Singapore: A Slightly Unhinged Field Guide” by Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray
Meet Singapore’s strangest inhabitants. The snake that cartwheels. The snake that clones itself. The snake that flies through the air. Snakes are everywhere in Singapore, gliding through mangroves, sunning on…
“My Wild City: Finding Nature, Meaning, and Hope in India’s Capital” by Neha Sinha
In My Wild City, acclaimed nature writer Neha Sinha takes us on an unforgettable journey through the hidden wildernesses of the bustling metropolis of Delhi, India, where she finds as…
“Chinese Media Improvisations” by Xuenan Cao
Xuenan Cao offers an unexpected angle on China’s technological rise, spotlighting the role of deficit-driven improvisation. As Cao demonstrates, where printing paper, computers, and microchips have been in shortage, media…
“Stormy Seas” by Thung-Hong Lin
How can a small democracy resist the influence of a powerful authoritarian neighbor? Taiwan is frequently praised for its successful economic development and peaceful transition to democracy, serving as a…
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