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“Approaching the Buddha” by Hao Sheng
Approaching the Buddha: Transmission and Transformation, is based on the Xuzhou Collection, a dazzling array of ceremonial objects assembled by an anonymous collector and housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. For students of the dharma, these images are alive, living transmissions rather than decorative relics. That collector, whose identity is withheld throughout,…
“On Thin Ice” by Charlie Walker
Walking through Siberia in the dead of winter may not, on the face of it, sound like a very good…
“The Man Who Stole the Gods” by Matthew Campbell
A New York Times headline from late February read “Cambodia Celebrates the Return of Looted Artifacts From a Tainted Dealer”….
“America, but Bigger” by Mark Kawar
That the US is “imperialistic”, if not necessarily “imperial”, has been a point of political rhetoric my entire life. That,…
“Night Train” by Xu Zechen
Chen Munian is not a murderer. Yet who is he accused of murdering? Why can he not shake off the…
“Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal” by Sandip Roy
A young, aspiring actor joins an itinerant theatre troupe to perform on makeshift stages in remote villages, traveling from place to place by truck, or in the absence of paved roads, by bullock cart. Readers will recall scenes from The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha by Satrajit Ray, or Shakespearewallah, by James Ivory. There is…
“Leave and Come Back” by Lavanya Lakshmi
Shah Rukh Khan is such a well-known Indian actor that his name is likely to be recognized even by people who are not devotees of Bollywood films. Lavanya Lakshmi pays homage to a 1995 Shah Rukh Khan film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (or DDLJ as she has it), in her debut novel, Leave and Come…
“Shift” by Cho Yeeun
At first, Cho Yeeun’s Shift, recently translated by Yewon Jung, might be mistaken for a straight-up detective novel. Yi Chang,…
“Babylon, South Dakota” by Tom Lin
Tom Lin’s debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, paid homage to the American Western, with a Chinese twist,…
“Swell” by Son Bo-mi
A teenage boy goes to a concert of his favourite rock band with his father only to become a victim…
“Fortress of the Forgotten Ones” by Fahmida Riaz
Karl Marx famously argued that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Fahmida Riaz’s…
“The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo” by Zen Cho
While it can certainly be awkward for book reviewers to meet authors after having panned their books, these are not usually life-altering experiences. But the same cannot be said for the protagonist in Zen Cho’s novella, The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, a lighthearted story which nevertheless in many respects brings to mind Eileen Chang’s…
“The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora” by Zhongping Chen
In The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora, Chen examines the origins, rise, and reform of the Cantonese-dominated Chinese diaspora in Canada between 1788 and 1898. Combining a diasporic approach with both qualitative…
“Becoming Allies: Civil Liberties Activism in India” by Ankita Pandey
What motivates individuals to stand up against injustices that don’t personally affect them? Becoming Allies explores a vital but often overlooked dimension of social movements: the role of those who…
“Lahore After Modernism” by Chris Moffat
Lahore After Modernism is a pioneering study of architecture and the politics of construction, destruction and conservation in urban Pakistan. In the decades after independence in 1947, architects in Pakistan…
“Earthly Playing Field” by Radhika Singh
Roma has a steady job, a mortgage, and a surrogate family in Queens. But as she moves through her daily routines, the powerful Empire that rules her world bares its…
“High Lands, Pure Earth: Place Making, History, and Urban Transitions on the Tibetan Plateau” by Eveline Washul
High Lands, Pure Earth foregrounds Tibetan experiences of urban transitions in China’s late-reform period. In the 21st century, China’s accelerated urbanization has transformed the Tibetan Plateau. Yet Tibetan urban experiences…
“Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand” by Jinwon Kim
In the past decade, Korean entertainment has gained global recognition, with Korean movies and TV shows winning Oscars and Emmys, and K-Pop groups becoming wildly popular. In Manhattan, Koreatown has…
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