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“Up the River of Time” by Cheng-hua Wang
Can a painting outlive its authenticity? For art lovers and collectors, an artwork’s value is often inseparable from its status as a singular object. This is why the authenticity of the Mona Lisa is of paramount importance to the Louvre Museum. The painting’s “value” comes not just from its visual qualities, but it carries with it the…
“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…
“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 Axis ally. Shanghai was the best-known destination, but the Philippines also played host to hundreds of German-speaking Jews. Mark Sy recounts this lesser known example of geopolitical empathy in The Manila Poker Club: Eisenhower, Quezon,…
“Red Seal” by Rosa Kwon Easton
Rosa Kwon Easton’s debut novel, White Mulberry, tells the story of Miyoung, a Korean nurse who passes as Japanese while living and working in Japan as World War II erupts. In that book, Miyoung learns to do whatever she can to protect herself from danger. In the newly-published sequel Red Seal, which takes place across…
“Paving the Sea” by Rashid El-Daif
Lebanese novelist and poet Rashid El-Daif is one of the leading voices in contemporary Arabic literature, perhaps best known in…
“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…
“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, they have to decide who among them will get the job. If they manage to do so, the company will extend an offer to the winner. If they fail, everyone goes home empty-handed. The conversation…
“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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