New Books in East Asian Studies

It’s one of the biggest questions in economic history: How did a richer, more advanced China fall behind Europe? Why was Europe the home of the Industrial Revolution, and not China? And what does that journey tell us about politics and culture? In Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000 (Princeton UP, 2025), Guido Tabellini, alongside his co-authors, argues that the answer comes from how European and Chinese organized cooperation—through corporations in Europe and through clans in China—and how that shaped each one’s society. Guido Tabellini is the Intesa Sanpaolo Chair in Political Economics and Vice President at Bocconi University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Kristina Jonutytė, social anthropologist studying contemporary Buddhism and minority politics in Eurasia, discusses urban Buryat Buddhism and its ties to the Russian state. She explores urban temple economies, everyday ritual practices, fieldwork challenges after 2019 and 2022, and how war and migration reshape Buryat identity and religious life.

Peter Mauch, historian of modern Japan and author of a new Tojo biography, explores the life of Hideki Tojo. He traces Tojo’s rise from military schooling and Manchurian campaigns to centralizing the army and becoming prime minister. The conversation highlights his wartime strategies, failed exit plans, postwar downfall, and enduring controversial legacy.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China with decades of research and time in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, answers tough questions about contemporary China. He explores personality cults and Confucian revival. He discusses censorship tactics, youth culture and rock concerts as political signals. He reflects on soft power, Hong Kong’s crackdown, and why accessible history matters.

Gregory Smits, a Penn State historian who specializes in Ryukyuan history, walks through 35,000 years of island life. He explores migrations and archaeological evidence. He reframes Ryukyu as part of maritime East Asia and traces the rise, transformations, and external pressures on the Ryukyu polity. He also covers modern occupation, identity, and ongoing geopolitical and environmental challenges.

Nellie Chu, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University, studies migrant entrepreneurs and fast fashion in southern China. She explores migrant 'boss' identities, Guangzhou’s urban village markets, transnational traders from Korea and West Africa, and how pandemic platformization reshaped just-in-time garment production. Short, vivid stories trace mobility, precarity, and informal accumulation.

Robert Whiting, veteran author and journalist celebrated for books on Japan and baseball, shares colorful firsthand tales from 1960s-70s Tokyo. He recounts flamboyant figures like Maggie the necktie-cutter, female yakuza with a revolver, North Korean drug-smuggling ties, and the Korean founder who transformed rude taxi culture into white-gloved service. Short, vivid stories paint a surprising portrait of modern Japan's outsiders.

James Lin, historian of Taiwan and author of The Global Vanguard, explores Taiwan's agrarian development missions and their global reach. He discusses archival and oral-history research, the construction of the “Taiwan model,” its export to Africa and Southeast Asia, and the domestic politics that shaped and were shaped by these development projects.

Jeffrey Angles, translator and professor of Japanese known for award-winning translations, discusses Hiromi Ito’s The Thorn Puller. He traces how the translation came to be and Ito’s blend of prose and poetry. They explore her provocative themes of motherhood and sexuality, her play with quotations and hybrid storytelling, and the book’s ties to Sugamo rituals, aging, and place.

Christopher Munn, historian and former Hong Kong administrative officer, probes capital trials under British rule. He discusses landmark cases from piracy to poisonings. He explores language barriers, racialized legal categories, gendered courtroom attitudes, public pressure on clemency, and how capital punishment shaped colonial governance and reform.