New Books in East Asian Studies

In From Juche to Jesus: A Study of Worldview Transformation Among North Korean Defector Christians in South Korea (Pickwick Publications, 2025), Su Hwa Keum explores the profound spiritual journeys of North Korean defectors as they navigate the transition from Juche ideology to faith in Christ. While many encounter the gospel during their escape, genuine transformation requires more than exposure – it is a deep, internal process. Through personal interviews and grounded theory research, Keum examines the key factors and processes that lead to lasting worldview transformation. She highlights how experiencing God enables defectors to “replace the logic of survival with the logic of grace.” A scholarly, insightful and deeply personal work, From Juche to Jesus sheds light on the journey of faith and renewal, offering a powerful perspective on how the gospel reshapes hearts, minds, and entire worldviews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard and author of Asia after Europe, explores how Asians imagined continental bonds across the long twentieth century. He discusses colourful versus abstract cosmopolitanisms, competing nationalisms, elite and popular networks, overlapping Islamic and socialist universalisms, art as cross-Asian imagination, and moments when Asian solidarity gained or lost momentum.

Bart Gaens, researcher on India and global security. Matti Puranen, scholar of China and its global initiatives. Ville Sinkkonen, analyst of competing global orders. They discuss visions of international order, China’s institutional approach and sovereignty tensions, India’s multi-alignment and civilizational appeal, and the fracturing US vision amid rising great power competition.

Kristin Roebuck, historian and author of Japan Reborn, studies race, gender, reproduction and empire in modern Japan. She traces Japan’s shift from imperial acceptance of mixed-race bodies to Cold War racial nationalism. Topics include eugenics laws, postwar adoption and bureaucratic power, occupation politics, and how debates over mixed blood shaped nationalist projects.

Oleg Benesch, a historian of samurai, and Rosina Buckland, British Museum curator of Japanese collections, discuss how samurai imagery evolved from medieval warriors to global pop culture icons. They explore museum curation, visual culture, myths versus reality, diplomacy and display, gendered roles, and controversies over representation in games and media.

Gregory T. Chin, Associate Professor of Political Economy at York University who studies China, finance, and global governance. He discusses China’s evolving dance with the IMF and World Bank. Short takes cover China moving from rule-taker to rule-shaker to rule-maker, its inside-outside strategies, differences with Western donors, and ambitions around the renminbi and new development banks.

Stevan Harrell, professor emeritus of anthropology and environmental and forest sciences, brings decades of research on China’s environmental transformations. He contrasts ecological history with environmental history. Conversations cover land, water, food, cities and industry. Topics include the Great Leap Forward’s ecological collapse, modern agribusiness and migration, dikes and rigidity traps, ecological civilization rhetoric, and persistent water and soil risks.

Natasha Heller, associate professor and cultural historian of Chinese Buddhism, discusses Buddhist picturebooks and family Buddhism in modern Taiwan. She explores picturebooks as a new Buddhist genre. She traces how homes and caregivers shape children as religious subjects. She highlights cute bodhisattva imagery, moral stories recast for kids, and books that make children agents in health and environmental action.

Jenny Banh, scholar of Asian American studies and anthropology and professor at Cal State Fresno, explores how Disney tried to localize Hong Kong Disneyland. She traces 15 years of fieldwork on space, labor, and consumption. Short takes cover feng shui and food controversies, queuing and social tensions, comparisons with Ocean Park, and ideas for more sustainable local adaptation.

Lara Momesso, an Honorary Research Fellow and expert in migration and gender studies, delves into her extensive research on marriage migration between Taiwan and China. She explores how geopolitics influences personal intimacies, revealing the complex emotional landscapes of cross-strait marriages. Lara discusses the evolution of migrant motivations since the late 1980s and contrasts open fieldwork in Taiwan with the challenges in China. She also plans future research on the experiences of second-generation migrants and the aging population in these communities.