2020/10/28 |
“Your Trend, My Normal”: A Review of ‘Black in Asia’
Through a series of 23 vignettes, 'Black in Asia' examines personal accounts of navigating Asia’s social spaces that lack the lived experience of what it means to be Black.
2020/07/07 |
Book Review: ‘Migrante’ Narrates the Exploitation of Taiwan’s Migrant Fishermen
Joe Henley has an anthropologist’s eye for interpersonal power dynamics, documenting the mistreatment of Taiwan’s migrant fishermen in his new novel, Migrante.
2018/05/28 |
REVIEW: 'Divergent Paths' Explains Changing Fates of Myanmar and North Korea
One was embraced as a flowering democracy, the other remains a pariah state, but both governments remain paranoid and oppressive.
2018/04/17 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'Shenzhen Zen: A Decade of Life, Love and Misadventure'
Justin Mitchell's new book is dirty, witty and deeply personal.
2017/12/22 |
BOOK REVIEW: Contemporary Indonesian Artists, Art Spaces and Collectors
Dr. Yvonne Spielmann presents a dynamic Indonesian art scene but is ultimately overwhelmed by her subject.
2017/12/04 |
REVIEW: The Chinese Typewriter: A History
Thomas S. Mullaney’ argues that the creation of a Chinese typewriter therefore became a civilizational trial for a country that feared functioning in slow motion in the face of global acceleration.
2017/10/23 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'How China Escaped the Poverty Trap' by Yuen Yuen Ang
In 'How China Escaped the Poverty Trap,' Yuen Yuen Ang turns conventional thinking on its head, exploding myths as to how developing nations can catapult themselves out of poverty.
2017/10/16 |
Book Review: Exile in Colonial Asia: Kings, Convicts, Commemoration
Readers of this book cannot fail to reflect on today’s accounts of refugees forced from their homelands by repression and civil war.
2017/08/02 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy to a City'
'Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy for a City' spans five decades, two husbands, a dozen other lovers, a handover to the Motherland, the dementia of the author's mother and the death of her father.
2017/05/24 |
Book Review: 'Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion'
Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion is a useful ensemble of works that can inform readers and enrich other studies of Myanmar. It
2017/04/28 |
INTERVIEW: A Taiwan Punk Tale
Joe Henley talks to Keith Menconi about his new book, 'Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale.'
2017/03/17 |
Book Review: Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions
In Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions, Benjamin J. Sovacool, Marilyn A. Brown and Scott V. Valentine provide an essential guide to the international debate on how to create a more sustainable energy system by probing into some of the key areas of contention. Dr. Robert Falkner highly recommends this volume as a tour de force that will be of utility to students, researchers and practitioners seeking to better understand global energy policy.
2017/03/16 |
Book Review: Singapore and Switzerland: Secrets to Small States Success edited by Yvonne Guo and Jun Jie Woo
What makes a small state succeed? In Singapore and Switzerland: Secrets to Small State Success, editors Yvonne Guo and Jun Jie Woo explore this question through two cases that have shown similar economic performance by balancing international forces and domestic demands.
2017/03/15 |
Book Review: Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent by Brooke Harrington
In 'Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent,' Brooke Harrington offers an in-depth look into the work of wealth management professionals who ensure that the ‘one percent’ keep getting richer. Drawing on interviews and Harrington’s own experiences of a wealth management training program, Sin Yee Koh finds this a well-researched and clearly written ethnographic study that focuses attention on a key industry behind the continuation of global inequality.
2017/02/22 |
Book Review: 1996 and The End of History by David Stubbs
In '1996 and The End of History,' journalist and author David Stubbs examines a year — 1996 — that marked the pinnacle of a decade, not just in politics but across music, entertainment and sport. Tying together the political and cultural landscapes of mid 90s Britain, this is a valuable addition to the current critical reassessment of a period that seemed to promise sunnier times ahead. But, asks Stephen Lee Naish, could it ever last?
2017/02/14 |
Lifting the Shadows on a Secret War
BOOK REVIEW: Joshua Kurlantzick's 'A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA' (New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), reviewed by Hunter Marston.
2017/02/11 |
BOOK REVIEW: Crisis in Sports Governance: Exploring Anti-Doping Policy and Other Battlegrounds (Part One)
In 'The Edge: The War Against Cheating and Corruption in the Cutthroat World of Elite Sports,' the goal, however, is not to provide answers. The objective is to open a door to a fascinating topic so you can think about sport in new ways. Sports needs more thinking, more debate, and more out-in-the-open discussion.
2016/12/21 |
Book Review: 'Unfinished Revolutions: Yemen, Libya and Tunisia After the Arab Spring'
While Hesham Shafick questions the limitations of the book’s overarching emphasis on western-centric conflict resolution literature, this is nonetheless a seminal reference text for students looking at the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
