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.
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.
2017/10/23 |
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.
2016/11/17 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'China’s Next Strategic Advantage'
In 'China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation', George S. Yip and Bruce McKern suggest that China has leapt successfully from being an imitative to an innovative country. As Chinese companies become increasingly innovative and perform better in domestic and international markets, the authors argue that other countries need to learn from China or risk lagging behind. Besides analyzing both Chinese firms and MNCs in China, the book also taps into questions of open innovation and intellectual property protection practices. Yao Han appreciates the use of detailed examples and cases in illustrating the process towards innovation in China.
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.
2017/03/17 |
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.
2017/04/28 |
INTERVIEW: A Taiwan Punk Tale
Joe Henley talks to Keith Menconi about his new book, 'Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale.'
2017/05/24 |
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
2016/11/19 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives'
On an average day in the USA, seven children and teenagers will be shot dead. In 'Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives,' journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of ten lives lost on one single day: November 23, 2013. This is a powerful, timely and important contribution to the debate on U.S. gun culture and how US society particularly treats its African American citizens, writes Peter Carrol.
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.
2016/11/20 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens'
In 'The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens,' Gabriel Zucman makes a provocative argument about the large-scale evasion of taxes as well as how to tackle this global issue. Antonio De Vito highly recommends this concise, nontechnical and clearly argued book to everyone interested in understanding how the international financial system is making illegal use of tax havens.
2016/11/23 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead'
In 'Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead' Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman reflect on the possibilities and risks posed by the new horizon of automobile technology: the driverless car. This insight into the potential future of transportation is well-researched, sprinkled with interesting anecdotes and accessible for both policymakers and the wider public, finds Joseph Savirimuthu.
2016/11/26 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Politics of Islamic Law: Local Elites, Colonial Authority and the Making of the Muslim State'
In 'The Politics of Islamic Law: Local Elites, Colonial Authority and the Making of the Muslim State' Iza R. Hussin traces a riveting history of Islamic law as it encounters, and is inevitably transformed by, British colonialism in Malaya, Egypt and India. It is a work of unique critical sensibilities, setting the scene for future interdisciplinary research of colonial and postcolonial Islamic law as fruitful analytical categories, finds Vanja Hamzić.
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.
2017/12/22 |
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.
2016/12/02 |
Book Review: The Economic War Against Cuba
Salim Lamrani aims to explains some of the essential background to the U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba: their origins, their provisions, how they contravene international law, and how they affect the lives of Cubans. Although not detailed enough for an academic audience, this book does offer a short chronicle and discussion of some of the key events and consequences of more than 50 years of American economic sanctions against Cuba, writes Paul Wingrove.
2016/12/09 |
BOOK REVIEW: 'Sex, Needs and Queer Culture: From Liberation to the Post-Gay'
If corporate backing for Pride events is one example of queer subcultures becoming increasingly commercialized, does this threaten the capacity to resist or might capitalism be progressive for queer subjects? In 'Sex, Needs and Queer Culture: From Liberation to the Post-Gay' David Alderson draws upon the work of Herbert Marcuse and Raymond Williams to examine processes of assimilation and resistance as well as the distinctions between countercultural and subcultural movements. Although she questions the particular focus on gay male culture, Sofia Ropek Hewson welcomes this rich and absorbing text for probing into the present relationship between capitalism, queer culture and political resistance.
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.