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Asian Review of Books

New Books Network

The Asian Review of Books is the only dedicated pan-Asian book review publication. Widely quoted, referenced, republished by leading publications in Asian and beyond and with an archive of more than two thousand book reviews, the ARB also features long-format essays by leading Asian writers and thinkers, excerpts from newly-published books and reviews of arts and culture. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

arts books

All Episodes

29:38

Nan Z. Da, The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/08/21

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region.King Lear, one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, starts with Lear dividing up his kingdom between his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Goneril and Regan win the kingdom through flattery, Cordelia’s honesty is rewarded with exile.That opening–and the other developments in Lear’s

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44:10

Audrey Truschke, "India: 5,000 Years of History on...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/08/14

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region.How do you tell the story of India–not just the modern-day country, but the whole region of South Asia, home to over two billion people? Historian Audrey Truschke’s newest book, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (Princeton UP, 2025), starts at the very beginning: the rise of the

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49:03

Eiko Maruko Siniawer, "Ten Moments that Shaped Tokyo"...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/08/07

How did Tokyo—Japan’s capital, global city, tourist hotspot and financial center—get to where it is today? Tokyo–or then, Edo–had a rather unglamorous start, as a backwater on Japan’s eastern coast before Tokugawa decided to make it his de facto capital.Eiko Maruko Siniawer picks ten distinct moments in Edo’s, and then Tokyo’s, history to show how this village became one of the world’s most important cities. Moments like a brief crackdown on kabuki theater, or the opening ceremony of the 2020

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46:06

Aatish Taseer, "A Return to Self: Excursions in...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/07/31

In 2019, famed journalist and writer Aatish Taseer was thrown out of India. Soon after he wrote a cover article for Time calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the country’s “divider in chief,” New Delhi decided to revoke his residency.That sent Aatish on a journey across the world–to places like Turkey, Spain, Mexico and Sri Lanka–to explore identity, both his own and of different nations. The result is his latest book, A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile (Catapult: 2025). Aatish is the author

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42:50

Sanjena Sathian, "Goddess Complex" (Penguin Press, 2025)

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/07/24

Sanjana Satyananda, the main character of Sanjena Sathian’s novel, Goddess Complex (Penguin Press, 2025), is a bit of a mess. She’s back in the States after a spell in India, ending her marriage with her actor husband when he wanted kids…and she didn’t. Her friends are starting to settle down–and wondering when Sanjana will do the same. And, distressingly, others in her life swear they’ve seen her back in India, still married to her husband, and happily pregnant.This question–who is the woman

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41:49

James D.J. Brown, "Cracking the Crab: Russian...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/07/17

The Russians came late to Japan, arriving after the Portuguese and other European powers. But as soon as they arrived, Russia tried to use spies and espionage to learn more about their neighbor—with various degrees of success. Sometimes, it failed miserably, like Russia’s early attempts to make contact with pre-Meiji Japan, or the debacle during the Russo-Japanese War. Other times, they were wildly successful, like during the Battle of Khalkin Gol or with Richard Sorge’s spy ring during the Second

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61:39

Paul French, "Destination Macao" (Blacksmith Books,...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/07/10

Macau–onetime Portuguese colony, now casino hotspot–has long captured the imaginations of travelers, reporters, artists and writers. The city served as the only gateway to China for centuries; then, after the rise of Hong Kong, its slightly seedier vibe made it a popular setting for books, articles and movies exploring the more criminal elements of society.Paul French joins us, once again, to talk about his new book Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books: 2024) the latest book in his Destination

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46:54

Zev Handel, "Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/07/03

For centuries, scribes across East Asia used Chinese characters to write things down–even in languages based on very different foundations than Chinese. In southern China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, people used Chinese to read and write–and never thought it was odd. It was, after all, how things were done.Even today, Cantonese speakers use Chinese characters to reflect their dialect with no issues, while kanji remains a key part of Japanese writing. Even in South Korea, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper

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37:13

Naomi Xu Elegant, "Gingko Season: A Novel" (W. W....

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/06/26

Naomi Xu Elegant’s debut novel, Gingko Season (W. W. Norton: 2025), stars Penelope Lin, a young Chinese woman living in New York in the faraway year of 2018. With difficult parents and a bad break-up, she works for a museum’s exhibition on bound feet, with a gaggle of other, somewhat clueless friends. But a meeting with Hoang, a researcher at a cancer lab, forces Penelope to rethink what she wants with her life.Naomi joins me today to talk about her book, her choice of characters, how she wanted

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50:20

John Man, "Conquering the North: China, Russia,...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/06/19

China, famously, built the Great Wall to defend against nomadic groups from the Eurasian steppe. For two millennia, China interacted with groups from the north: The Xiongnu, the Mongols, the Manchus, and the Russians. They defended against raids, got invaded by the north, and tried to launch diplomatic relations.John Man, in his book Conquering the North: China, Russia, Mongolia: 2,000 Years of Conflict (Oneworld Publications, 2025), takes on this long history, combining it with his own

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34:36

Fyodor Tertitskiy, "Accidental Tyrant: The Life of...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/06/12

The Kims, of North Korea, are perhaps the 21st century’s most successful family dictatorship–if only due to sheer longevity, having run North Korea for the almost eight decades since the country’s post-war founding. Kim Il-Sung led North Korea for over half that time, from its founding in 1948 to Kim’s death in 1994.But who was Kim Il-Sung? How did someone who spent most of his early years in nearby Manchuria end up running North Korea? And how was Kim able to not just secure his own position, but

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43:34

Vappala Balachandran, "India and China at Odds in the...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/06/05

China and India have had a tense relationship, disagreeing over territory, support for each other’s rivals, and even, at times, leadership of the “Global South.” But there were periods where things seemed a bit rosier. For about a decade, between 1988 and 1998, relations between India and China thawed—and prompted heady predictions of an Asian century.Vappala Balachandran, who was part of those off-line discussions with China, writes about the ups and downs of China-India relations in his latest

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47:07

Chris Aslan, "Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/05/29

The Silk Road may be the most famous trade network in history. But the flow of silk from China to the Middle East and Europe isn’t the only textile trade that’s made its mark on Central Asia, the subject of Chris Aslan’s latest book Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia (Icon Books, 2024), recently published in paperback.Drawing on over a decade’s worth of experience in countries like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Aslan notes that there’s really three “roads”: In addition

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59:37

Lizhi Liu, "From Click to Boom: The Political Economy...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/05/22

Alibaba. Tencent. JD. Pinduoduo. Run down the list of China’s most valuable companies and you’ll find, for the most part, that they’re all e-commerce companies—or at least facilitate e-commerce. The sector created giants: Alibaba grew from just 5.5 billion renminbi of revenue in 2010 to 280 billion last year.But how did Chinese e-commerce firms shut out their foreign competition? How did they build trust in the system? Lizhi Liu answers these questions in her latest book, From Click to Boom: The

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57:15

Mayukh Sen, "Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/05/15

In 2022, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. But she wasn’t the first actress of Asian origin to be nominated. In 1935, Merle Oberon was nominated for Best Actress for the role of Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel, only her second film in the U.S. film industry.But no one knew Oberon was Asian. Her public biography said she was born to white parents in Tasmania, eventually moving to India and, from there, to the UK. But Merle Oberon, in truth, was of

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48:30

Laura Spinney, "Proto: How One Ancient Language Went...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/05/08

English. French. Italian. Hindi. Greek. Russian. All these different languages can trace their roots to the same origin: Proto-Indo-European, spoken in 4000 BC in the steppe that crosses from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Whether by migration, diffusion or conquest, the Indo-European languages spread west across Europe, east across Central Asia, and southeast towards India.Laura Spinney writes about Proto-Indo-European—which never existed in a written form—and its many descendants in her latest

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41:03

Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian, "The Great...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/05/01

In 1968, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, asserting his control of China 15 years later, Deng Xiaoping launched the reform and opening up period, putting China on the path to becoming an economic powerhouse.But what happens in between these two critical periods of Chinese history? How does China go from Mao's Cultural Revolution to Deng's embrace of reforms? Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian together fill in this history in The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to

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53:53

Chris Stowers, "Shoot, Ask...and Run" (Earnshaw Books...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/04/24

Chris Stowers, longtime photographer, credits a fellow journalist for the title of his latest memoir, Shoot, Ask...and Run (Earnshaw, 2025). The journalist’s advice to a young Chris, just starting out, went like this.Shoot: Take the photo when the opportunity arises. Then, if someone notices that you took a photo, “ask” for permission to use the photo. Finally, if the subject seems annoyed, “run”...particularly if he or she has a gun. Shoot, Ask...and Run is the second memoir from Chris Stowers,

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39:39

Richard Overy, "Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/04/17

September 2 will mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s formal surrender to the United States aboard the USS. Missouri, ending the Second World War. The U.S. decision to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—what drove Japan to surrender, at least in popular history—is still controversial to this day.How did the mass U.S. bombing campaign come about? Did the U.S. believe the atomic bomb was the only possible or the least bad option? Did the atomic bomb really push

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41:30

Bin Yang, "Discovered But Forgotten: The Maldives in...

Asian Review of Books ·

2025/04/10

Chinese travelers first made their way to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean in the 14th century, looking for goods like coconuts, cowries, and ambergris. That started centuries of travel to the islands, including one trip by famed sailor Zheng He. Then, quickly, the Maldives—and the broader Indian Ocean—vanished as Ming China turned inward.Bin Yang writes about these linkages between China, the Maldives and the Indian Ocean in his recent book Discovered but Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese

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