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PODCAST

The Nordic Asia Podcast

NIAS and its academic partners

The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the following academic partners: -Asia Centre, University of Tartu (Estonia) -Asian studies, University of Helsinki (Finland) -Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania) -Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University (Sweden) -Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku (Finland) -Norwegian Network for Asian Studies

science social sciences

All Episodes

15:39

Social Death by Debt: China's Lending Boom Reshapes...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2025/03/07

China's household debt has exploded from 11% of GDP in 2006 to over 62% today—a profound transformation in a traditionally savings-focused society. How is this reshaping social relationships and daily life?In this episode, Dr. Jiaqi Guo from the University of Turku reveals findings from her corpus analysis of China's largest debt support forum. Her research uncovers the practice of "contact bombing" (爆通讯录), where collectors harass debtors' entire social networks, causing what Chinese debtors call

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19:17

Nordic Style on Chinese Social Media: Misinformation,...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2025/02/22

How does social media shape perceptions of global cultural trends? On Chinese platforms like WeChat, the concept of Nordic Style (北欧风) has been widely adopted—but often in an oversimplified and commercialized form. In this episode of the Nordic Asia Podcast, Dr. Heidi Hui Shi discusses her research on digital misinformation and the portrayal of Nordic aesthetics in China.Through corpus linguistics, sentiment analysis, and digital storytelling (DST), Dr. Shi examines how consumer narratives

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23:24

Finlandization to ‘Finland Boom‘ in Japan: Finland’s...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2025/02/08

Finland, a minor player on the international arena and burdened with the tag of ‘Finlandization’ during much of the post-WWII period, has won surprisingly positive visibility and a strong nation brand in the far-off Japan in the 2000’s. How has such a transformation of a small state’s reputation been possible?In this episode, Dr. Laura Ipatti, Postdoctoral Researcher at the unit of Contemporary History, University of Turku, tackles this question by introducing the findings of her Doctoral

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22:38

India’s Land Mafia: A Discussion with Chiara Arnavas

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2025/01/24

Who and what are India’s land mafia? How do they operate, and why have they become so crucial to India’s land market? In this episode, we are joined by Chiara Arnavas for a discussion on the emergence over the past decades of a dynamic Indian land mafia that is centrally involved in moving land around, freeing it up for new uses, and passing it onto other actors for mega-profits. We analyze how the land mafia works, and what the implications are for social inequalities along the lines of class,

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42:28

Willingness for climate action in South Korea and...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2025/01/12

Climate change is among the most significant challenges facing modern society, and it impacts everyone across the world. How do people in different socio-cultural contexts perceive the climate crisis, and how willing are they to engage in climate-related action? In this episode, we will compare perceptions about climate change and willingness for climate action in South Korea and Finland, two countries that represent very different cultural backgrounds. Dr. Jingoo Kang and Dr. Sakari Tolppanen from

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29:49

China and the Indo-Pacific: Policies and Global...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/12/27

Why has the Indo-Pacific become the pre-eminent theatre of global geo-strategic and geo-economic competition? What is the interest and role of different actors such as China, Russia, the US, the EU and NATO in the region? How are small island developing states such as the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, and Vanuatu affected by challenges in the new security environment?In this episode, Professor Marina Svensson talks to Professor Anne-Marie Brady about her research on China’s strategic

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17:16

Threats to Academic Freedom in Thailand

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/12/20

What are the threats to academic freedom in Thailand? Why does the freedom of scholars and students matter for society at large and how are the attacks on Thai academia linked to the larger democracy movement in the region?Julia Olsson, a doctoral student at the Center for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University, talks to Dr. Karin Zackari, a human rights scholar, about the Thai state’s attacks on academia in the past decade and the surprising parallel rise of dissent at Thai

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26:36

Meanings of Identity of the Post-2000s Inland Tibet...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/12/13

What identity does the post-2000s Inland Tibet Class (ITC) generation mean? How do Sinophone-Tibetan films articulate the expression of such identity? How does affective visuality mediate the cultural, political, and gender identity formation of female artists of the post-2000s ITC generation?Jinyan Zeng, a researcher at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden, introduces her research in this podcast episode of the Nordic Asia Podcast, hosted by Ning Ao, PhD

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31:49

Taiwan Lives: A Social and Political History

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/12/06

What do we get if we combine stories about a merchant, an exile, an activist, a pop star, a doctor, and a president together into one book? Dr. Niki J. P. Alsford, Professor of Asia Pacific studies and head of Asia Pacific Institutes at the University of Central Lancashire, did exactly that and more with his most recent book Taiwan Lives: A Social and Political History (University of Washington Press, 2024).In his book Niki J. P. Alsford explores Taiwan's historical journey from Japanese

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17:31

Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/10/25

Why should we focus on Taiwan to understand the future risks facing the world? Professor Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, presents a compelling case for this in his latest book, Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future, published by St. Martin's Press.Why Taiwan Matters provides critical insights into the factors behind today's tense geopolitical climate. Brown examines how Taiwan

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32:58

Civil Society in China: How Society Speaks to the State

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/10/11

What skills and strategies enable civil society to be effective under authoritarian rule? Dr. Runya Qiaoan, assistant professor and senior researcher at Palacky University in the Czech Republic, explores this question in her book Civil Society in China: How Society Speaks to the State (Routledge, 2021).The book highlights the ways NGOs and activists navigate the constraints of China's authoritarian system through both cooperation and subtle resistance. Qiaoan emphasizes the concept "cultural

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43:47

Tone Bleie, "A New Testament: Scandinavian...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/09/20

In this episode, we are joined by the anthropologist Tone Bleie for a discussion of her book A New Testament: Scandinavian Missionaries and Santal Chiefs from Company and British Crown Rule to Independence (Solum Bokvennen, 2023), a pioneering piece of scholarship that innovatively rethinks the economic, legal, and social history of the power-laden relationship between a Scandinavian Transatlantic mission and the Santals, Boro and Bengalis of Eastern India, Northern Bangladesh, and Eastern Nepal

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38:19

The Relations of Estonia and Japan from the 19th...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/09/08

Is there much to say about historical ties between two countries that are 8000 kilometres apart from each other? Actually, yes. In this episode Ene Selart, Junior Lecturer at University of Tartu, talks about her new book The Relations of Estonia and Japan from the 19th Century to early-21st Century (Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2024) which explores surprisingly intricate connections between Estonia and Japan. The book is trilingual (in Estonian, English and Japanese) and published by University of

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18:23

The Dragon and the Nguzunguzu

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/08/19

Nguzunguzu is the traditional figurehead which was formerly affixed to canoes in the Solomon Islands. In this episode, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to Rodolfo Maggio, a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki about his book project on the dragon and the nguzunguzu, namely the relationship between China and the Soloman Islands.The dragon and the nguzunguzu are taken as symbols of, respectively, Chinese and Solomon Islands identity. This essentializing maneuver is complicated by the appreciation

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28:28

The Dragonbear in the Geopolitics of the 21st Century

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/08/05

What is the “dragonbear”? It is a metaphor of an emerging strategic alliance between Russia and China. In this episdoe, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to geostrategist Velina Tchakarova about the dragonbear in the geopolitics of the 21st century.What does the Dragonbear really aim to achieve in global affairs? First and foremost, it is about counterbalancing arising centrifugal forces in all fields — from economy, finance, trade, diplomacy, to military, defense and strategic alliances. But it also has a

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25:19

Sino-Pacific Relations: A Discussion with Rodolfo Maggio

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/07/15

The 2024 Solomon Islands elections were surprisingly peaceful. The deepening economic inequalities, widespread corruption, rogue demagogues manipulating the mob, and other aspects such as the heated debate about the increasing presence and influence of China, did not result in the kind of riots that hit this Pacific Island country twice in the previous decade. In an attempt to explain why, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to Rodolfo Maggio, a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki to understand

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25:09

Souvik Mukherjee, "Videogames in the Indian...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/07/01

While there has been considerable research on digital cultures in the Indian Subcontinent, video games have received scant attention so far. Yet, they are hugely influential. Globally, India is perceived as a ‘sleeping giant’ of the video game industry with immense untapped potential, and Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan also have developed significant gaming cultures. With the already immense and constantly burgeoning smartphone access, the Subcontinent potentially has the largest

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31:10

Living with Digital Surveillance in China

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/06/24

How do Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it? What narratives do they come up with to deal with the daily and all-encompassing reality of life in China? What mental tactics do they apply to dissociate themselves from surveillance? Ariane Ollier-Malaterre explores these questions in her book Living with Digital Surveillance in China (Routledge, 2023).Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Professor of Management and Canada Research Chair on Digital Regulation at Work and in Life at

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55:40

The Religious Landscape of Taiwan: A Discussion with...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/06/21

How is Buddhism seen and practiced in Taiwan? And how do neighbouring countries influence Taiwanese Buddhism? In this episode we explore the religious landscape of Taiwan in conversation with Dr. Yushuang Yao, a leading expert on religion in contemporary Taiwan. Yushuang Yao is an Associate Professor at Fo Guang University, Taiwan, specializing in contemporary religions of Taiwan. She is also a research fellow at Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, and currently professorial fellow at the University

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40:28

Manisha Anantharaman, "Recycling Class: The...

The Nordic Asia Podcast ·

2024/06/07

What types of coalitions can deliver social justice within sustainability initiatives? And how can we avoid reproducing unjust distributions of risk and responsibility in urban sustainability efforts? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Arve Hansen, and Manisha Anantharaman discuss these questions by engaging with Anantharaman’s new book Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability (MIT Press, 2024), a unique ethnographic exploration that links middle-class, sustainable

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258 results

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