“Taiwan’s China Dilemma” by Sharyu Shirley Lin [Book Review]

“Taiwan’s China Dilemma” by Sharyu Shirley Lin [Book Review]

A few weeks after her inauguration, incoming Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party said that Taiwan would be re-evaluating its trade links with the Mainland. This was expected after the student-led Sunflower Movement had resisted attempts by the…

“East Commerce: A Journey Through China E-Commerce, and the Internet of Things” by Marco Gervasi [Book Review]

“East Commerce: A Journey Through China E-Commerce, and the Internet of Things” by Marco Gervasi [Book Review]

Google vs. Baidu. Amazon vs. Taobao. Whatsapp vs. WeChat. And, most recently, Uber vs. Didi. There is clearly a divide between China and the rest of the world when it comes to internet companies. Homegrown Chinese tech firms have fought…

Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China by Alec Ash [Book Review]

Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China by Alec Ash [Book Review]

Despite the fact that they live in one of the world’s most important—and most rapidly changing—economies, the motivations and beliefs of the “post-80s generation” largely remain a mystery. They are certainly not “democrats-in-waiting,” as many hoped they would be. But…

Blue Skies Over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China by Matthew E. Kahn and Siqi Zheng [Book Review]

Blue Skies Over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China by Matthew E. Kahn and Siqi Zheng [Book Review]

The media often portrays China—with some justification—as an environmental hellhole, created by a development program that prioritizes economic growth over everything else. Almost all of China’s major cities have severe air pollution problems. Heavy industry has contaminated large portions of…

Marrow by Yan Lianke [Book Review]

Marrow by Yan Lianke [Book Review]

Marrow is not a new book: the original was written by Yan Lianke in 1999. But, with Penguin China’s new translation of Marrow by Carlos Rojas, this short novella with its rural Chinese setting and its themes of sacrifice is…

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima by Noriko Manabe [Book Review]

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima by Noriko Manabe [Book Review]

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, by Princeton University Professor Noriko Manabe, is a detailed study of protest music in Japan’s anti-nuclear movement. Manabe’s goal is not to explain the growth of these songs in the movement, but rather to…

Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian [Book Review]

Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian [Book Review]

In 2008, the United Arab Emirates finally offered to provide citizenship to the Bidoon, a stateless population ignored by the government for decades. However, theBidoon soon learned that they were not becoming Emiratis, but were instead being given citizenship in the…

Community, Commons and Natural Resource Management in Asia, edited by Haruka Yanagisawa [Book Review]

Community, Commons and Natural Resource Management in Asia, edited by Haruka Yanagisawa [Book Review]

It is common to conflate “sustainability” with a pre-modern lifestyle, to hold that historical communities lived in harmony with nature until the forces of modernity—capitalism, individualism and political centralization—destroyed communal authority. By unleashing modern “selfish” individuals, those acting in their…

China and Cybersecurity: Espionage, Strategy, and Politics in the Digital Domain, edited by Jon R. Lindsay, Tai Ming Cheung and Derek S Reveron [Book Review]

China and Cybersecurity: Espionage, Strategy, and Politics in the Digital Domain, edited by Jon R. Lindsay, Tai Ming Cheung and Derek S Reveron [Book Review]

Hardly a month goes by without a new accusation of nefarious Chinese behavior on the Internet. United States officials have routinely called high-profile breaches of American digital networks, such as the hacking of the Office of Personnel Management, state-sanctioned espionage….

Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack by Andrew Schartmann [Book Review]

Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack by Andrew Schartmann [Book Review]

The theme song to Level 1-1 in Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Family Computer, known as the Nintendo Entertainment System or the NES in the West may be the most widely-known piece of music by a Japanese composer. Humming…