Books & ideas

The Other Side of Model Minorities

Margot Delon — 2024-03-21T07:37:00Z

While Chinese immigrants and their descendants have long been portrayed as a “model minority”, Ya-Han Chuang shows how this qualifier papers over the representations that are imposed on members of this minority in France – who are now fighting back against racism.

The Japanese Press: a Global Exception?

César Castellvi — 2021-01-11T08:00:00Z

Although little known abroad, the Japanese press holds an important place in the global media landscape, two of the top circulation newspapers being Japanese dailies. How do these titles thrive, and how do they shape the public debate in Japan? This article studies specificities of the Japanese media market and some of its recent changes.

A New Conflict Era

Floriano Filho — 2020-07-13T07:17:46Z

Japan and the Korean peninsula share a troubled history, and the already tense relationships of these areas have been deteriorating over the past few years. Floriano Filho maps out these tensions as well as their symptoms—which include an arms race—while bringing light to their historical roots.

Journalism and Media Politics in Asia

Émilie Frenkiel — 2019-09-23T08:02:06Z

As populism is rising on a global level, Books & Ideas offers a series on media politics in East Asian countries, to be published over the next two weeks. Though situations are extremely diverse, they can teach us a lot on the relationship between the state and journalists in authoritarian contexts. What role is left for the media to play in non-democracies?

Shaping Indochinese Identity

Blaise Truong-Loï — 2017-02-02T08:00:00Z

It is now incongruous to imagine Vietnamese people identifying themselves as “Indochinese”. For a long time, however, the colonial territory served as a framework for the expression of Vietnam's national identity. This phenomenon does not illustrate so much the effectiveness of the education given in schools under the French empire as the negotiated nature of colonisation in Asia. A fresh look at a classic work.

The Culture of Qi

Marceau Chenault — 2016-11-21T08:00:00Z

Qi—“breath” or “energy”—lies at the heart of many traditional Asian practices, be they martial or artistic, that rest upon a broader understanding of mind and body. This concept has now become pervasive in Western ideas of health and spirituality. Could this trend be a positive effect of globalization?

1498: The Other “New World”

Ewa Tartakowsky — 2016-04-11T07:00:00Z

In the sixteenth century, Europe and India began to trade. Their connected history assumes multiple forms, touching on topics as diverse as vegetable cultivation, the spice trade, literature, and architecture.

Zomia, Land Without State

Nicolas Delalande — 2013-05-20T07:00:00Z

For two thousand years, according to James Scott, the mountains of Zomia were a place of refuge for the people of Southeast Asia. For the author, this region, as a centre of resistance to the state, holds up a mirror to our destructive and self-confident civilisation. A fascinating and intriguing anarchist history.

Are Asian Economies Converging Towards American Capitalism?

Bernard Thomann — 2012-05-23T06:21:16Z

Should East Asia's economic takeoff and the new hegemony of capitalism in that region be interpreted as parts of a convergence towards a global model based on Anglosphere economic liberalism, or should we see them rather as the onset of a process by which a new form of capitalism is being constructed, based on the region's economic integration? The two books reviewed here tackle this issue head on, from the angle of regulation theory.

Back to Asia

Émilie Frenkiel & Bernard Thomann — 2011-12-20T20:08:38Z

This dossier examines the recently reopened debate on regional integration in Asia. What are the obstacles to the construction of an Asian Union? How is the issue tackled in Japan, China or Australia?