Hal Brands on the Axis of Autocracies
The foreign policy expert discusses his new book, why he thinks that China is the most formidable player in an emerging “axis of autocracies” and...
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Can Germany Find a Better China Strategy?
Under Merkel and Scholz, Germany was criticized as being soft on China. Three new books explain the backstory to Berlin’s relationship with Beijing, and how...
Ep. 18: Lijia Zhang on Women’s Stories
The memoirist and novelist talks us through her grandmother's and mother’s stories, as well as her own, and discusses how the status of women has...
Kublai Khan, from Land to Ocean
Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty, like the Mongol empire, is thought of as a land power. A new work of popular history argues that its real...
Jerome A. Cohen on Chinese Legal Reform
The veteran China watcher discusses his memoirs, the challenges of reforming Chinese law, meeting Zhou Enlai in the Cultural Revolution, and the CIA's Yale recruitment...
Is China’s Post-1978 Legal System a Mirage?
The scholar of Chinese law argues that post-Mao legal reform — as aided by Western lawyers including him — may yet prove enduring. Its critics...
Reginald Johnston: Twilight in the Forbidden City
A Scotsman’s memoir of tutoring Puyi, China’s “last emperor,” is more than just court gossip — it’s a tantalizing portrait of China’s imperial trappings.
Found in Translation
An award-winning novel set in Japanese-ruled Taiwan explores the relationship between colonizer and subaltern, translator and translated — and how some distances can’t be closed.
Books to Better Understand Taiwan
Five recent titles show there is more to the island than just politics, from historical profiles to a cookbook that sets Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine...
What If Hu Yaobang Had Lived?
The former Chinese Communist Party leader’s ousting and death led to the Tiananmen protests, but his life reveals a deeper push and pull between reformist...
Ep. 17: Lau Yee-Wa on Hong Kong Fiction
We talked to the author of "Tongueless" about how Cantonese is disappearing from Hong Kong schools, and what literature can do to raise awareness.
The Thrilling Truth
A new thriller set in 1930s Shanghai includes just enough historical detail to be believable. But is history at risk of being overtaken by fiction?