Critical Asian Studies

Notes from the Field | Richard Kamei and Sonam Dorji, Memoirs, and Fieldwork in Bhutan: Cultivating Rice, Sustaining Bonds — Critical Asian Studies In the Himalayan region, in Bhutan and Northeast of India, rice is present in every passage of life from birth to death, and beyond. Rice is regarded as an elixir of life for the nourishment it provid...

Notes from the Field | Richard Kamei & Sonam Dorji detail changes in rice cultivation in Bhutan & Northeast India amidst new challenges, such as youth migration, modernization, mechanization, climate uncertainty, disconnection from tradition & globalization. criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Notes From the Field | Chonglong Gu, Capturing mundane everyday grass-roots multilingualism in Yiwu, China — Critical Asian Studies China has traditionally been seen as a relatively homogenous country. For extended periods of time, China pursued a path of being self-sufficient and was relatively closed for foreign business and tra...

Notes from the Field | Chonglong Gu visualizes the power of business & trade in reshaping an otherwise homogeneous city: "in many ways, Yiwu is a major gateway to China, and features great linguistic and cultural diversity rarely seen in the rest of China." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Peter Chai and Charles Crabtree, Why did the Japanese public appear to vote against their own concerns? — Critical Asian Studies In February’s lower house election, voters in Japan delivered the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) the most decisive single-party victory of the postwar era. Prime Minister Sanae Tak...

Commentary | Peter Chai and Charles Crabtree ponder what explains Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's recent resounding electoral victory in the face of broad voter anxiety with the status quo, and what it means for how Japanese politics operates today. criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Bikash K. Bhattacharya & Soe Sandar Win, Everyday Pluralism and Practical Religion in Java — Critical Asian Studies Indonesia’s religious diversity often conceals the complexity of faith on the ground. In Java, belief is less a matter of rigid categories than of everyday negotiation—unfolding in courtyards, coffee ...

Notes from the Field | Bikash K. Bhattacharya & Soe Sandar Win lead a visual tour of pluralistic local religious practices in Java island, Indonesia: "In towns and villages across Java, faith unfolds more as rhythm than doctrine." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Ka Hang Wong, Jimmy Lai’s Conviction Signals the End of Free Political Speech in Hong Kong — Critical Asian Studies On 15 December 2025, Hong Kong’s High Court found media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, along with...

Commentary | Ka Hang Wong on demise of free speech in Hong Kong after sentencing of Jimmy Lai: "The city that once prided itself on openness and the rule of law has entered a new era, one in which speaking freely about power is no longer a right, but a risk." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Qudsia Kalsoom, Systemic Corruption and Elite Capture: Can Education Transform Pakistan? — Critical Asian Studies IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (2025) report published on 19th November 2025 has identified systemic corruption, elite capture, and politicised decision-making as structural features of P...

Commentary | Qudsia Kalsoom details obstacles to education in Pakistan while suggesting new paths forward: "Transformative education in Pakistan demands more than cosmetic reforms; it requires dismantling colonial legacies and resisting neoliberal agendas." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Happy this is out in the world. We collect 8 great essays/ commentaries by some of the best young, and a few more seasoned anthropologists working on Africa-China dynamics.

Special Series: "New Directions in Africa-China Studies" | Vivian Chenxue Lu, "Conclusion: The Global Majority? Political qualities of capital between the two Afro-Asian demographic giants" — Critical... Judging by global political discourse in recent years, an emergent non-Western-dominated world order appears more imminent than ever. With the geopolitical expansion of entities like BRICS and the acc...

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Special Series: "New Directions in Africa-China Studies" | Mingwei Huang, Thinking Sino-African Extractive Zones — Critical Asian Studies For my first project, my fieldwork was sited at a Chinese wholesale mall, one of many sprawling Chinese developments located along Johannesburg’s old mining belt, piquing my interest in the City of Go...

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Special Series: “New Directions in Africa-China Studies” | Nina Sylvanus, China for exPort: Africa and the Global Maritime — Critical Asian Studies Shenzhen, July 2018. It was the final week of the C-Blue Summer Training Program, when I joined a group of 25 global “trainees” at the headquarters of China Merchants Port [CM-Port].  Represent...

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Special Series: “New Directions in Africa-China Studies” | Zixi Zhao, "Replacing the Bad Birds": China's Domestic Industrial Upgrade and its Implications for China-Africa Relations — Critical Asian St... Introduction Last summer, I was talking to an interlocutor who helped connect me with a factory in Shenzhen where I was conducting fieldwork. The factory had, some years back, relocated from its ori...

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Special Series: "New Directions in Africa-China Studies" | Fidele B. Ebia, When Chinese Manufacturers Become Traders — Critical Asian Studies Since the early 2000s, Togolese traders have served as major distributors of Chinese-manufactured commodities in West Africa.  This system of distribution enabled West African large traders, as w...

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Special Series: “New Directions in Africa-China Studies” | Yidi Zheng, Capturing the Face: Afro-Inclusive Machine Visions from South China — Critical Asian Studies Introduction In the latter half of the 2010s, two shifts occurred in the flow of Chinese investment to Africa: one in the object of investment, and the other in the agents who propelled these ventur...

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Special Series: “New Directions in Africa-China Studies” | Yuanwei Zong, Credit, Code, and Control: China-Backed Fin-Tech Lending in Ghana — Critical Asian Studies The Spirit of a Quick Buck: Digital Lending in Ghana “Ghana is the place to make a quick buck,” Mr. Wang told me, leaning over the roulette table at the Golden Dragon Casino in Accra. He wasn’t just...

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Special Series: “New Directions in Africa-China Studies” | Jason Woerner, Ralph Litzinger, Charlie Piot, “Introduction: New Directions in Africa-China Studies” — Critical Asian Studies The impetus to publish these essays in Critical Asian Studies emerged from a workshop at Duke University (US) in February 2025, entitled “New Directions in China-Africa Studies.” The workshop aimed ...

Notes from the Field | Jason Woerner, Ralph Litzinger, and Charlie Piot introduce a Special Series of seven essays collected under the theme of "New Directions in Africa-China Studies" and drawing together early career scholars: criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Notes from the Field | Kymberley Chu, Diasporic Drifting: Experiencing Cultural Outsider/Ethnographic Insider Dynamics in Malaysia — Critical Asian Studies “I don’t like this kind of weather; it looks ominous with the dark clouds, and it feels stuffy with no chance of a gentle breeze. I was going to say yi loh-hor [it’s raining] tapi [but] it’s not exact...

For @criticasianstds.bsky.social, I wrote an essay on the contemporary frictions of dwelling, diaspora, and development politics. Unpacking a political dichotomy, I pay attention to how linguistic identities contend with different projects of modernity in Malaysia.
doi.org/10.52698/BBJ...

Notes from the Field | Kymberley Chu, Diasporic Drifting: Experiencing Cultural Outsider/Ethnographic Insider Dynamics in Malaysia — Critical Asian Studies “I don’t like this kind of weather; it looks ominous with the dark clouds, and it feels stuffy with no chance of a gentle breeze. I was going to say yi loh-hor [it’s raining] tapi [but] it’s not exact...

Notes from the Field | Kymberley Chu @dialecticprimates.bsky.social reflects on the "multiple, overlapping political terrains that shape the complex kinds of interlocutor access and social relationships" Asian/American anthropologists encounter in the field. criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Levi McLaughlin, Sanae Takaichi and Japan’s Uncertain Politics/Religion Future — Critical Asian Studies Local-Level Religious Activists Recently Upended Japan’s Political Order Japan ranks among the least religious countries in the world—according to recent survey data, as many as 80% or 90% of respon...

I've put a few thoughts together on religious dimensions of recent political upheavals in Japan. These are now up on Critical Asian Studies.

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Commentary | Levi McLaughlin, Sanae Takaichi and Japan’s Uncertain Politics/Religion Future — Critical Asian Studies Local-Level Religious Activists Recently Upended Japan’s Political Order Japan ranks among the least religious countries in the world—according to recent survey data, as many as 80% or 90% of respon...

Commentary | Levi McLaughlin raises questions about Japan's uncertain politics/religion future as new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's support for Shinto-linked nationalists alienates erstwhile Liberal Democratic Party allies in the Sokka Gakkai-backed Kōmeitō criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Sharing my latest article, “I Have a Right to A Better Imam”: Divorce, Islam, and Changing Marriage Ideals in Indonesia." This one has been a long time coming! Thanks to @criticasianstds.bsky.social for a helpful review process! #AsianStudies www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Notes from the Field | Kamil Tilyabaev, Uzbek and Karakalpak Poetry in Translation — Critical Asian Studies As a citizen of Uzbekistan, a post-Soviet Central Asian country, I am very pleased to share some pieces from Uzbek and Karakalpak literature translated into English for the CAS readers. Both literatur...

Notes from the Field | Kamil Tilyabaev introduces and contextualizes a collection of Uzbek and Karakalpak poetry from central Asia translated into English for the first time. criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Ed Pulford and Trần Mai Hương, Socialist State Subjectivity: The Changing Stakes of Vietnam’s Ethnic Classification Policy — Critical Asian Studies On August 16, 2024, the online newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Báo điện tử - Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam , published a story covering the ongoing rollout of a new generation of biometric nati...

Commentary | Ed Pulford and Trần Mai Hương discuss Vietnam's new biometric national identity cards, writing that they "underscore further how difficult it is to walk back codified socialist visions of ethnicity once everyone has bought into them." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Annalise Chang, Tom Le, and Sebastian Maslow, A Historic Win, Familiar Politics: The Paradox of Takaichi’s LDP Leadership — Critical Asian Studies On October 4, Sanae Takaichi secured a historic victory against four competitors to become the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s first female president since its founding in 1955. Two weeks later, sh...

Commentary | Annalise Chang, Tom Le, & Sebastian Maslow suggest hyperbole about Sanae Takaichi is misplaced: "As a non-elite woman in Japanese politics, her rise has been exceptional. Yet, her positions & prime ministership are not as likely to be as special" criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Ka Hang Wong, Five Years On, the National Security Law Exposes the Joint Declaration’s Deception — Critical Asian Studies It has been five years since China imposed the National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong. This imposition has sharply curtailed the freedoms and autonomy promised under the Sino-British Joint Declarat...

Commentary | Ka Hang Wong decries the profound impact the National Security Law has had on Hong Kong's national character in the 5 years since it was imposed: "China’s promise that Hong Kong’s way of life would remain unchanged for 50 years has proven hollow" criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Mishika Chauhan, Resisting Erasure, Claiming Space: Memory, Belonging, and Palestinian Identity in Mo — Critical Asian Studies Co-created by Mohammed Amer and Ramy Youssef, the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series Mo made its mark by receiving critical acclaim for starring a Palestinian refugee as a protagonist in a ma...

Commentary | Mishika Chauhan analyses the @netflix.com series #Mo calling it a "politically layered account of resistance against the systemic erasure of Palestinians" from popular media that archives "loss, displacement, and daily precarity in the diaspora." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Manjit Bhatia, Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani Mosque Move Caper in Malaysia — Critical Asian Studies Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s 27 March proclamation of “ victory ” regarding the construction of the so-called Madani Mosque on the site of a historic Hindu temple in the center of Kuala Lu...

Commentary | Manjit Bhatia calls into question Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s construction of the Madani Mosque on the site of a historic Hindu temple Kuala Lumpur, calling it a "cynical ploy to distract from his questionable political legitimacy": criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Ankush Chandran, Colonial Legacies in Contemporary Asian Urbanism: The Role of the Architect-Planner — Critical Asian Studies Asia stands as a crucible of profound economic and physical growth in recent decades. This expansive region is not only experiencing rapid social transformation but also undergoing significant changes...

Commentary | Ankush Chandran notes the lingering impact of colonial urban planning and proposes strategies for moving beyond colonial forms: "A key aspect of this shift involves embracing & celebrating the vernacular & the regional diversity of Asian cities." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Commentary | Monika, Decoding Delhi’s Assembly Election 2025: Why the BJP’s Win Reflects AAP’s Decline, Not Hindutva’s Rise — Critical Asian Studies The recent electoral victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi, marking its return to power in the capital after a 27-year hiatus from the state assembly, has ignited extensive scholarly deb...

Commentary | Monica suggests that the BJP's victory in the recent 2025 Delhi election was not a result of Hindutva strength, but that "governance failures and political credibility crises, rather than ideological shifts, shaped the BJP’s resurgence in Delhi." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Notes from the Field | Ruomin Huang, “By Appointment Only”: Domestic Political Depression and Curatorial Resistance in China — Critical Asian Studies Public distress in modern China has become a battleground — not only over the legitimacy of such emotions but also over who has the right to define such meaning. In a political climate where the visib...

Notes from the Field | art writer/curator Ruomin Huang discusses the installation of a "crying spot" in Shenzhen for users to anonymously display emotion "where the act of seeing and being seen becomes a small but vital refusal of the terms imposed by power." criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...

Standing Up for Democracy: Studies of Democratic Renewal in Korea May 5, 2025, 7:00-8:30 PM (central U.S.) Via Zoom

excited to share we're preparing a themed section in @criticasianstds.bsky.social, slated for mid-summer, & it's the basis for this upcoming webinar on 5/5: What can democracy movements learn from Korea’s vigorous history of citizen engagement? w/ @yoonkyung.bsky.social & @jamiedoucette.bsky.social