UMBC Asian Studies
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/16702
The Asian Studies Program at UMBC offers broad opportunities for our students to explore the history, culture, languages and literature, societies, politics, economics, philosophy, art and music of Asia. Faculty members and language instructors from a range of disciplines offer an interdisciplinary course of study towards a Major, a Minor, or a Certificate. Additionally, we are proud to be one of the few institutions of higher education that offer language courses in Hindi.
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Chimerica: Disorienting Politics(Positions, 2025-01-26) Phillips, Delores B.; Razzano, Kathalene; Yang, Fan; Tseng-Putterman, Mark; Breen, MarcusDelores Phillips and Cultural Studies Association’s Globalization and Culture Working Group Co-Host Kathalene Razzano discuss Disorienting Politics: Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements (University of Michigan Press, 2024) with author Fan Yang, along with writer and historian Mark Tseng-Putterman. This podcast is accompanied by a scholarly commentary by Marcus Breen.Item To Understand the Other, You Have to Be a Mother: Jenna Bush Hager's #ReadWithJenna Book Club and the Politics of Race, Empathy, and Motherhood(Penn State University Press, 2024-12-31) Bhalla, TamaraThis article examines how Jenna Bush Hager's recently launched and yet highly influential book club, #ReadWithJenna, is emblematic of celebrity book club culture in the twenty-first century as a phenomenon largely dominated by white women as both reader-participants and the celebrity tastemakers themselves. Increasingly, celebrity book clubs actively shape popular literary culture, determining which works of literary fiction are popularized, promoted, and sold. This article uses the #ReadWithJenna book club as a case study to understand how contemporary book clubs tend to be organized around exigencies for white women's self-improvement and education through interrelated discourses of empathy and motherhood. By studying the televisual, online, and social media platforms and productions of the #ReadWithJenna book club, this article reveals the limitations and possibilities of celebrity book clubs as sites of political and social expression.Item Review: Carceral Entanglements: Gendered Public Memories of Japanese American World War II Incarceration, by Wendi Yamashita(University of California Press, 2025-02) Thornburg, MikaItem Making the Future with the Nonhuman:Shenzhen, the Greater Bay, and “Made in China Intelligently”(OpenEdition, 2023-12-01) Yang, FanThis essay examines two interconnected human-made nonhuman entities stemming from Shenzhen, China’s first special economic zone, that have become dominant figures in mapping the city’s – and by extension, China’s – future: the robot and the drone. I bring an interdisciplinary, cultural studies approach to the multiple meaning-making practices that engage with these two objects; both participate in enacting the vision for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an extension of the success of Shenzhen. These practices simultaneously normalise aspirations for a future fuelled by the power of nonhuman technological agents while offering glimpses into the uneven power relations between different humans that underpin such future making. At the same time, they also point to the emergent possibilities of meaning-making that conjoin the human and the nonhuman.Item Putin’s visit to Mongolia defies ICC warrant and tests neutral nation’s ‘third neighbor’ diplomacy(The Conversation, 2024-09-02) Krusekopf, Charles; Tong, Christopher K.Mongolia has worked hard to craft friendly relations across the globe. But geography means that Russia and China still retain a strong influence.Item The Social Science of Reading for Pleasure with Dr. Tamara Bhalla and Jean Kim(UMBC Center for Social Science Research, 2024-07-10) Anson, Ian; Bhalla, Tamara; Kim, Jean; Anson,Ian; Mallinson,Christine; Stokan,Eric; Kim,Jean; Moreland,D’Juan; Barnes,Amy; Ralston,MyriamOn this episode, Dr. Anson speaks with Dr. Tamara Bhalla, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies at UMBC. Dr. Bhalla is also an affiliate faculty in the UMBC Asian Studies program. We also hear from Jean Kim, our very own podcast production assistant, about her role as a research assistant on Dr. Bhalla’s forthcoming book on the cultural context of reading.Item China turns to private hackers as it cracks down on online activists on Tiananmen Square anniversary(The Conversation, 2024-05-31) Tong, Christopher K.Beijing’s cyber operations are largely conducted in the shadows. But a recent leak has shed light on how the state is working with private companies to target online activism.Item Bollywood is playing a large supporting role in India’s elections(The Conversation, 2024-04-10) Jacob, PremindaAhead of elections in India, a series of films that promote the ruling party’s right-wing ideology are seeking to influence voters. An art historian explains how the trend started.Item Mellon Foundation grants CAHSS $750K to establish Global Asias Initiative(UMBC News, 2024-04-03) Duque, Catalina Sofia Dansberger; Demond, MarlaynaItem Questioning Practices and Speech Style Shifting in Korean Entertainment Talk Shows(MDPI, 2023-12-12) Yoon, Kyung-EunThis study explores the dynamics of questioning practices and speech-style shifting in Korean entertainment talk shows. While prior research has examined the topic of questioning practices in the Korean language, mostly in everyday conversation or educational discourse, this article expands this investigation to encompass semi-institutional discourse, particularly focusing on the context of entertainment talk shows. This research also contributes to understanding the pragmatic characteristics of two Korean honorific speech styles, namely the polite (-yo) and deferential (-(su)pnita/-(su)pnikka) styles, by investigating their interplay and transitions. Adopting an interactional approach to discourse and drawing upon membership categorization analysis and conversation analysis, this study analyzes the discourse of 15 entertainment talk shows, with a special focus on approximately 1500 sentential units, 325 of which are questions. The analysis of these utterances provides an account of the utilization of linguistic resources in questioning practices and the utilization of the two Korean honorific speech styles in the joint construction of social activities and identities within the entertainment talk show setting. The selection of linguistic resources for questioning practices and style shifting is closely intertwined with the management of entertainment and institutional dynamics among the participants in this particular setting.Item US, Chinese warships’ near miss in Taiwan Strait hints at ongoing troubled diplomatic waters, despite chatter about talks(The Conversation, 2023-06-06) Oyen, MeredithItem “Hong Kong is Our Home”: Hong Kongers Twenty-Five Years After the Handover(Association for Asian Studies, 2022) Tong, Christopher K.Item The Paradox of China’s Sustainability(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019-08-06) Tong, Christopher K.If a civilization thrives by modifying, exploiting, and damaging its environment—and has done so for several millennia—does it make sense to call it a “sustainable” one? With its claims to be one of the oldest civilizations in world history and a rising superpower in the twenty-first century, China is a paradoxical case. Not only are China’s aspirations for sustainable development at odds with its current status as one of the world’s worst polluters, but the expansion of Chinese-style settlements and croplands has historically been a major driver of environmental transformation and degradation on the eastern Eurasian landmass. As China’s environment continues to be altered in the twenty-first century, “ecological civilization” (shengtai wenming) has emerged as an ideological framework for the type of sustainable development that China’s political leadership envisions for the country. Incorporated into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in 2018, “ecological civilization” is the newest among five guiding principles for China’s development in the post-Mao era. To address the potentialities of China’s "ecological civilization," we should first recognize the paradoxical nature of Chinese interactions with the environment. This chapter offers a critical survey of key positions on China’s history, culture, and environment to illuminate what scholars perceive to be the paradox of China’s sustainability.