Category: Books
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Weekly Wanderings: June 2, 2024
June! How nice to see you. At the Association for Asian Studies #AsiaNow blog, I continue my series of interviews with new authors, speaking with ethnomusicologist Ying Diao about her book, Faith by Aurality in China’s Ethnic Borderland: Media, Mobility, and Christianity at the Margins. Recommendations China Stories ChinaFile Conversation, “The Future According to Xi…
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Weekly Wanderings: May 26, 2024
If you regularly scroll through Instagram, it’s almost impossible not to know that we’re in peony season. Explosions of pink and white and purple appear in post after post, everyone trying to find the best shot before the petals suddenly drop off and we’re once again peony-less until next spring. Maybe it was due to…
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Weekly Wanderings: May 19, 2024
Recent Goodreads Reviews Recommendations China Stories Gordon Corera, “The escaped dissident still pursued decades on by China”Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin, “Lai Ching-te, the political brawler who went from a Taiwan mining village to the presidency” The truth of whether the Wangs were small-time innkeepers or a secret weapon in Beijing’s decadelong effort to…
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Weekly Wanderings: April 28, 2024
My brain felt chaotic and restless as I walked through the Toledo Museum of Art yesterday morning, taking in the works surrounding me in each room but not settling on anything long enough to fully consider it. Scuffed parquet floors creaked underneath my steps as I moved through rooms offering a special exhibit on African…
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Weekly Wanderings: April 7, 2024
As Willy Wonka said, “We have to get on, we have to get on! We have so much time and so little to do—scratch that, reverse it. This way, please!” First, I’m giving a virtual talk on Tuesday afternoon (Eastern Time) as part of the CHINA Town Hall program organized by the National Committee on…
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Weekly Wanderings: March 31, 2024
Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates, and happy final day of March to anyone else who feels like this month has been extra-long. March is always weird for me because the AAS conference falls somewhere in its latter half, so I spend the first couple weeks preparing for that, speed through five high-adrenaline days on…
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Weekly Wanderings: March 10, 2024
It’s a short one this week—just some recent book reviews from me—because I’ve been in full-tilt AAS 2024 Annual Conference preparation mode for the past seven days. My suitcases are on the living-room floor, half packed; dry cleaning will be ready for pickup tomorrow; there are several dozen table tent cards in my office that…
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Weekly Wanderings: March 3, 2024
Signs of spring have arrived in southeast Michigan: there’s a pile of asparagus in my kitchen waiting to be trimmed for dinner, I can hear birds chirping through the porch door that I’ve cracked open, and I’m wearing flip-flops instead of fluffy slippers. I’m sure we’re due for at least one more bout of bitterly…
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Weekly Wanderings: February 12, 2024
新年快乐 and 恭喜发财 to one and all as we kick off the Year of the Dragon. At the Association for Asian Studies #AsiaNow blog, I have two new interviews with authors to share: And at Goodreads, I reviewed The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen, a compelling and beautifully written novel about the members of…
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Weekly Wanderings: December 24, 2023
I’m keeping things short and sweet today, as there’s still lots to do here at my parents’ house to prepare for Christmas tomorrow. Thanks so much for reading these posts—please enjoy the usual assortment of recommended stories, plus my favorite Christmas cookie recipe. But first, more Goodreads reviews from my recent deep-dive into fiction to…
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 