East Asia Books

New and Published Books

1. Globalizing the Prehistory of Japan

   Language, genes and civilisation

   By Ann Kumar

   Series: Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia

   This iconoclastic work on the prehistory of Japan and of South East Asia challenges entrenched views on the origins of Japanese society and identity. The social changes that took place in Japan in the time-period when the Jomon culture was replaced by the Yayoi culture were of exceptional...

   Published May 14th 2012 by Routledge
2. A New Japan for the Twenty-First Century

   An Inside Overview of Current Fundamental Changes and Problems

   Edited by Rien T. Segers

   Series: Routledge Contemporary Japan Series

   Many people in the West portray Japan as being fixed in its ways, and unable to change, and consequently risking national decline and international loss of prestige. However, in fact, Japan is at present in a significant transition period, comparable to the Meiji Restoration of 1868 or the period...

   Published May 14th 2012 by Routledge
3. Chinese in Eastern Europe and Russia

   A Middleman Minority in a Transnational Era

   By Pál Nyiri

   Series: Chinese Worlds

   Since the late nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Chinese have moved to Russia and Eastern Europe. However, until now, very little research has been done about the initial migrants in the nineteenth century, the presence of the Chinese in Europe and Russia in the twentieth century...

   Published May 9th 2012 by Routledge
4. Tradition, Democracy and the Townscape of Kyoto

   Claiming a Right to the Past

   By Christoph Brumann

   Series: Japan Anthropology Workshop Series

   As the historic capital of the country and the stronghold of the nation’s most celebrated traditions, the city of Kyoto holds a unique place in the Japanese imagination. Widely praised for the beauty of its townscape and natural environments, it is both a popular destination for tourists and home...

   Published March 20th 2012 by Routledge
5. Gated Communities in China

   Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life

   By Choon-Piew Pow

   Series: Routledge Pacific Rim Geographies

   Moving beyond conventional accounts of gated communities and housing segregation, this book interrogates the moral politics of urban place-making in China’s commodity housing enclaves. Drawing on fieldwork and survey conducted in Shanghai, Pow critically demonstrates how gated communities are bound...

   Published February 29th 2012 by Routledge
6. Young Chinese in Urban China

   By Alex Cockain

   Series: Routledge Studies on China in Transition

   This book examines the condition of being a young person in China and the way in which changes in various dimensions of urban life have affected Chinese youths' quests to understand themselves. The author examines social factors such as changes in the physical construction of urban neighbourhoods;...

   Published November 27th 2011 by Routledge
7. Home and Family in Japan

   Continuity and Transformation

   Edited by Richard Ronald, Allison Alexy

   Series: Japan Anthropology Workshop Series

   In the Japanese language the word ‘ie’ denotes both the materiality of homes and family relations within. The traditional family and family house - often portrayed in ideal terms as key foundations of Japanese culture and society - have been subject to significant changes in recent years. This book...

   Published October 11th 2011 by Routledge
8. Chinese Kinship

   Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives

   Edited by Susanne Brandtstädter, Gonçalo D Santos

   Series: Routledge Contemporary China Series

   The essays in this volume present contemporary anthropological perspectives on Chinese kinship, its historical complexity and its modern metamorphoses. The collection draws particular attention to the reverberations of larger socio-cultural and politico-economic processes in the formation of...

   Published October 11th 2011 by Routledge
9. Dealing with Disaster in Japan

   Responses to the Flight JL123 Crash

   By Christopher Hood

   Series: Routledge Contemporary Japan Series

   Just as the sinking of the Titanic is embedded in the public consciousness in the English-speaking world, so the crash of JAL flight JL123 is part of the Japanese collective memory. The 1985 crash involved the largest loss of life for any single air crash in the world. 520 people, many of whom had...

   Published September 11th 2011 by Routledge
10. An Emerging Non-Regular Labour Force in Japan

    The Dignity of Dispatched Workers

    By Huiyan Fu

    Series: Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies

    Like many industrialised nations, the current employment trend in Japan centres on diversification of the labour market with an increased use of temporary labour. Among a wide range of non-regular labour arrangements, haken are a newly legalised category of non-regular workers who are typically...

    Published August 11th 2011 by Routledge