East Asia Now Center for East Asian Studies, UW—Madison

In this episode, Jean-François di Meglio, the President of Asia Centre, discussed EU-China relations and his professional experiences in international finance with David Fields, CEAS Associate Director. Asia Centre is a Paris-based independent research institute which focuses on international and economic relations with countries in the Asia Pacific region, as well as the area’s sociopolitical developments. He offered an overview of the European approach to China, which is both similar and different to the US approach, and the ways it needs to adapt to preserve the interests of all parties and reduce conflict. Head to www.asiacentre.eu for a deeper dive into related topics, as well as information on an upcoming podcast and other projects.

Kaiser Kuo, the host of the Sinica Podcast, sat down with CEAS's David Fields during his visit to the UW campus. He discussed how he became interested in the political climate surrounding US & China relations, what drew him away from graduate school, and how his personal history influenced his desire to shed a light on information coming out of China. He asks that the listeners be cautious of anyone who calls themselves and "China expert" and that rather than the highly polarized viewpoints, consider things from multiple angles. Kaiser also recommends the best episodes from the Sinica backlog to get an newly interested party started.

Professor Aaron Skabelund of Brigham Young University discusses his path to Japanese history through his love for reading and opportunities to live in Japan. During his time at Columbia he found an interest in Japanese history, empire, and animals, which produced his first book, "Empire of Dogs." His new book, "Inglorious, Illegal Bastards," discusses the creation and acceptance of the Japanese Self-Defense Force starting in the 1950s through the Cold War.

On this episode of the East Asia Now podcast, Professor Brian Dott of Whitman College discusses how he got into studying Chinese history through his father’s colleagues and how he decided to study the history of chile pepper in China. He discusses his book, The Chile Pepper in China: A Cultural Biography, and how difficult it is to trace how an American-originating food became integral to Chinese food. Along with it being a flavor, he reveals how the chile pepper became important to Chinese cultural practices and class identity.

On this episode of the East Asia Now podcast, Professor Melissa Macauley of Northwestern University discusses her interest in Chinese history and its connection to Southeast Asian history. In her book, Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China’s Maritime Frontier, she argues against the narrative that China lacked expansion and resources in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Following the lives of the overseas Chaozhouese, who settled in places like Siam and Indonesia and created a translocal economy and informal institutions to maintain their settlements.

Lawrence University’s Professor Brigid Vance discusses her background that led to her studying the intellectual and socio-cultural history of Ming Dynasty China. Her current research focuses on the legacy and cultural import of dreams and dream divination in late imperial China, including dream interpretation and how knowledge about dreams are disseminated. Along with the historical aspects, she talks about how dreams are discussed in modern China.