East Asia for All

East Asia for All, a podcast about the East Asian pop culture and media that you love!

Episode 11: "Comfort Women" and Imperial Japan, an Interview with Dr. Lin Li about Grass 05/28/2024

Episode 11: "Comfort Women" and Imperial Japan, an Interview with Dr. Lin Li about Grass In this episode of East Asia for All, we examine the sexual slavery system that took place under imperial Japan from 1937-1945 through the graphic novel Grass by Korean author Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. Grass tells the life story of Lee Ok-sun, a Korean girl who was forced to be a “comfort woman” for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. We are joined by Dr. Lin Li, Assistant Professor of History at the University of St. Thomas (Saint Paul, MN), on this episode. Dr. Li’s research focuses on the intersections of gender, race, health, and imperialism in East Asia. She is currently working on a book project on the politics of representing and commemorating “comfort women” in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/31499507

Gender Across the DMZ: Friend & Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 04/20/2023

Gender Across the DMZ: Friend & Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 In this minisode, we compare literary representations of Korean women navigating very different social systems. In Friend, the 1988 novel by North Korean writer Paek Nam-Nyong, Judge Jeong Jin-wu attempts to save the marriage of a famous woman singer, Chae Sun-hee, who came to him requesting a divorce from her husband. In the process of Judge Jeong’s investigation, we catch rare and meaningful glimpses of daily life and relationships in North Korea. On the other side of the demilitarized zone author Cho Nam-Joo introduces us to the life of Kim Jiyoung, a South Korean woman struggling with her mental health as a housewife and mother. Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 takes us through Jiyoung’s childhood, adolescence, and early adult life as she navigates South Korean sexism against women. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/26601099

Sex Work and Political Subjectivity with Simanti Dasgupta: IIAS Guest Episode 03/06/2023

Sex Work and Political Subjectivity with Simanti Dasgupta: IIAS Guest Episode This is a guest episode from The Channel, a podcast of the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS) at Leiden University. This episode features a lecture from Simanti Dasgupta. Simanti is Associate Professor of Anthropology and director of the International Studies Program at the University of Dayton, USA. Her work broadly explores the politics of citizenship and belonging in neoliberal and postcolonial nation-states. In 2021-2022, Simanti was a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Prophylactic Rights: Sex Work, HIV/AIDS and Anti-Trafficking in Sonagachi, India. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/26141127

Cape No. 7 and Postcolonial Taiwan 08/20/2021

Cape No. 7 and Postcolonial Taiwan Cape No. 7 (海角七號, Hǎijiǎo Qī Hào) by Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖, who also directed Warriors of the Rainbow) is a romantic comedy about two intercultural couples (Taiwanese and Japanese) in the 1940s and the 2000s. In this episode, we again examine the fraught history of Japanese imperialism on the island of Taiwan, which was a colony of imperial Japan from 1895 to 1945. We are very excited to be joined on this episode by Dr. Fang Yu Hu, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/20207567

Confronting Anti-Asian Racism 03/20/2021

Confronting Anti-Asian Racism We recorded this episode in response to the March 16, 2021 Atlanta Massacre. We discuss the importance of understanding and confronting the history of anti-Asian racism in the United States, as well as current anti-Asian racism and racist violence. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/18402461

Showa and Graphic Novels 07/27/2020

Showa and Graphic Novels Shigeru Mizuki's Showa is an epic four-volume graphic novel series about the Showa era of Japan (1926-1989) and a semi-biographical account of Mizuki's own life during that period. It's funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, beautiful, and complex, and it shows why graphic novels are such a powerful and important medium. We talk with Dr. Maryanne Rhett about using graphic novels in the classroom and some of her favorites. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/15374150

The Handmaiden and Colonial Korea 09/02/2019

The Handmaiden and Colonial Korea Park Chan-wook set his 2016 film The Handmaiden in Korea under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). Colonial Korea proves to be the perfect setting for a romantic crime story that explores sexuality, deception, and power. Park is known for his gorgeous—and gory—films like Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters's 2002 novel The Fingersmith, set in Victorian-era Britain and shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize. Professor Kelly Y. Jeong of UC Riverside joins us to discuss the film. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/11088329

The Three Body Problem 01/16/2019

The Three Body Problem Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem is a wildly popular Chinese science fiction novel, and it's easy to see why. It opens during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, setting the tone for a multigenerational, universe-spanning story that careens between missing scientists, a mysterious video game, and an exploration of the nature of humanity and the cosmos itself. In this episode, we situate Liu's novel within the history of Chinese science fiction and also bring in Dr. Colin West, a theoretical physicist from the University of Colorado, to help us understand the science in the The Three Body Problem. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/8273747

Hooligan Sparrow and Activism in China 11/07/2018

Hooligan Sparrow and Activism in China "Principal, call me if you want to get a room. Leave the students alone." This was the sign that Ye Haiyan, a Chinese activist better known by the nickname Hooligan Sparrow, held up during her protests over the handling of the kidnapping and rape of six girls in Hainan province, China. In this episode, Prof. Gail Hershatter joins us to talk about Hooligan Sparrow, Wang Nanfu's 2016 documentary about Ye Haiyan and her activism. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/7473284

Hero (2002) and Tianxia 07/17/2018

Hero (2002) and Tianxia Do you love wuxia (martial arts) films, Chinese history, Jet Li, the gorgeous 2002 film Hero, or all of the above? This is the mini-episode for you! We talk about Zhang Yimou's Hero, the historical narrative it tells about Qin Shihuang — best known as the first emperor of unified China, the concept of tianxia, and much more! /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/6822781

The Interview and North Korea in the News 06/28/2018

The Interview and North Korea in the News We originally planned for this episode to focus on the 2014 film The Interview, but we ended up talking about the Olympics, U.S.-North Korean relations, the Korean War, and even a Korean folk story about the war! If you want some perspective on all the recent developments in North Korea, listen to this episode, featuring an interview with Christine Hong, professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/6755469

Tampopo and the History of Ramen 02/11/2018

Tampopo and the History of Ramen Tampopo, Juzo Itami's "noodle western," came out in 1985, back when most Americans had never even heard of ramen. Join us for a discussion of this hilarious film as well as the history of ramen in Japan and the U.S. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/6246841

Girl Crush? Boy Crush?: ACRUSH and Gender-bending in China 12/07/2017

Girl Crush? Boy Crush?: ACRUSH and Gender-bending in China ACRUSH, a popular new boy band, is also one of the most recent examples of gender-bending in China. Join us for a discussion of ACRUSH and a whirlwind tour of China's long history of women who refuse to be limited by their gender. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/6022655

The Simpsons in China and Bullet Subtitles 10/04/2017

The Simpsons in China and Bullet Subtitles We're talking about Chinese TV-viewing habits in this mini episode about the Simpsons in China and bullet subtitles. Did you know that the Simpsons, often considered a quintessentially American television show, is popular in China? And have you ever heard of "bullet subtitles" (danmu), a live-chat function on many Chinese streaming websites? We discuss all this and more! /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5807560

Board Games & Queerness in Taiwan 09/05/2017

Board Games & Queerness in Taiwan This mini episode has it all! We play the board game "Home Play," discuss the history of LGBTQ people in Taiwan, and respond to a listener question with help from Prof. Chia-rong Wu. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5710457

Ep. 5: Balzac and the Chinese Cultural Revolution 07/18/2017

Ep. 5: Balzac and the Chinese Cultural Revolution Two urban Chinese youth are sent to live in the countryside during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a film based on the novel of the same name. In our fifth full episode, we discuss the film, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and more, with help from Profs. Chris Connery and Emily Honig. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5549561

Ep. 4: Warriors of the Rainbow and Taiwanese Identity 06/08/2017

Ep. 4: Warriors of the Rainbow and Taiwanese Identity Our fourth full episode features a discussion of Warriors of the Rainbow, Wei Te-sheng's 2011 film about the 1930 Wushe Uprising in Taiwan. We brought in Dr. Leo Ching to help us discuss the movie, Taiwan's history of colonization, and Taiwanese identity formation. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5431403

North Korea: Memes, China, and Nuclear War 05/09/2017

North Korea: Memes, China, and Nuclear War This mini episode features Chinese memes about North Korea, censorship of those memes in mainland China, and a brief history of the division of the Korean peninsula to help explain the current political situation. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5340943

Ep. 3: Ghost in the Shell and Gender, Race, and Technology 04/24/2017

Ep. 3: Ghost in the Shell and Gender, Race, and Technology Our third full episode features a discussion of Ghost in the Shell, a long-running Japanese pop culture franchise, as well as issues of whitewashing, gender, and technology in the Japanese and American popular imaginations. Dr. Noriko Aso came in to help us discuss all these issues and more. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5292678

Ep. 2: Grave of the Fireflies and Nosaka Akiyuki 03/11/2017

Ep. 2: Grave of the Fireflies and Nosaka Akiyuki Our second episode features a discussion of Japanese writer/politician/singer Nosaka Akiyuki and two of his works, Grave of the Fireflies and "American Hijiki." We brought in Dr. Alan Christy to help us discuss Nosaka's works, World War II in Japan, and the postwar American occupation. /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5160535

The F Word: Fascism and Imperial Japan 02/27/2017

The F Word: Fascism and Imperial Japan This mini episode features a discussion of fascism: What is it? Did Japan have it? Do we have it now? This episode's investigation of fascism will give you some background for our upcoming episode on Nosaka Akiyuki's Grave of the Fireflies and "American Hijiki." /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5121808

Ep. 1: Under the Dome & Pollution in China 02/03/2017

Ep. 1: Under the Dome & Pollution in China Our first episode features a discussion of Chai Jing's documentary Under the Dome, about the pollution crisis in China. We also talk about Chai Jing's career, censorship, and how we dealt with air pollution when we lived in China /episode/index/show/eastasiaforall/id/5050664

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