Home to a rapidly rising superpower and the two largest economies in the world after the US, a global East Asia is seen and felt everywhere. This dynamic text views the global square from the perspective of the world’s most important rising global center. East Asia’s global impact is built on a dizzying combination: a strong and deep civilizational self-consciousness fused with hypermodernity, wealth, influence, and power, which have made the region a beacon for the world and an alternative to the West.

Short, accessible essays by prominent experts on the region cover the core of East Asian—Japan, China, and Korea—as well as Mongolia and Taiwan. Topics include contemporary culture, artistic production, food, science, economic development, digital issues, education and research, and international collaboration. Students will glean new perspectives about the region using the insights of global studies.

About the Author

Frank N. Pieke received his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. After lectureships in Leiden and Oxford, he has served as Chair of Modern China Studies at Leiden since 2010. Between 2018 and 2020, he was the Director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

Koichi Iwabuchi is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan. His recent English publications include Resilient Borders and Cultural Diversity: Internationalism, Brand Nationalism, and Multiculturalism in Japan.

Introduction: The Many Faces of Global East Asia
Frank N. Pieke and Koichi Iwabuchi

Part One • Global East Asia: Past and Present
Frank N. Pieke

1 • Reluctant Keystone: The Nexus of War, Memory, and Geopolitics in Okinawa
Jeff Kingston

2 • From Jazz Men to Jasmine: Transnational Nightlife Cultures in Shanghai from the 1920s to the 2010s
Andrew Field and James Farrer

3 • Maoism as a Global Force
Julia Lovell

4 • Japanese Development Aid and Global Power
Hiroshi Kan Sato and Akiko Hiratsuka-Sasaki

5 • Conflict and Cooperation in Global East Asia
Lindsay Black

Part Two • East Asian Global Cultures
Koichi Iwabuchi and Frank N. Pieke

6 • Hybridity and Authenticity in Global East Asian Foodways
Sidney Cheung

7 • Trans-Pacific Flows and US Audiences of Korean Popular Culture
Jung-Sun Park

8 • Ai Weiwei and the Global Art of Politics
William A. Callahan

Part Three • Education, Science, and Technology
Frank N. Pieke

9 • China, Japan, and the Rise of Global Competition in Higher Education and Research
Futao Huang

10 • The Educational Exodus from South Korea
Adrienne Lo and Leejin Choi

11 • From "Wild East" to Global Pioneers: Life Science Developments in East Asia
Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner

12 • A Concise History of Worlding Chinese Medicine
Mei Zhan

Part Four • East Asian Mobilities and Diversities
Frank N. Pieke

13 • Of Married Daughters and Caged Chickens: The History and Significations of Being "Chinese" in Southeast Asia
Kwee Hui Kian

14 • The Korean Diaspora in the United States
John Lie

15 • The Japanese Diaspora in the Americas and the Ethnic Return Migration of Japanese Americans
Takeyuki Gaku Tsuda

16 • Chinese Labor Migrants in Asia and Africa
Miriam Driessen and Biao Xiang

17 • Uncertain Choices of Chinese-Foreign Children's Citizenship in the People’s Republic of China
Elena Barabantseva, Caroline Grillot, and Michaela Pelican

18 • From Hmong Versus Miao to the Making of Transnational Hmong/Miao Solidarity
Louisa Schein and Chia Youyee Vang

19 • An East Asian Nation without a State: Xinjiang and China's Non-Chinese
Ildikó Bellér-Hann

Part Five • The Rise of China and East Asia as the New Center of the World
Frank N. Pieke

20 • Global China's Business Frontier: Chinese Enterprises and the Reach of the State
Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente

21 • Common Destiny in Cyberspace: China's Cyber Diplomacy
Rogier Creemers

22 • Chinese Correspondents around the World
Pál Nyíri

23 • Decoupling the US Economy: Preparations for a New Cold War?
Richard McGregor and Hervé Lemahieu

24 • State-Led Globalization, or How Hard Is China’s Soft Power?
Ingrid d’Hooghe and Frank N. Pieke

Afterword • East Asia: Being There and Being Elsewhere
Ulf Hannerz

List of Contributors
Index

Reviews

“I’ve never seen such an array of different essays on global East Asian in a single volume. The scholarship is excellent.”—Gordon Mathews, author of The World in Guangzhou: Africans and Other Foreigners in South China's Global Marketplace

"Combining insights from a wide spectrum of disciplines, this collection offers much-needed insights in the global role of East Asia. It goes beyond describing the economic and political rise of China, Japan, and South Korea by demonstrating the deep impact of the transformations in East Asia on all aspects of life in the entire interdependent world. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the global reach of East Asia."—Peter van der Veer, author of The Modern Spirit of Asia

"This book offers incisive insights into the implications of the rise of China, while also showing how deeply the East Asian region is woven together by rapidly evolving networks of migration, culture, media, education, and scientific innovation. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complex forces transforming East Asia and the world today."—Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor Emerita, Australian National University

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews