Asian Review of Books

Gregory Smits, "The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

Most people only know one of the Ryukyu Islands: the island of Okinawa, home to sandy beaches and one of the U.S.’s most important bases in Asia. There are lots of myths about this island chain, which stretch from southern Japan down to the island of Taiwan: That it owed loyalty to China, given its place in the imperial tribute trade; that it was a pacifist kingdom; that it was quasi-sovereign even within Japan. Gregory Smits tackles a lot of these myths in his expansive history of the islands, titled The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present (University of Chicago Press: 2025). His book, and today’s conversation, dives into all the ways that the Ryukyu Islands will frustrate anyone trying to fit this place into an easy historical or political narrative.  Gregory Smits is professor of history and Asian Studies at Penn State University. He is the author of several books, including Early Ryukyuan History: A New Mode (University of Hawaii Press: 2024), Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650 (University of Hawaii Press: 2019) and Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics (University of Hawaii Press: 1999) You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/], including its review of The Ryukyu Islands [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/the-ryukyu-islands-by-gregory-smits-the-legacy-of-the-ryukyu-kingdom-by-takara-kurayoshi/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

Olivier Hein, "Mother of the World: The Remarkable History of Turkmenistan" (Hurst, 2026)

Turkmenistan rarely makes international headlines–and when it did, it was often stories that highlighted things like the strange cult of personality that surrounded Saparmurat Niyazov, its first post-Soviet president, who named months after himself and made his memoir required reading. Olivier Hein joins us on the show today to talk about Turkmenistan’s long history: as a possible origin for Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic faith; the rise of Merv, at one point possibly one of the world’s largest cities; the emergence of the Turkmen; and how this region ended up becoming the crossroads of empires. Olivier’s work is now a book  [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781805265818]Mother of the World: The Remarkable History of Turkmenistan [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781805265818] (Hurst, 2026) Olivier Hein is a Mauritian-British author whose books include Star and Key: The Historical Adventure of Mauritius and Borneo: The History of an Enigma. Formerly a UN, UK and OSCE diplomat, posted to New York, Paris, Kosovo and Turkmenistan, he also contributes to The Chap magazine. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books [https://asianreviewofbooks.com/]. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia [https://twitter.com/BookReviewsAsia]. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon [https://twitter.com/nickrigordon?lang=en]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

Xiaobing Li, "China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy (Naval Institute Press, 2026)

In 2012, China debuted its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refurbished Soviet-era ship from Ukraine. The debut of the Liaoning was largely thanks to a longtime pressure campaign by Liu Huaqing, the onetime leader of the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the man responsible for transforming China’s naval strategy. (China now has three carriers, and is building a fourth). When Liu began his career, China saw its military victories as coming primarily via land warfare; Liu, over decades, forced China to take naval combat seriously. Xiaobing Li writes about Liu’s life in his book China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781682479605] (Naval Institute Press, 2026), from his early career in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War and finishing with his long push to start China’s aircraft carrier program. Xiaobing Li, professor of history and Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma, is the author of The Dragon in the Jungle, Attack at Chosin, Building Ho’s Army, History of Taiwan, and The Cold War in East Asia. He is the executive editor of the Chinese Historical Review. Li served in the PLA in China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

Charlotte Brooks, "The Moys of New York and Shanghai: One Family’s Extraordinary Journey Through War and Revolution" (U California Press, 2026)

The story of the Moy family—U.S.-born Chinese-American siblings who grow up in the first half of the 20th century—is one that spans the Pacific, covering New York, Chicago, and cosmopolitan Shanghai. It’s a story that spans the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War, and the early Cold War—and stars one sibling who was an early participant in the Kuomintang…and another who records propaganda for Germany and Japan during the Second World War. In her new book, The Moys of New York and Shanghai: One Family’s Extraordinary Journey Through War and Revolution [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780520409552] (University of California Press, 2026), historian Charlotte Brooks follows the Moys as they confront discrimination in the United States, search for opportunity in cosmopolitan Shanghai, and wrestle with questions of loyalty, identity, and belonging that still resonate today. Charlotte is a historian and author who has published widely on Asian American history, especially Chinese American and Chinese diaspora history. Originally from California, she graduated from Yale and worked in mainland China and Hong Kong before earning a PhD from Northwestern University. She is a professor of history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center. In this conversation, we talk about Charlotte’s research, the lives of the Moy siblings, and what their experiences tell us about being Chinese American in a turbulent century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]

Robert Templer, "The Shah's Party: And the Iranian Revolution That Followed (Hurst, 2026)

In 1971, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi threw a party to celebrate the 2,500-year anniversary of the Persian Empire. It was planned to be a massive party, with tents set up in the desert, and invitations sent to just about every world leader across both the Western and Soviet blocs. Robert Templer writes about this celebration–and how it presaged the events of the Iranian Revolution of 1979–in his new book  [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781805265696]The Shah's Party: And the Iranian Revolution That Followed  [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781805265696](Hurst, 2026). Robert Templer is a writer and former professor at the Central European University, where he also founded a research centre on post-conflict recovery. From 2011-2012, he was director of the Asia Programme at the International Crisis Group and has visited Iran on many occasions. He is the author of four books including the acclaimed Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam and A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review]