President Donald Trump’s implausible second term has shaken the West’s faith in democracy, a bedrock principle of so-called liberal societies. Ongoing Pacific Century and rise of China discourses sustain Western admiration for, but also critiques of, East Asia. For example, recent social unrest under President Yoon Suk Yeol, coupled with the Korean public’s swift response, earned immediate praise from Western analysts. Accordingly, post-colonial, post-authoritarian South Korea had seemingly emerged as a rare bastion of democracy in a world increasingly under threat from anti-democratic, authoritarian governance. Likewise, continual anxieties over global AI arms race supremacy have led Western countries to predictably criticize China for its alleged abuses of democracy and human rights.

Critical of the accepted authenticity and universality of democracy, both in theory and in practice, this edited volume welcomes contributors who engage with any of the following questions: how might we productively disrupt conventional notions of democracy by thinking of Asia transnationally? How do different countries in East Asia interpret and enact supposed democratic (and undemocratic) principles in the context of historic and contemporary conditions? Finally, considering Asian and Asian American studies as disciplinary examples, how might a decolonial, transnational approach to Area Studies productively challenge assumed democratic (and undemocratic) processes unfolding within and beyond contemporary Asia? We welcome papers across disciplinary approaches including (but not limited to) anthropology, sociology, history, Asian studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, and political science. Prospective contributors are asked to send their abstracts by May 31st, 2025 to transnational.asia@rice.edu.

This issue will be edited by guest editor, Alex Jong-Seok Lee. Alex Jong-Seok Lee is an independent scholar interested in the scholarly intersection of Asian Studies and Asian American Studies. Formally a visiting professor of global studies at the University of the South and a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University’s Chao Center for Asian Studies, he received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, the US has entered a time of uncertainty regarding maternal health, women’s access to abortion, and fetal (and embryonic) personhood, sharpening the divide between the two opposing camps of pro-life and pro-choice. In Asia, unlike the US, the issue of abortion rarely splits the nation in politics, culture, or religion. Why? Is this related to the historically formed relations between the genders? Is it related to healthcare systems in Asian countries? Are there social mechanisms that silence this issue? Or is this because we have not explored many debates on matters related to abortion in Asia? Transnational Asia is calling for papers that address issues of abortion, maternal health, and fetal personhood in Asia. We welcome papers across disciplinary approaches including history, anthropology, gender studies, social studies of health, religion, and political science, to state only a few. Prospective contributors are asked to send their abstracts by February 28, 2025, to transnational.asia@rice.edu.

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As we face a new year and new challenges, Asia and the world point to a more urgent need to explore diverse issues with new methods. Asia has one of the world’s most vocal democracies (Taiwan) and a democracy that is currently being tested in front of the world (South Korea); Asia has a strong yet stagnant economy (Japan) and the world’s fastest-growing one (India); Asia is known to have the highest number of enslaved workers today; South Asia routinely records the worst air quality and air pollution in the world, while East Asia has the worst carbon emissions globally. In this world, what can scholars of Asia and Transnational Asia explore, discuss, and critique to make a difference? Transnational Asia is currently accepting submissions for special issues. Potential guest editors are encouraged to contact transnational.asia@rice.edu. With the upcoming 2025 Association for Asian Studies meetings, Transnational Asia welcomes panel organizers’ inquiries about how to turn conference panels into special issues.

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The editorial committee of Transnational Asia lost its dear friend, Dr. Nanxiu Qian, Professor of Chinese Literature at Rice University, in 2022. To commemorate her life and work, the committee has published a special issue of Transnational Asia titled "Feminism, Transnationalism, Art and Literature: A Tribute to Professor Nanxiu Qian (1947-2022)."

Professor Qian was best known for her pioneering and much-cited work on the enormously influential fifth-century Chinese masterpiece Shishuo xinyu (A New Account of Tales of the World), but she also wrote extensively on a great many other Chinese literary works spanning some two thousand years, from the Lienü zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women; first century BCE), to twentieth-century fiction in Taiwan, and gender studies in contemporary American scholarship on China. Her last single-authored book was Politics, Poetics, and Gender in Late Qing China: Xue Shaohui and the Era of Reform (Stanford University Press, 2015), a highly regarded political and literary biography of a remarkable woman scholar in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. Nanxiu was also a dedicated, prize-winning teacher who introduced hundreds of students to the beauty and power of texts written by Chinese women, past and present.

Nanxiu will be sorely missed and long remembered. We are pleased that the articles in this commemorative volume will be a part of that remembrance.

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Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) has profoundly affected teaching and research in Asian Studies, raising fundamental questions about why and how we study Asia. Nearly fifty years later, we are faced with a need to reflect on what has changed and remains unchanged since Said’s seminal intervention in Asian Studies. Specifically, Transnational Asia is calling for papers that address pedagogical and instructional issues––in particular, Asian Studies classes in colleges and universities that engage directly with the themes and critiques raised in Said’s Orientalism and its reverberating effects. We are particularly interested in papers illustrating changes in classrooms and on campuses that have happened and are happening hand in hand with changing socio-economic and political conditions, not only in Asia but also in the rest of the world. We especially welcome cross-disciplinary approaches, including language instruction, art, history, area studies, anthropology, literature, ethnic studies, and geography. Prospective contributors are asked to send their abstracts by August 31 to transnational.asia@rice.edu.

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Natural Disaster and Social (In)Justice: One hundred years since the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan

September 1, 2023 will mark the one hundredth year of the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan that killed hundreds of thousands of people and damaged vast areas in the vicinity of Tokyo and Yokohama. By the end of that day, 1923, rumors began circulating blaming Koreans for the fire, looting, and rape. As a result, thousands of Koreans in Japan in these areas were hunted down and lynched by Japanese civilian vigilantes. These Koreans were colonial immigrants who moved to Japan seeking work opportunities following Japan’s colonial annexation of Korea in 1910. To this day, we often witness disasters that reveal various forms of xenophobia and racial and ethnic discrimination. For instance, following the recent catastrophic earthquake in Turkey, many Syrian refugees who had settled in the disaster-affected areas were harassed and discriminated against when trying to seek assistance. In this year of the one hundredth anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Transnational Asia editorial committee calls for papers that address responses to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms, floods and famines––responses that are historically conditioned, prioritizing some people and leaving others behind––or worse, eliminating some populations altogether. We interpret “natural disaster” broadly, since more often than not “natural” disasters are not completely natural. Send your 500-word abstract to transnational.asia@rice.edu.

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The editorial committee of Transnational Asia recently lost its dear friend, Dr. Nanxiu Qian (1947-2022), Professor of Chinese Literature at Rice University. The committee plans to publish a special issue of Transnational Asia commemorating her life and work.

Professor Qian was best known for her pioneering and much-cited work on the enormously influential fifth-century Chinese masterpiece Shishuo xinyu (A New Account of Tales of the World), but she also wrote extensively on a great many other Chinese literary works spanning some two thousand years, from the Lienü zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women; first century BCE), to twentieth century fiction in Taiwan, and gender studies in contemporary American scholarship on China. Her last single-authored book was Politics, Poetics, and Gender in Late Qing China: Xue Shaohui and the Era of Reform (Stanford University Press, 2015), a highly regarded political and literary biography of a remarkable woman scholar in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. Nanxiu was also a dedicated, prize-winning teacher who introduced hundreds of students to the beauty and power of texts written by Chinese women, past and present.

In appreciation of Nanxiu Qian’s wide-ranging scholarship, the editorial committee calls for papers on women and literature in transnational Asia from any historical period. The committee also welcomes diverse genres, ranging from classical prose to online novels and fan fiction. Please direct all inquiries to transnational.asia@rice.edu.

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