Critical Asian Studies publishes scholarly articles that challenge accepted formulas for understanding the Asia and Pacific regions, the world, and ourselves.
Washington, DC
Joined January 2016
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Indian authorities detained thousands of protesters in New Delhi as India's youth “Cockroach” movement intensified its nationwide campaign against a controversial voter list revision that has fueled anger at Modi’s government and election authorities. apnews.com/article/india-sir…
Notes from the Field | Duncan McCargo, Chayata Sripanich & Karin Zackari present rare photographs of a Thammasat University student play that days later sparked the 6 October 1976 campus massacre: "The theme of the play? The horrors of Thai state violence" criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Monika introduces recent political activism in India sparked by social-media based satire amongst the Gen-Z “Cockroach Janata Party,” and questions whether this youth mobilization can translate into larger institutional engagement and change. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Notes from the Field | Hu Chao highlights the epistemic violence inherent in bilateral geopolitical media coverage that renders SE Asia in "terms that the machinery of geopolitical commentary can process" & "renders the region illegible on its own terms." criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Alyssa Kate Dela Cruz details the use of gossip in Filipino online communities such as r/ChikaPH critiquing the actions nepo babies & family members of politicians who flaunt their luxury items while constituents are drowning in monsoon floods criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Notes from the Field | Shinyi Hsieh urges scholars to recognize "the many Taiwans": "Indigenous Taiwan, trans-empire Taiwan, the environmental history of Taiwan, & the things, souls & spirits that cannot be captured through the framing of 'the other China."criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Nyi Nyi Kyaw calls attention to tactics nationalist Buddhist monks in Myanmar have used to harass Muslim communities including the Rohingya over the years while explaining how an upcoming ICJ genocide ruling could reactivate monastic violence. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Annalise Chang, Carlineissa Jean Francois, Masaharu Kai, Tom Le & Ellie Sun point out underappreciated weaknesses in China’s demographics, economics, environment and reputation that should temper alarmism & call for preparation for instability.criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Notes from the Field | Aidan Huang details the challenges of pursuing Chinese studies in Africa: "I eventually arrived...because I was able, with some luck, to piece together a route across institutional gaps, informal contacts & transnational academic networks beyond China"
Commentary | Ka Hang Wong questions recent curricular reforms in Hong Kong designed to foster Chinese national identity, patriotism & moral cultivation, and then considers how political authority is stabilized through the construction of knowledge itself. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Notes from the Field | Sia X. Yang offers a poignant meditation on the role of pain in art and performance in China: "Pain in contemporary China is not merely endured. It is organized, moralized, redistributed, and ultimately naturalized as value." criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Muhammad Nawfal Saleemi argues that there is "an urgent need to mobilize a decolonial perspective grounded in indigenous genderqueer identities based on regional & cultural specificities" in response to protect legal rights of trans people. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Notes from the Field | Moira Moeliono, Tristam Moeliono, Maria Brockhaus, & Grace Wong argue that Indonesia's 2023 Job Creation Law's promise of “entrepreneurship for all” obstructs social & environmental justice and silences visions of green development. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Jiahao Zhao critiques "rescue politics" in which "women are acknowledged, but only in forms that remain useful to states, media, & geopolitical projects" and that see war as liberation: "There is no straight line from bombing to emancipation."
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Notes from the Field | Roshni Brahma shares an introspective reflection on the "shifting trajectory" of her positionality as a Boro researcher from Assam in Northeast India conducting ethnographic research at "home" as a "native anthropologist." criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Imran Ahmed & Roshni Kapur detail political tensions around legal accountability in Bangladesh unfolding against a backdrop of deteriorating law & order, with moral policing, harassment, gender-based violence and attacks on police on the rise.
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Photo Essay | Stephen Black recounts his 1979 photo exhibition "Children of Vietnam" and shares images documenting the everyday life of children in Vietnam in the wake of war: criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Commentary | Kanokrat Lertchoosakul argues that the result of the 2026 election in Thailand marks a new anti-democratic political formation—Royal Local Bossism—in which royalist‑aligned conservative power and local bossism, once rivals, now march together. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Jian Xu and Florian introduce a new Special Series, "The Politicization of Influencers: Influencer Propaganda in Asia" featuring essays from the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, and India. criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Special Series | Viet Tho Le, "Performing authenticity, amplifying authority: Influencer propaganda and digital patriotism in Vietnam" criticalasianstudies.org/com…
Special Series | Suruchi Mazumdar, "Informal Allies: Hindutva Pop Influencers and Propaganda in Digital India" criticalasianstudies.org/com…