Asian Anthropology

🎉 New article accepted!

#AA_accepted #QueerStudies #Indonesia

Title: “Examining Indonesian queer groups through Axel Honneth’s perspective on recognition”.

Authors: Agus Danugroho, Rustinsyah Rustinsyah & Mohammad Adib.

Stay tuned! The full article will be out soon! 🌏✨

Research on Japan in (Post-)COVID Times: A Conversation with Klemen Senica and Marco Di Francesco

🎙️Our podcast is live! @klemensenica.bsky.social & @marcodifrancesco.bsky.social discuss Asian Anthropology’s special issue on research on Japan in (post-)COVID Times. Fieldwork, adaptation, and unexpected insights—thoughtful reflections and funny stories included!
🔗 open.spotify.com/episode/0rMO....

At the T&F journal 'Asian Anthropology', we are looking for new co-editors.

If you are interested in this role, please consider applying! You can find all information here: lnkd.in/edwapNw8.

@asiananthropology.bsky.social

Makeshift place-making and artistic practices in a Guangzhou urban village Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an urban village (chengzhongcun 城中村) in Guangzhou, this study examines how young artists experiment with creating spatial conditions for everyday need...

📢 Introducing the Research Report category!

Less theory, more ethnographic insight—perfect for current PhD students 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓

Check out an example from our latest issue: Jia Li's piece on artistic place-making in a Guangzhou urban village
🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#AA_ResearchReport #PlaceMaking #China

Modified bodies, material selves: beauty ideals in post-reform Shanghai Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 24, No. 2, 2025)

Did you know that Asian Anthropology publishes book reviews?

In our latest issue, Ke Ma (@aissr.bsky.social) reviews 'Modified Bodies, Material Selves' by Julie E. Starr — on beauty, identity & the body in post-reform Shanghai.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#BookReview #Beauty #China #Anthropology

Working together for a better life: individuals, family, and society in the rural Mekong Delta, Vietnam People in the rural Mekong Delta in Vietnam have been experiencing social transformations associated with rapid economic development, which has led to both urbanization and out-migration. This arti...

Vol. 24(2) highlight!

"Working together for a better life: individuals, family, and society in the rural Mekong Delta, Vietnam" by Setsuko Shibuya

As rapid development reshapes Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, what holds people together?

Read here: doi.org/10.1080/1683...
#Vietnam #Migration #Urbanization

Housing racism against Indians in Malaysia’s Klang Valley House hunting in the Malaysian housing market is challenging for Indian Malaysian tenants, who are subject to various forms of racism. Harmful stereotypes painting Indians as dirty and dangerous ha...

Vol. 24(2) is out now!

Featuring Gabriel Pereira & Ting-Fai Yu’s powerful piece on housing discrimination against Indian Malaysians in Klang Valley—where landlords’ racial biases and everyday racism shape who gets to rent.

Read here: doi.org/10.1080/1683...
#Malaysia #racism #housingdiscrimination

Performance as cultural text: defamiliarizing the performing art tradition of Purulia Chhau Referring to the social and cultural anthropological perspectives and employing a qualitative approach as the primary methodological tool, this PhD dissertation explores the performing art traditio...

🎭 PhD Highlight!

Maheshwar Kumar examines Purulia Chhau (West Bengal) as cultural text from an Indigenous perspective—analyzing and linking ritual, training, audience, and gender through Schechner’s performance model.

Read here: doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#AADissertationHighlight #PerformanceStudies

Selective neglect of viral risk: Tokyo’s commuter trains during the COVID-19 pandemic This article asks why Tokyo’s crowded trains were largely absent from official discourses of viral risk in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. While public transport environments were often framed ...

🚆 Why weren’t Tokyo’s packed commuter trains seen as COVID-19 risks?

In our latest issue, Christoph Schimkowsky explores why Japan's pandemic discourse framed urban rail as safe — contrasting global narratives of contagion.

Read here: doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#Anthropology #COVID19 #Japan

🎧Coming soon: Asian Anthropology’s new podcast!

In Ep. 1, @klemensenica.bsky.social & Marco Di Francesco join us to explore how fieldwork in Japan changed in (post-)COVID times—methodologically, emotionally, and ethically.

Stay tuned, we can’t wait to share it with you!
#Anthropology #COVID #Japan

From guanxi to lianjie: stranger intimacy and co-living in contemporary China Urban youth in China increasingly prioritize lianjie (连接)—a social matrix and lifestyle based on connections with strangers, distinguishing it from guanxi, which is rooted in acquaintance relations...

Another gem from our latest issue! ✨

How do young people in China build meaningful connections with strangers? Haoyan Zhuang (Renmin University of China) explores 'lianjie' — a form of relationality emerging in urban co-living spaces.

doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#UrbanYouth #CoLiving #ChinaStudies

Paradoxical postsecularity in the making: a methodological experiment in the study of China’s temple-centered urban redevelopment The incorporation of Buddhist temples into urban redevelopment within China’s market transition became notable after the 2000s. Domestic and international real estate developers collaborated with l...

🔎 New in our latest issue!
How do Buddhist temples become sites of urban redevelopment?

In “Paradoxical postsecularity in the making”, Yang Wang, Junxi Qian, and Yusheng Lei explore religion, commerce, and urban transformation in Chengdu, China.
👉 doi.org/10.1080/1683...

#UrbanStudies #Religion

🎉 New article accepted!

#AA_accepted #MedicalAnthropology #ObstetricViolence

Title: Malay women’s narratives of gender-, class- and race-based obstetric iatrogenesis in Singapore

Author: Syahirah Rasheed (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies @kitlv.bsky.social)

Grounding a global career in local knowledge: an interview with James Farrer, professor in sociology at Sophia University, Japan Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 24, No. 1, 2025)

We're launching an interview series with leading voices in Asian Anthropology!

First up: Prof. James Farrer @sophiauniversitye.bsky.social on youth sexual culture in China, expat life in Shanghai, & global Japanese cuisine—Vol.24(1)

doi.org/10.1080/1683...
#Anthropology #AsianStudies #Ethnography

🎉 Just in: new research accepted!

#AA_accepted #GenderStudies #WomensEmpowerment

Title: Women’s Limited Agency as Market Actors in a Patriarchal Marketplace in the Context of Rajshahi City
Authors: Shekh Sadia Akter, Most Umma Sumaya & Chowdhury Anika Farah (University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh)

🏆 The 2024 Best Paper Prize goes to Richard Fraser (Arctic University of Norway) for “That-which-must-not-be-named”: hunting, secrecy, and the ontology of meat in northeast China (Asian Anthropology Vol. 23/3). Check out this open-access paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....