Stanford University Press Blog

Some Lunar/Lunisolar New Year Reading

February 3 marks the New Year for China, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Tibet, in honor of which Stanford University Press is having a sale on select items from our distinguished Asian Studies list.

Some highlights:  You can’t read a newspaper these days without some mention of China, and for good reason. The economy continues to grow, and along with it an ever-expanding gap between the rich and poor. At some point, will China’s citizens say they’ve had enough? In Accepting Authoritarianism and MYTH OF THE SOCIAL VOLCANO, SUP authors Teresa Wright and Martin King Whyte demonstrate why social upheaval isn’t imminent. But that’s not to say that the Chinese, both urban and rural, are content with the status quo, as Yongshun Cai explores in COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE IN CHINA: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. For those less interested in what happens next, and perhaps a bit nostalgic for last year’s World Expo, Marie Claire Bergere’s SHANGHAI: China's Gateway to Modernityprovides readers with a witty and wonderful stroll through the cosmopolitan city’s history. Our limitless books on China give a glimpse –and in many cases, a deep dive – into the myriad issues that make China a country we’ll continue to watch.

With the ongoing North Korean threat, the alliance between the United State and South Korea is more critical than ever. But key differences in the ways each country views the partnership threaten to destabilize it. In ONE ALLIANCE, TWO LENSES: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New EraGi-Wook Shin explores this important bilateral relationship and how to strengthen it.

Two decades ago, Vietnam made the transition to a market economy, which wrought changes at all levels of society. While many Americans think of Vietnam first and foremost as where they’d like to vacation next, some of the most interesting changes taking place are not happening in its hospitality industry, but among its families. RECONFIGURING FAMILIES IN CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMtakes readers into the lives of Vietnamese men and women as they negotiate new challenges of work, HIV/AIDS, reproductive policies, and more.

Be sure to check out our website for more titles: http://www.sup.org/lunarnewyear/.  Sale end February 10, 2011.

Further Background Reading on Egypt: Let's Dig a Little Deeper

One reason Egypt's uprising seems to have taken most of the world by surprise is the lack of any major political unrest in the last 30 years.  For a deeper understanding of the long history of authoritarian rule in the Middle East, turn to Debating Arab Authoritarianism: Dynamics and Durability in Nondemocratic Regimes, which includes essays that consider the ongoing political dynamics and the region and show how Arab regimes have retained their power despite ongoing transformations in societal, political, and economic spheres.

Another surprising factor is the apparent absence of any one leader of the protests.  Instead, the focus has largely been on Egypt's middle class youth (60% of Egypt's population is under 30).  Frances Hasso explores the growing frustration of Egypt's young people, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed and thus unable to marry or start a family, in Consuming Desires: Family Crisis and the State in the Middle East 

Finally, later this spring Joel Beinin and Frederic Vairel examine social movements, political opportunity, and collective action in their forthcoming book, Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa.  For a look at how precisely these social movements have influence the current uprising, see Joel Beinin's Egypt at the Tipping Point?  in a January 31, 2011 posting on Foreign Policy's "Middle East Channel."