Liu Jieyu, Embedded Generations: Family Life and Social Change in Contemporary China (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025). Progress matters. It is hard to look at a family, our own or anyone else’s, without a story of progress underneath it—the freedom to choose, to love, to build a household of one’s own making rather than … Continue reading "Lucas Tse reviews Liu Jieyu, Embedded…
Du Chunmei, Everyday Occupation: American GIs and Chinese Civilians After World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025). Prof. Du Chunmei’s Everyday Occupation: American GIs and Chinese Civilians After World War II is groundbreaking. Imaginatively conceived and meticulously researched, this innovative book analyzes grassroots encounters between American servicemen and Chinese…
Last year marked the eightieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also marked a new era in nuclear dangers, with the imminent expiration of the last of the strategic nuclear weapons treaties (New START). While the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has no expiration date, the associated … Continue reading "William Marotti, Sovereignty and Nuclear…
When the news came that Ackbar Abbas was no more, I was shocked that someone who never seemed to grow old could have left us, just like that. I first met him in 2017 at his talk at the University of Hong Kong on fake news in the age of Trump. The talk … Continue reading "Tejaswini Niranjana, The Dream-Work of Boredom: Remembering Ackbar Abbas (1942-2026)" The post Tejaswini Niranjana, The…
Introduction:The Politics of Internationalist Children’s Literature in the Cultural Revolution By: Brian W. L. (a student)Edited by: Rebecca Karl Maoist China had a rich legacy of support for national liberation movements in literature and art. Fluttering Battle Banners (1971, 战旗飘飘) is a 20-page-long picture book about Palestine … Continue reading "Fluttering Battle Banners: A Maoist Comic Book on…
On 24 June 1932, the People’s Party, a civilian-military coalition, fomented a transformation from absolute monarchy to a constitutional regime in Thailand. In the ninety-four years since then, there has been a constant struggle by supporters of democracy to make the promise of the transformation real. The transformation remained fundamentally incomplete and the … Continue reading "Get Sophon…
What is a left position on Taiwan? This question was posed to us – the three editors of praxis, Rebecca Karl, Aminda Smith, and Fabio Lanza – at a recent social event in New York. The query came from someone who works as a political operative in the city. He came to us with a certain … Continue reading "What is a Left Position on Taiwan?" The post What is a Left Position on Taiwan? appeared first…
Is China abolishing the hukou ? Since the PRC’s State Council announced a new guideline on public services on May 18, 2026 this question has led to an outpouring of commentary. For decades, analysts from a wide range of political orientations have called for ending the hukou . Has the moment arrived? Most economists have … Continue reading "Eli Friedman, For Those Who Meet the Conditions" The post…
This was originally written for and published in AHA Perspectives on History, and it is cross-posted with permission. We at positions also mourn the loss of Vince: he was a long-time member of, contributor to, and supporter of our journal and our project. Vicente (Vince) Leuterio Rafael, eminent historian of the Philippines and scholar of … Continue reading "Adrian De Leon, Vicente L. Rafael…
Translator’s note: The following reflection by the Hui Muslim contemporary Chinese writer Zhang Chengzhi was published on WeChat during the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampments of 2024 and later translated into English and read aloud at the encampments. Two years after the brutal suppression of the Gaza solidarity encampments, student activism and academic … Continue reading "Zhang Chengzhi. “So…
Andrea Pollio, Silicon Elsewhere: Nairobi, Global China, and the Promise of Techno-Capital, University of California Press: Los Angeles, 238 pp., 9780520413085 Amid the new rounds of imperial war against Iran, I can clearly sense the circulation of a certain Sinophilia among many of my US and European leftist friends—it seems as if we … Continue reading "Afro-Asian Now: Global China in a Too-Late…
Chen Jian, Zhou Enlai: A Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2024)* Chen Jian has written an impressive book. For decades to come, it will undoubtedly be the go-to text that scholars consult for questions related to Zhou Enlai. As Chen notes in the introduction, past scholarship on Zhou has tended to … Continue reading "Revolution, War, and Revenge in Maoist China. Covell Meyskens reviews…
Nellie Chu. 2026. Precarious Accumulation: Fast Fashion Bosses in Transnational Guangzhou . Durham: Duke University Press. Since the promotion of the state-endorsed “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” initiative in 2014, entrepreneurship has been framed as a panacea for nearly all socio-economic problems. Individuals across different social backgrounds are encouraged to embrace…
A major labor struggle unfolded in late February and early March 2026 at the Polyak Eynez coal mine in Kınık, a district of İzmir in western Turkey. The action was led by Bağımsız Maden-İş ( Bağımsız Maden İşçileri Sendikası , Independent Miners’ Union). The immediate trigger was the December 2025 transfer of a 70 percent … Continue reading "Burak Gürel, Chinese Capital Meets Labor Unrest in…
