Announcing Two Series: The World of East Asia and Critical Interventions

For most of its past, East Asia was a world unto itself. The land we now call China sat roughly at its center and was surrounded by a number of places we now call Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Tibet, as well as a host of lands absorbed into one of these. The peoples and cultures of these lands interacted among themselves with virtually no reference to the outside world before the dawn of early modern times. Although all was not always peaceful or harmonious, there were rules (explicit and implicit) governing interactions long in existence when Westerners arrived on the scene. The World of East Asia aims to support the production of research on the interactions, both historical and contemporary, between and among these lands and their cultures and peoples. It purposefully does not define itself by discipline or time period; the only criterion is that the interaction be either within East Asia or between East Asia and its Central, South, and Southeast Asian neighbors. Crossing Empire’s Edge: Foreign Ministry Police and Japanese Expansionism in Northeast Asia, by Erik Esselstrom, will be the inaugural volume. For further information contact the series’ general editor, Joshua A. Fogel (fogel@yorku.ca).

Critical Interventions aims to make available innovative, cutting-edge works with a focus on Asia or the presence of Asia in other continents and regions. Series titles will explore a wide range of issues and topics in the modern and contemporary periods, especially those dealing with literature, cinema, art, theater, media, cultural theory, and intellectual history as well as subjects that cross disciplinary boundaries. It encourages scholarship that combines solid research with an imaginative approach, theoretical sophistication, and stylistic lucidity. Direct proposals and inquiries to the series’ general editor, Sheldon H. Lu (shlu@ucdavis.edu).