ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia
ASIEN ist eine referierte (double blind peer review) asienwissenschaftliche Vierteljahreszeitschrift Herausgeberin: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde e. V. (DGA). ASIEN bietet seit 1981 Artikel in deutscher und englischer Sprache zu einem breiten Spektrum an Themen aus allen Regionen des modernen Asien.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde e. V. (DGA)
Navigating In-betweenness: Literary and Filmic Border Crossings in the Cultural Sinosphere
This special issue stems from a panel presented at the 2024 Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL) conference at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, titled “Behold the Human.” Against the backdrop of rapid global transformations and the rising influence of posthumanist, inhuman, and anti-humanist perspectives, the conference centered on a critical reflection on the concept of the human in literary and cultural discourse, particularly within the contexts of Chinese and comparative literature. Panels addressed a range of issues—including epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions—examining how conceptions of the human have been constructed, contested, or reimagined across diverse literary forms and media, including classical texts, modern literature, genre fiction, cinema, and digital platforms. Several contributions focused on the human’s entanglement with the non-human and the role of literature in articulating these evolving dynamics. The articles presented in this special issue reflect the discussions and insights generated during a panel titled “More than Human: Transgressions of Human and Non-human Realms in Chinese Literature and Films,” which specifically focused on themes of border transgressions, the concept of the “more-than-human,” and how Chinese-language and related literary and cultural narratives engage with these issues.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Reimagining the Weretiger of the Malay Peninsula: Western Colonial and Chinese Diasporic Perspectives
The weretiger, a fearsome shapeshifting figure from Malay folklore, contrasts sharply with the Malayan tiger, a national symbol revered in Malaysia. Transgressing the boundary between human and beast, it embodies an unsettling other to human society (both protective and perilous) and has permeated the cultural imagination of the Malay Peninsula. Although rooted in local belief systems, the figure has evolved through external and diasporic perspectives, acquiring new meanings beyond its original cultural context. This paper examines shifting representations of the weretiger among observers from outside the primary belief-bearing communities: first in Western colonial writings and then in the Chinese diaspora in historical China and Malaya/Malaysia. The inquiry is situated within the existing scholarly landscape, beginning with Robert Wessing’s comprehensive study of Southeast Asian weretiger traditions, which provides a sociological foundation grounded in local beliefs; it further acknowledges Nazry Bahrawi’s cultural translation framework regarding how oral traditions have been textualized into modern adaptations within the Malay literary sphere. Building on and moving beyond these perspectives, the paper analyzes how Western colonial authors, particularly Manuel Godinho de Erédia and Hugh Clifford, framed the weretiger within a hierarchical framework of disdain, deploying a two-tiered gaze: the Malay community’s gaze toward internal and external others (including marginalized groups such as the Semang and Kerinci), and the Western colonists’ gaze toward the Malay community. Finally, it traces how Chinese authors, from Ma Huan and Hsu Yun Tsiao who actually hailed from China, to the more recent Malaysian-born Chinese creators Maniniwei and Amanda Nell Eu, have transformed the weretiger motif from a folkloric curiosity into a vehicle for cultural critique, eventually turning from an external lens to a pursuit of internal authenticity. In doing so, the paper foregrounds the weretiger as a polyvalent symbol whose meanings are constantly renegotiated across historical, cultural, and ideological contexts.
Weretiger, Malay Peninsula, folklore, hierarchy of disdain, two-tiered gaze, Hugh Clifford, Maniniwei, Tiger Stripes
Off to Other Shores: Transgressing Borders in Contemporary Sinophone Screen Media
The concept of a border is most commonly understood in a geographical sense, referring to boundaries between nation states or specific locations, which are often fluid rather than clearly demarcated. However, borders can also denote boundaries between different materials, ontological states, or realms of existence. In Chinese folk religion, for instance, physical objects are believed to cross into the metaphysical realm through processes such as burning or vaporization, while humans employ various strategies to communicate with spirits and the dead. This paper examines how young women traverse the boundaries between the physical and metaphysical realms in contemporary Sinophone filmic narratives, focusing on the interplay between representations of supernatural phenomena, spirituality, and the negotiability of reality and identity with broader social realities and cultural discourses. Central to the analysis is the Netflix mini-series Bi’an zhi jia 彼岸之嫁 (English title: The Ghost Bride), an adaptation of Yangsze Choo’s novel The Ghost Bride, set in late nineteenth-century colonial Malacca. The series follows Pan Lilan, a young woman forced into a ghost marriage who must enter the realm of the dead to confront supernatural violence and reclaim agency. The paper places The Ghost Bride—referring both to the Netflix series and the novel—in conversation with Tan Chui Mui’s Barbarian Invasion (Chinese title: Yemanren ruqin 野蛮人入侵; Malay title: Belenggu), which offers a contemporary Sinophone perspective on spiritual and embodied forms of border-crossing beyond explicit ghostly encounters. Through an intersectional lens, this paper investigates how these transgressions and mediations—and the resulting states of in-betweenness—reflect and challenge gendered, classed, and ethnic hierarchies, arguing that such narratives offer imaginative blueprints for coexistence and plurality in the contemporary Sinophone world.
Active Voices and Analogue Natives: German and Japanese Media Representations of Digital Technologies and Older Adults during the Covid-19 Pandemic
This article presents a comparative analysis of media coverage of digital technologies and older adults from March 2020 until February 2022 in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun (AS). We identified two views of the impact of the increasing use of technologies on older adults: digital services as an opportunity (e.g. virtual medical consultations), and as a risk (e.g. services may exclude people unfamiliar with devices or applications). Three common narratives were identified: a) the pandemic exposed a lack of digital inclusion of older adults, b) the lack of care personnel poses challenges, and c) older adults feel disadvantaged especially in financial transactions. While AS featured diverse voices of older adults and presented “senior digital role models”, FAZ reported on seniors’ strengths as “analogue natives”. In conclusion to the findings, we offer recommendations for building a more inclusive digital society.
A Queer Momotaro under the Postcolonial Pacific: Reading The Membranes Alternatively
In this article, I read The Membranes (1996, 2021) as a postcolonial subversion of the Japanese folktale Momotaro, an interpretation alternative to the dominant reading mode that interprets the novella exclusively as science fiction. Examining the novella’s reader reception of its English translation, I suggest that the dominant reading mode in English-speaking communities tends to overlook the author’s speculation upon the reshuffling of global order and the postcolonial parable of Taiwan refracted by the protagonist’s birth story. While the dominant interpretive mode contributes to the great success of The Membranes’ translation, I argue that this mode eclipses the story’s postcolonial parable and constitutes an inverted form of “the time lag of allegory” identified by Shu-mei Shih as perpetuating the power asymmetry between the West and the non-West in global literary studies (2004). A reading that contests this mode is due. Published in Taiwan in 1996 when the gates had just been thrown open to eclectic borrowing as well as genre and gender subversion—as Taiwan ended its 39-year long martial law period in 1987—the novella projected a nationalistic as well as queer speculation from the author Chi Ta-wei—in a postapocalyptic world where humanity has relocated underseas (and where heterosexuality is abnormal), Taiwan exerts a huge regional influence, dominating Southeast Asia. Certainly a counterfactual, this fantasy likely gratified Taiwanese readership back then and can still strike a profound chord with its people now—as the island continues to be a politically inchoate state. With the birth story of its protagonist Momo (punning on the Japanese for “peach”) as its main plotline, The Membranes is allegorical of modern Taiwan, especially of its modern origin. This article provides an alternative reading strategy to emphasize this novella’s cultural specificities. It shows that underneath its sci-fi and queer trappings, The Membranes, at a deeper level, reflects Taiwan’s anxiety as a small and inchoate state as well as its story of modern origin.
The Unfulfilled Hopes of the UN Data Revolution – Zooming in on SDG 6 in India
This paper shows how the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (water) has neither been sufficiently realized at the international level nor in India, in spite of hopes and promises. The desired connection of “better data, better lives” propelled by the belief in the so-called UN data revolution has not sufficiently materialized in practice. We argue that this is not surprising as that belief in itself does not sufficiently come to grips with complex realities of the policy cycle and corresponding governing mechanisms at the domestic level. Understanding them better requires zooming in on compliance and implementation efforts within countries. By looking at India as the largest democracy in the world, one of the most prominent supporters of the SDGs and a country suffering from severe water stress, we intend to show how lack of effective domestic reference to SDG 6 may illustrate shortcomings of the SDGs process on a global level.
Walking Meditation and Slow Marches: Buddhist Responses to Climate Change Protest
The climate crisis is arguably one of today’s greatest challenges and the Buddhist doctrine offers a foundation for a comprehensive approach to environmental activism, grounded in core principles such as mindfulness, compassion, and dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda). Consequently, many Buddhists have turned to environmental activism, trying to find their own ways of expression. This study explores how Buddhist climate change activism manifests in protests in Germany and the UK, particularly through performative techniques. Building on the concept of climate activism as edgework in the Anthropocene (Hentschel 2023), it examines how XR Buddhists Germany have reimagined the traditional Buddhist mindfulness practice of walking meditation as a public, embodied intervention. During XR Germany’s Autumn Rebellion in Berlin (September 2022) and subsequent protest events, walking meditation was repurposed as a form of protest to raise public awareness and a means of cultivating alternative ways of being in the world. Based on textual analysis, online resources, interviews, and fieldwork, this paper analyses how Buddhist activists can participate in shaping new life worlds amid an ecological crisis by transforming a contemplative practice into a mode of secular civil disobedience.
Den Kailash umrunden: Abenteuer in Tibet
Der heilige Berg Kailash gilt als Seele Tibets. Reisebuchautor Thomas Bauer hat ihn zu Fuß umrundet. Er erzählt von Polizeikontrollen, Panikattacken und dem Reiz des Pilgerns.
Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asia Library Group
Hsu An-Nie 徐安妮 (Hrsg.): Von Wahrsagern und Technofrauen. Erzählungen zeitgenössischer Autorinnen aus Taiwan. & Hsu An-Nie (Hrsg.): Von Berglern und Geheimagenten. Zeitgenössische Erzählungen aus Taiwan.
Jimmy Brainless: Im Spiegel der Pfütze. & Jimmy Brainless: Im Spiegel der Ahnen.
Rainer Werning und Jörg Schwieger (Hg.) (2025): Von Marcos zu Marcos.
Ilker Gündoğan: The Politics of Football in China: Institutional Change and Political Steering Under Xi Jinping.
Cord Eberspächer, Jürgen Kloosterhuis, Zou Ailian, Hu Zhongliang, Andreas Steen, Xu Kai, Xu Jian (Herausgeber), bearbeitet von Cord Eberspächer: Preußen-Deutschland und China 1842–1911. Eine kommentierte Quellenedition.
Klaus Bardenhagen: Die wichtigste Insel der Welt. Was Sie wissen müssen, um Taiwan zu verstehen.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ein Gespenst geht um … Zur Prekarität und Resilienz der Mongolistik
In this essay, some implications of the alarmingly reduced teaching capacities in Mongolian studies in Germany are discussed. The focus is on possibilities and limits of compensation at the University of Bonn against the background of current dynamics, framework conditions and discrepancies. We have seen the restart of our discipline in 2013 as an opportunity to breathe new life into the subject and accordingly introduced innovative approaches to its further development on many levels, some of which are outlined here as examples with regard to teaching and academic communication. However, no matter how hard we strive for resilience, precarious human resources affect the substance of a subject and erode it from within, as knowledge transfer must inevitably be curtailed when language teaching capacities are reduced to a minimum due to a lack of sustainable funding.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ines Stolpe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Neue Herausforderungen für die Asienforschung
Es ist mittlerweile Tradition, dass in der ASIEN in unregelmäßigen Abständen über den Stand und die Perspektiven der Asienforschung und der Asienwissenschaften im deutschsprachigen Raum berichtet wird. Zuletzt erschien im Jahr 2017 zum 50- jährigen Jubiläum der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Asienkunde (DGA) ein Schwerpunktheft, in dem sich Autor:innen dezidiert mit der Geschichte und den aktuellen Herausforderungen ihrer jeweiligen Fächer und der Asienforschung im Allgemeinen auseinandergesetzt haben. Vieles von dem, was dort als Herausforderungen beschrieben wurde, hat leider nichts an Aktualität verloren. Der Umgang mit institutionellen Perspektiven bildet sich entsprechend auch in diesem Schwerpunktheft ab. Dies betrifft jedoch nicht automatisch die Streichung von Professuren oder gar ganzer Fächer, sondern auch deren prekäre Ausstattung, mit der Fachvertreter:innen den Alltag meistern müssen.
Where and How Will the Southeast Asianists of Tomorrow Be Educated?
In Germany, the state of Southeast Asian Studies reflects a pattern of institutional decline, which is unfortunately not unlike current developments in the US, UK, Australia and other parts of Western Europe. As first- or second-generation scholars reach retirement age, some of whom were pioneers in the field in the two Germanies post-WWII, their positions are not being replaced, or where they are, it is not always by scholars with similar expertise. At the same time, interest by students in studying Southeast Asian Studies continues to decline and so too the interest of research funding agencies and policy makers. This article offers some explanations of why and how this has happened, referring to general structural problems in the German academic system but also to some missed opportunities to gain more intellectual attention within the broader social sciences community. After mapping the current state of affairs at several universities in Germany, this article raises crucial questions about where and by whom the next generation of Southeast Asianists will be trained, and whether the current approach can sustain the field in the German academy and ultimately for German and European strategic interests in this increasingly crucial region, for the long term?
Copyright (c) 2025 Antje Missbach, Jemma Purdey https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Regionalwissenschaften für die Zukunft fit machen
Although language learning has become more attractive thanks to new, flexible, mobile software solutions, and foreign language skills are in demand in the labour market, many regional and language studies have experienced declining student numbers for years. This article assumes that this paradox is due not only to social changes, geopolitical influences, media coverage and soft power, but also to the structure of many study programmes and the skills they teach. These skills no longer meet the real requirements of the labour market, or only meet them inadequately. Departments therefore urgently need to adapt existing programmes to better meet the needs of students and the labour market, bearing in mind the various career paths students may take. This essay puts forward three proposals to make programmes of regional studies more attractive: promoting transversal competences through strategic partnerships; introducing new collaborative and international learning formats; developing alumni networks to better promote the study programmes on the one hand and providing individual coaching to help students prepare for a range of career opportunities after graduation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Julia Christine Marinaccio https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
China Research, Politics and Expertise in Germany: Some Reflections on a Tension-Fraught Field
China research has always been characterized by a pronounced dependency on politics, significantly shaping its institutional structures, thematic orientations, and methodological approaches. Using the Federal Republic of Germany since 1949 as a case study, this research note systematically explores four central dimensions: the evolution of China research from philological origins toward interdisciplinary, politically engaged scholarship; macro-political contexts shaping research opportunities and agendas; scholars’ strategies for balancing collaboration and integrity vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China; and the evolving advisory role of China researchers within German policy-making. By historicizing these complex interactions and critically reflecting upon current ethical debates, the analysis highlights the urgent need for clearer ethical standards and methodological transparency amid escalating geopolitical tensions and authoritarian challenges, thus preserving rigorous and independent scholarship as indispensable for informed policy-making and credible public discourse.
Copyright (c) 2025 Stefan Messingschlager https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Role of German Universities in Academic Engagement with China
This article examines how German universities engage in “science diplomacy” in their evolving relationship with the People’s Republic of China. Based on the Stiftung Mercator-funded project “Universities as Actors in Dialogue with China” (Hochschulen als Akteure im Dialog mit China), the study integrates interaction-oriented policy research, organizational actorhood, and science diplomacy scholarship to conceptualize universities as composite yet strategic actors. Empirically, it combines extensive document analysis with 49 semi-structured interviews with university-based researchers and administrators in the Ruhr and Frankfurt Rhine-Main regions. The findings reveal a broad, decentralized configuration of cooperation that includes student exchanges, joint curricula, research laboratories, and even a German campus in Hainan, yet provides limited institutional oversight of informal projects and scant internal coordination. Since the advent of Xi Jinping’s more intrusive science and security agenda, interviewees report increased politicization, securitization and regulatory complexity, heightening concerns about academic freedom, intellectual property leakage and dual-use research risks. Although many German universities identify primarily with “diplomacy for science” and “science for diplomacy,” few regard themselves as ‘diplomats’ proactively engaging in “science in diplomacy.” Capacity constraints, federal fragmentation, and ambiguous national policies further hinder systematic risk management, although due-diligence tools are increasingly being used. The study concludes that disengagement from China would undermine global problem-solving and that differentiated, transparency-oriented strategies — clarifying red lines, strengthening China competence and knowledge, and EU-level policy coordination — are essential if German universities are to remain credible bridge-builders while safeguarding academic integrity in an increasingly contested geopolitical environment.
German-Chinese higher education cooperation
Copyright (c) 2025 Matthias Stepan, Ilker Gündoğan, Rosa Schmidt-Drewniok, Jörn-Carsten Gottwald https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Zugang unter Vorbehalt: Kooperationen bei der Digitalisierung ostasiatischer Kulturgüter
Premodern East Asian cultures—particularly China, Japan, and Korea—have long traditions of encyclopedic, archival, and museological practices shaped by state institutions. In Confucian bureaucracies, written knowledge was central to political order, with large-scale compilations and collections commissioned by court and government. Projects like China’s Yongle Dadian or Korea’s court archives exemplify state-directed control over historical and normative records, with access restricted to select insiders. With the rise of modern universities in the late 19th century, knowledge organization became more professionalized, yet access remained limited due to institutional hierarchies and bureaucratic hurdles. Japan’s Historiographical Institute and National Diet Library spearheaded gradual reforms, introducing online databases and digital archives. Still, full openness is hindered by administrative gatekeeping and fragile project continuity. Private and semi-public collections often remain inaccessible, reinforcing asymmetric structures. The National Institutes for the Humanities have improved coordination and interoperability, promoting linked data standards and international collaboration. However, digital sustainability remains precarious, as many initiatives lack stable funding and personnel. My own recent projects, such as those on the Trautz papers and Kataoka shellac records, highlight both challenges and opportunities in global cooperation. These cases underscore the need for long-term strategies, institutional commitment, and reciprocal engagement to preserve and democratize access to East Asia’s cultural heritage.
Copyright (c) 2025 Reinhard Zöllner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Focus Group Interviews with Japanese University Students: Reflections on the Joys and Challenges of Fieldwork
Focus groups are being used as a qualitative method of data collection in several of the social science disciplines. In fall 2024, we conducted 14 focus group interviews with Japanese university students for our research project on demography and democracy in Japan. We set out to inquire how the aging of Japanese society affects youth attitudes and interest in politics. We also asked which strategies the youth employ to make their voices heard in the political arena. In this paper we introduce focus group interviews as a method in social science research on Japan. We offer insights into the processes of designing and conducting focus group interviews with university students, while highlighting methodological considerations specific to research in Japan. We aim for this paper to serve as a resource for researchers who are considering related research approaches.
Copyright (c) 2025 Antonia Vesting, Stefanie Schwarte, Anne-Sophie L. König, Prof. Dr. Gabriele Vogt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Motivation and Meaning in Regional Studies: The Case of Indian Studies in Israel
This essay explores the motivations, experiences, and aspirations of scholars and students engaged in Indian studies in Israel, presenting a case study that speaks to broader global debates about the history, relevance, and future of regional studies. Drawing on interviews with three generations of Israeli scholars and current students from three major Israeli universities, it traces the diverse paths that lead individuals to engage deeply with Indian languages, philosophy, and culture, and thus also the history of Indian studies in Israel. Against the backdrop of postcolonial criticism that casts regional studies as complicit in Orientalist or neo-imperialist agendas, this essay offers a more nuanced perspective—one rooted in personal stories, intellectual curiosity, cross-cultural encounters, and a desire for international collaboration. It highlights both the challenges and the enduring appeal of the field in an age of declining regional studies enrolments and increasing pressure to pursue market-driven higher education. In doing so, the essay calls for renewed attention to the transformative potential of regional studies and suggests that the Israeli experience may offer insights into how such disciplines continue to matter in a globalized world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carmen Brandt, Marina Rimscha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ueki Emori und die japanische Freiheits- und Bürgerrechtsbewegung (jiyū minken undō)
This study examines the international relations between Japan and the West, particularly with regards to the development of international and constitutional law, peace and statehood. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, international relations had intensified and reached a peak in the 18th century. The idea of a peaceful organisation of the world as a political union evolved with the Enlightenment, which thus laid the philosophical foundation for concepts such as international law, human rights and international cooperation. With the Hague Peace Conferences 1899 and 1907, an international legal community was constituted for the first time in the 20th century, the forerunner of the League of Nations and the United Nations. In this context, Japan was ideally destined to play a leading role. Japan wanted to give itself a new constitution and become a liberal democracy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Klaus Schlichtmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0