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  • Simon Winchester’s Biography of Joseph Needham (with Tim McGirk)

    Simon Winchester’s Biography of Joseph Needham (with Tim McGirk)
    Jan 26 2026

    The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (with Tim McGirk)

    John Ross talks with Tim McGirk about Simon Winchester’s masterpiece, The Man Who Loved China. That man was Joseph Needham, an eccentric Cambridge biochemist who traveled through war-torn China to document the nation’s scientific heritage. The ensuing book series, Science and Civilisation in China, revealed the world’s debt to Chinese science. John and Tim discuss the “Needham Question” (why China, once the global leader in technology, fell behind) and the scandal that almost ended his academic career. McGirk, a former foreign correspondent who knows Winchester from his early journalism days, shares some reporting anecdotes. Tim also explains how the life of Joseph Needham inspired his own historical novel, The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers.

    Books mentioned

    The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins, 2008).

    Science and Civilisation in China: Needham’s monumental series. Volume 1 was published by Cambridge University Press in 1954.

    The Diamond Sutra: considered the world’s oldest dated printed book (AD 868).

    The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers by Tim McGirk (Plum Rain Press, 2025)

    People mentioned

    Joseph Needham: The Cambridge scientist who documented China’s early scientific achievements.

    Lu Gwei-djen: A scientist from Nanjing who sparked Needham’s interest in Chinese culture, and, after a 51-year romance, his second wife.

    Dorothy Needham: Joseph’s first wife and a fellow brilliant scientist.

    H.T. Huang: A refugee from Malacca who served as Needham’s secretary during his epic China expeditions.

    Zhou Enlai: The Premier of the People’s Republic of China and Needham’s wartime friend who invited him to investigate biological warfare allegations.

    Selected locations mentioned

    Cambridge University, the UK, specifically Caius College (pronounced “keys”).

    Chungking (Chóngqìng): China’s wartime capital.

    Dunhuang: Home of the Mogao Grottos, a vast complex of Buddhist cave temples in northwest China, and where the Diamond Sutra was discovered.

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    32 Min.
  • New 2026 Book Releases on Japan, Taiwan

    New 2026 Book Releases on Japan, Taiwan
    Jan 19 2026

    This episode of the Books on Asia podcast introduces new fiction and non-fiction on Japan to be published this year, along with two upcoming books on Taiwan. We present the books here in the order they appear on the podcast. Listen to the episode for more information on each title:

    Phantom Paradise: Escape from Manchuria, by Kay Enokido
    (Bold Story Press, January 13, 2026)

    Kokun: The Girl from the West, by Nahoko Uehashi (transl. Cathy Hirano)
    (Europa Editions, January 13, 2026)

    When the Museum Is Closed, by Emi Yagi (transl. Yuki Tejima)
    (Soft Skull Press, January 27, 2026)

    Hooked: A Novel of Obsession, by Asako Yuzuki (transl. Polly Barton)
    (HarperVia, March 17, 2026)

    Sisters in Yellow, by Mieko Kawakami (transl. Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio)
    (Knopf, March 31, 2026)

    Hollow Inside, by Asako Otani (transl. Ginny Tapley Takemori)
    (Pushkin Press, May 5, 2026)

    Japan’s Anime Revolution!: Twenty Animated Films That Changed the World, by Jonathan Clements
    (Tuttle Publishing, May 12, 2026)

    Troubled Waters, by Ichiyō Higuchi (transl. Bryan Karetnyk)
    (Pushkin Press Classics, May 26, 2026)

    Upcoming 2026 Releases from Plum Rain Press :

    Taiwan 22: Travels in Paradox, by Tyrel Eskelson
    Release date to be announced

    Hidden Formosa: Life and Travels in Rural Taiwan, an anthology( ed. John Ross)
    Release date to be announced

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    15 Min.
  • Harmony Express: Travels by Train through China with Thomas Bird

    Harmony Express: Travels by Train through China with Thomas Bird
    Jan 12 2026

    Thomas Bird was living in Southern China when he decided to explore the country by train and write a book about it. He first attempts to trace the steps of Bruce Chatwin after reading an article of his in the New York Times, but eventually decides to just go with the flow, traveling far and wide on China's old railway during the pre-Covid years 2014-2019. He seeks out old lines and trains and chronicles the people he meets along the way to tell readers what China is like today. The result is Harmony Express: Travels by Train Through China.

    Books and authors included in the discussion

    Riding the Iron Rooster (1988), by Paul Theroux

    Forgotten Kingdom: Nine Years in Yunnan 1939-48 by Peter Goullart (1955)

    The Great Walk of China: Travels on Foot from Shanghai to Tibet (2010), by Graham Earnshaw

    Bruce Chatwin and Joseph Rock.

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    28 Min.
  • The 1910 Japan-British Exhibition

    The 1910 Japan-British Exhibition
    Jan 5 2026

    The 1910 Japan-Britain Exhibition – with Formosa Files

    In this special crossover episode, John Ross and Eryk Michael Smith from Formosa Files: the History of Taiwan Podcast explore how Japan showcased its “model colony” of Formosa (1895–1945). First up is the 1910 Japan–British Exhibition in London, which featured human exhibits – 24 Indigenous Paiwan people from southern Taiwan. Next, they follow Crown Prince Hirohito on his 1923 royal tour of the island, before finishing with the 1935 Taiwan Exposition, a massive event commemorating forty years of rule. To learn more about these stories – and to find other episodes – visit the Formosa Files website.

    Book recommendation: The primary source for the story of Paiwan tribespeople at the London Exhibition was Lost Histories: Recovering the Lives of Japan’s Colonial Peoples by Kirsten Ziomek (Harvard Asia Center, 2019).

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    30 Min.
  • Amy Reads from her Book: The Widow, The Priest & The Octopus Hunter

    Amy Reads from her Book: The Widow, The Priest & The Octopus Hunter
    Dec 29 2025

    Amy reads from The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

    Chapter 1: The War Widow

    In 1997, Amy moved to a small island of just 950 people in Japan's Seto Inland Sea. She rented an akiya (empty house) from a widow whose soldier-husband had died in WWII. Six years later, when the widow dies, Amy purchases her home and must finally clear out the old woman's possessions. This is when Amy becomes fascinated with the woman, her life of hardship, and her will to overcome the past.

    The mystery of this woman's life prompts the author to set out on a year-long journey around the Shiraishi Island to interview the villagers who knew her best.

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    19 Min.
  • Amy & John Discuss Childhood Reading Influences

    Amy & John Discuss Childhood Reading Influences
    Dec 22 2025
    John Ross, during his schoolboy days in New Zealand, was interested in far-flung places such as South America, Papua New Guinea, Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as books on World War One and Two. He read a lot of youth fiction starting at 10 years old, but as a teenager, had a voracious appetite for nonfiction. In his 20s he discovered a few wonderful fiction writers, but has still kept mostly to nonfiction through the decades.His first books were Willard Price’s Adventure series and Gerald Durrell books on real-life animal collecting. He also read detective and war stories (Biggles) and lots of travel accounts and travel guides.Robert Louis Stevenson was a favorite—Treasure Island, Kidnapped—and later discovered that Stevenson was a very good essayist too. John also enjoyed Rudyard Kipling’s Kim.The ancient Greeks left a great impression on him: Herodotus (The Histories) and Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War)In his early 20s he started reading proper literature:Anna Karenina, Dr Zhivago, George Orwell, and Joseph Conrad. He loved Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game series featuring colorful adventurers and spies in exotic locations. In his early 30s he discovered Raymond Chandler and in his 40s H.P. Lovecraft.For books on Asia and East Asia, he started reading about Burma in the late 1980s, and early 1990s, and Mongolia in the mid-1990s, and increasingly China and Taiwan, and even some works on Japan.Some well known book titles that made an early impression were Lost Horizon by James Hilton, Burmese Days by George Orwell, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and Jonathan Spence’s China books. Also books on Asia by Maurice Collis.Amy’s ReadingAs a child, Amy remembers reading Black Beauty (Anna Sewell, 1877), Walter Farley’s series The Black Stallion (1941), and a book called Ponies Plot (Janet Hickman, 1971). She loved all the required reading for school (some books now banned): English literature such as Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, Shakespeare’s plays, and lots of Roald Dahl, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach; and American authors John Steinbeck (1930s–1950s), J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1951), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850), Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (1964) and A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles. She recalls that in first grade, her teacher read to the class Little Pear (1931), by Eleanor Francis Lattimore, about a Chinese boy.From her parents’ book collection she read Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (1868), and Wuthering Heights (1847) Emily Bronte as well as stories by Charlotte Bronte and other classics.In college she moved into more popular literature, again much of it required reading for her classes: works by Thomas Pynchon, Jerzy Kosiński, Blind Date (1977) and The Painted Bird (1965) the latter of which—notably—had a scene on bestiality and would probably be banned as college reading these days!.In high school, her father paid her to read books, and she vividly remembers excerpts from Henry Hazlitt’s The Foundations of Morality (1964), which still influences her choices in life today. She credits her father’s books for her interest in philosophy and a basic understanding of free-market economics.Once she knew she was headed to Japan, she read Edwin Reischauer’s The Japanese Today (1988), and Japan as Number One, by Ezra Vogel (1979) which were her first books to read about Asia (other than Shogun). For most of her childhood she preferred non-fiction and didn’t start reading fiction seriously till she arrived in Japan and read Haruki Murakami. Now she reads everything!At the end of the podcast Amy & John encourage listeners to write in to ask for suggestions on what books on Asia to give friends or family. They’ll choose one to talk about at the end of each show with appropriate suggested reading. Since the BOA Podcast doesn’t have an email address (yet), they ask you submit requests via social media:Follow BOA on Facebook and contact via Messenger or sign up for the BOA newsletter, from which you can reply directly to each email. There is a BOA Twitter (X) account, but they appear to be locked out at the moment (sigh).They also ask listeners to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review and share it with your friends so that Amy & John can have a happier holiday.May your holidays be bibliophilic: full of black ink, long words, excessive pages and new books! The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast ...
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    34 Min.
  • Carol Isaak on Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden

    Carol Isaak on Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden
    Dec 15 2025

    Lan Su Garden is a magnificent Ming scholar garden in downtown Portland, Oregon. It opened in 2000, a collaboration between sister cities Portland and Suzhou, hence the name: Lan Su. Photographer and local resident Carol Isaak found refuge there during the Covid pandemic, fell in love with it, and began photographing the oasis through the following seasons and years. The result: her photographic book, Seasons: Lan Su Chinese Garden, published in 2025 by Seattle-based bookstore and publisher Chin Music Press.

    Carol and John chat about Lan Su, the Asian-American community in the Northwest, and Suzhou’s rich heritage as a center of book culture and scholar gardens, especially during the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644).

    Also mentioned is the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (Chin Music Press, 2021).

    To see Carol’s work, including photographs of Lan Su, visit her website.

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    30 Min.
  • Books on Korean Islands with John Ross and Chris Tharp

    Books on Korean Islands with John Ross and Chris Tharp
    Dec 8 2025

    The islands, in order of appearance in the episode, are: Geomun Island (Port Hamilton); the garden island of Oedo (Oe Island – “do” is the Korean word for “island”); Geojedo, site of an important Korean War POW camp and often spelled “Koje”;Ulleungdo and the nearby disputed islets of Dokdo; and the fictional island of Sukhan.

    Books mentioned in this Episode:

    A Korean Odyssey: Island Hopping in Choppy Waters (2020) by Michael Gibb

    Anglo-Korean Relations and the Port Hamilton Affair, 1885–1887 (2016) by Stephen A. Royle

    The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese POWs in the Korean War, (2020) by David Cheng Chang

    War Trash (2004) by Ma Jin

    Island of Fantasy: A Memoir of an English Teacher in Korea (2005) by Shawn Matthews

    The Korea Story (1952) by John C. Caldwell

    The Cuttlefish (2005) by Chris Tharp

    The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

    Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

    The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.
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    41 Min.