FROM THE EDITORS
Letter from the Editors
Read the Letter from the Editors for Volume III of the Emory Journal of Asian Studies.
Applications for Head Editor & Treasurer: Now Closed
Applications for head editor and treasurer are now closed but will open again in the future.
Letter from the Editors 2021
We are pleased to announce the Emory Journal of Asian Studies’ transition to new leadership after the graduation of our former chief editors, Michael Cerny and Eric Fan.
FEATURED
Heavenly Horses of Bactria: The Creation of the Silk Road
Tao argues that the Silk Road stemmed primarily from the combined result of a Han Chinese military gambit to obtain Central Asian horses, and a Bactrian strategy to align commercial interests with political expediency during a period of dynastic decline. Evidence of those motivations can be sourced to both ancient literary texts and sculptural, osteological, and genetic research on Chinese
horses.
Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Refugee Mothers: Vietnamese Women of Little Saigon
Nguyen analyzes motherhood and labor practices in a well-known Vietnamese enclave forged from a series of distinct migration waves beginning in the 1970s. Within Little Saigon, thousands of Vietnamese women made great sacrifices, forgoing their personal education, career, and time to raise their children and to uphold centuries-old Vietnamese ideals of motherhood.
The Cultural Legacy of Metabolism: From Local to Global
From 1960 to the early 1970s, the five core Metabolists—Kiyonori Kikutake, Noboru Kawazoe, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Ohtaka, and Kisho Kurokawa – theorized a new urban order that analogized a city with living organisms. Nakamachi theorizes that Metabolism’s legacy is not demonstrated in the movement’s initial fixation with the Japanese context, but rather in the theories’ adaptability to the rapidly changing global environment.
Sorghaghtani Beki and the Influence of Mongol Noblewomen on Succession
Zhang argues that Sorghaghtani Beki, the principal wife Chinggis Khan’s son, Tolui, was an integral part of the Mongol Empire and had a heavy hand in shaping subsequent governmental structure and succession. Though often ignored due to her sex, her agency is evidenced in multiple 13th century histories and record books.
Deepening Disparities: Political and Economic Effects of FDI on Income Inequality Among Skilled and...
Ong argues that the redirection of foreign direct investment (FDI) towards more skilled labor sectors and the correlated displacement of unskilled domestic workers have contributed to growing income disparities in Malaysia, and that the government’s policies to attract export-oriented, high-tech FDI, along with its pro-bumiputra nationalism, has resulted in inequitable FDI gains among skilled and skilled workers, thus failing to address this inequality while exacerbating it.
