East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month takes place each year in September as a celebration of how these cultures and communities have shaped the UK and continue to thrive. For ESEA Month 2024, we share a list of sixteen must-read books about ESEA culture and history, and books by ESEA and ESEA-heritage authors, recommended by the LSE community.
Babel looks at the role language and education play in colonisation and empire building in an alternate universe. The book follows Robin and a group of students from the Global South and their lived experiences in trying to navigate the world, code switching, and the role individuals play in making change. It’s an incredibly appropriate book for the current climate on campus and in the world at large.
Recommended by Nermin Abdulla, Programme Manager, Executive MSc in Cities, LSE Cities
These two books really expand our understanding of the long history of Filipino migration to North America, in the first instance spanning the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries and focusing on migration to Hawai’i and the west coast of the United States, and in the second spanning the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and focusing on migration to Mexico. These books represent global history at its best.
Recommended by Professor John Sidel, Sir Patrick Gillam Chair in International and Comparative Politics and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre.
A unique book with a unique preposition (a man killer with a large appetite for rich foods), Butter highlights traditional Japanese femininity and women’s place in society, and what happens when those boundaries are breached. It’s a slow read with events taken through with thoroughness and lingering conversations that hint at cultural protocols, but it’s one that really draws you in with its descriptiveness of different towns, places and Japanese life.
Recommended by Natalie Brittan, Digital Content Manager, LSE Communications Division
This book held me spellbound with its deeply authentic voices, telling the rarely heard true stories of Chinese women from some of the most remote and hidden parts of that country. I felt like I’d received the most privileged window into lives I could hardly imagine, but which also seemed somehow familiar.
Recommended by Dr Monika Kruesmann, PhD Programme Manager, LSE Department of International Development
6. The Sympathizer. Viet Thanh Nguyen. Grove Atlantic. 2016.
This book showcases all the complexities and travesties of the American War in Vietnam in a great balancing act. It has brilliant characters, a healthy dose of irony and a pace that won’t let you put the book down.
Recommended by Ed Harvey, Foundation Partnerships Manager, LSE Philanthropy and Global Engagement Division (PAGE)
7. Garden of Evening Mists. Tan Twan Eng. Myrmidon Books. 2011.
Straddling an interesting period of history (freshly post-colonial British, Japanese occupation and communist eras), this piece of fiction explores the milieu of that era entwined with Japanese art and culture and its place in modern Malaysia. It centres on a retired Chinese Malaysian judge who revisits her memories and the relationship she kindled with a Japanese gardener, whose garden she now tends. Tan handles the cross-cultural exchanges with care, and the colour and diversity of the well-researched characters have a richness that embellishes that tumultuous time with historic detail.
Recommended by Natalie Brittan, Digital Content Manager, LSE Communications Division
8. Pachinko. Min Jin Lee. Apollo. 2020.
Pachinko tells the tale of Sunja, a young Korean woman, who finds her way to Japan in the early 1900s. Her story stretches across countries and generations experiencing love, war, hardship, and a constant longing for home. The book is heart-wrenching and beautifully written while also giving historical insights into the Korean war and the Korean diaspora in Japan. I recommend this book to everyone who loves a good family drama and would like to learn about one of the most important periods in Korean history. It was a New York Times bestseller and has also been adapted for television starring Minha Kim and Lee Minho.
Recommended by Isabel Lacurie, Marketing and Communications Manager, LSE Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
9. The Sacred Willow, Duong Van Mai Elliot. Oxford University Press. 2017.
The Sacred Willow tells the stories of four generations of the author’s family to shed light on recent Vietnamese history. It is fantastic in its personal telling of the often-common familial splits over communism and the different experiences of conflict. Incredibly moving, it’s a must-read for anyone travelling to the country.
Recommended by Ed Harvey, Foundation Partnerships Manager, LSE Philanthropy and Global Engagement Division (PAGE)
10. Chinese Cinderella. Adeline Yen Mah. Puffin Classics. 2024 (Originally published 1999).
Although more of a children’s book, I found it really helpful to have insight into Chinese and Western cultures and how they relate to each other and how that impacts on upbringing. It was particularly poignant and an easy read, as well as an early introduction to children growing up in hybrid cultures which is becoming increasingly common.
Recommended by Natalie Brittan, Digital Content Manager, LSE Communications Division
Higuchi Ichiyō is known as the first female writer of modern Japanese literature. Her work is heavily influenced by her own life and the world around her. In a time, where women were only allowed to write about women issues, Higuchi Ichiyō beautifully did exactly that: portraying the lives of women in early Meiji Japan. Her blueprint of society is a striking critique as well as a magnifying glass into the lives of the most marginalised women. The recommended edition includes nine of her stories, including her most influential work “Child’s Play”. The book also offers insights into Higuchi Ichiyō as a person and her literary career. And if you are still wondering why she’s such an icon: Higuchi Ichiyō’s legacy can still be found in modern Japan, including her portrait on the 5000¥ bill!
Recommended by Isabel Lacurie, Marketing and Communications Manager, LSE Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
I’d recommend this as being the most moving history book I’ve read. Banfam interviewed more than 1,000 Laotians to highlight the ‘secret’ war in Laos taking place during the American War in Vietnam, which would result in Laos becoming the most heavily bombed country in the world. The book shares essays, poems and pictures from those affected, as well as Banfman’s work to expose the war to US Congress. Serves as an important reminder on the long-term consequences of conflict.
Recommended by Ed Harvey, Foundation Partnerships Manager, LSE Philanthropy and Global Engagement Division (PAGE)
13. Crying in H Mart. Michelle Zauner. Picador. 2022.
14. Tastes Like War. Grace Cho. Feminist Press. 2021.
These two books I have found very interestingly related – both centre around sick mothers and the relationship between food and culture. Both incredibly raw, with Crying in H Mart the more visceral of the two, and Tastes Like War appears to have a factual approach with a focus on sociology. However, it’s important to note the familial controversy behind Tastes Like War which highlights the issues around writing about close family members without their consent. Both pieces do highlight many traditional Korean dishes and if you are interested in Korean food they are bittersweet reads to help you understand the various ingredients and difficulty of cooking in a Western country.
Recommended by Natalie Brittan, Digital Content Manager, LSE Communications Division
15. Takeaway. Angela Hui. Trapeze. 2021.
Takeaway is an emotional memoir of growing up in a Chinese takeaway in rural Wales that leaves you more appreciative and understanding to those on the other side of the counter. Full of family joy and chaotic kitchens, but also the difficulties of ethnic minority life in rural areas.
Recommended by Ed Harvey, Foundation Partnerships Manager, LSE Philanthropy and Global Engagement Division (PAGE)
16. Bellies. Nicola Dinan. Penguin. 2024.
Nicola Dinan’s Bellies is a moving coming-of-age story about love, loss and friendship. Set mainly in London, it centres on the relationship between Ming and Tom and the strain they come under when Ming transitions to being a woman. It’s a captivating, frank novel that deals gracefully with gender identity and sexuality, mental health struggles and how relationships change in the years between your late teens and mid-twenties. It also brings to life Malaysian cuisine in mouth-watering detail.
Recommended by Anna D’Alton, Managing Editor LSE Review of Books
LSE Review of Books thanks all the members of the LSE community who contributed to this reading list with their book recommendations.
Note: This reading list gives the views of the contributors, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, nor of the London School of Economics.
Babel is an amazing read! Historical, science fiction, class, race, language – it engaged me immediately from the first page.