Asian History

David Byrne, Ganda Suthivarakom and Joan Almedilla performing songs from Here Lies Love at Carnegie Hall in 2007

David Byrne’s Disco Musical About Imelda Marcos Comes to Broadway

'Here Lies Love' is an immersive stage production about the Philippines’ former first lady

This 1605 drawing of a Black sumo wrestler may depict Yasuke.

Who Was Yasuke, Japan's First Black Samurai?

In the late 16th century, the enigmatic warrior fought alongside a feudal lord dubbed the "Great Unifier"

Protesters in Beijing hold up white sheets of paper during a November 27 protest against China's strict zero-Covid policy.

A Brief History of Silent Protests

Activists in China are using blank sheets of paper to speak out against the country's draconian zero-Covid policies

“I was the daughter of an enormously popular president and the first girl in the White House since Nellie Grant, and I looked upon the world as my oyster,” Alice recalled in her 1933 autobiography.

From a White House Wedding to a Pet Snake, Alice Roosevelt's Escapades Captivated America

Theodore Roosevelt's eldest daughter won the public's adoration with her rebellious antics

At the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Vivekananda presented a paternal, all-inclusive vision of India that made America seem young and provincial.

The Indian Guru Who Brought Eastern Spirituality to the West

A new biography explores the life of Vivekananda, a Hindu ascetic who promoted a more inclusive vision of religion

Donkeys are important pack animals that helped shape human civilizations.

Scientists Uncover the Story of Donkey Domestication

Humans tamed the equines about 7,000 years ago in East Africa, new research suggests

Bakhtiari nomads in the Zagros Mountains of Iran in June 2017

How Nomads Shaped Centuries of Civilization

A new book celebrates the achievements of wanderers, whose stories have long been overlooked

City officials took down the plaque on August 8.

Denver Removes Plaque Inaccurately Describing Anti-Chinese Riot of 1880

The historical marker contained a number of falsehoods about the Mile High City's first race riot

The new Hong Kong Palace Museum

How the Hong Kong Palace Museum Is Forging Its Own Identity

The new museum overcame a rocky start and a typhoon delay to open to eager crowds on July 3

Bronze sacrificial altar unearthed at the Sanxingdui archaeological site

Trove of 13,000 Artifacts Sheds Light on Enigmatic Chinese Civilization

The Bronze Age Sanxingdui culture is known for its intricate masks and artworks

Kim Phuc Phan Thi, the girl depicted in the 1972 photograph The Terror of War, and photographer Nick Ut in 2022

Fifty Years Later, Kim Phuc Phan Thi Is More Than 'Napalm Girl'

While the image freezes in time a moment of wartime horror, its subject has been moving forward

The artwork’s last owner purchased it for just a few hundred pounds. 

A Vase Kept in an Ordinary Kitchen Turned Out to Be a Qing-Dynasty Artwork Worth Millions

The rare, blue-and-gold vessel was crafted in 18th-century China

This statue was looted from the Koh Ker temple complex in Cambodia in the 1970s.

Cambodia Asks U.K. Cultural Institutions to Return Looted Statues

British museums contain hundreds of allegedly stolen temple treasures

On the island of Dejima, European traders could interact with the Japanese, but with a few (carefully escorted) exceptions, they were barred from continuing on to mainland Japan.

The Wild West Outpost of Japan's Isolationist Era

For two centuries, an extreme protectionist policy barred foreigners from setting foot in Japan—except for one tiny island

Cookbook author Grace Young set out to raise awareness of the struggle that Chinatown's business owners were facing, recording her “Coronavirus Stories”—short on-the-spot video interviews with members of the community.

Grace Young, Who Documented the Toll of Anti-Asian Hate on NYC's Chinatown, Receives Julia Child Award

A $50,000 grant is awarded to the culinary historian for her advocacy of Chinese-American culture and cuisine

View of the Space Needle and the Century 21 Exposition fairgrounds in Seattle in 1962

The Rise and Fall of World's Fairs

Sixty years after Seattle's Century 21 Exposition, world's fairs have largely fallen out of fashion in the U.S.

Lai Tek's espionage had geopolitical implications across Southeast Asia.

The Vietnamese Secret Agent Who Spied for Three Different Countries

Known by the alias Lai Tek, the enigmatic communist swore allegiance first to France, then Britain and finally Japan

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin houses some 5,500 skulls collected by Austrian anthropologist Felix von Luschan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On Friday, February 11, the German museum returned 32 skulls from the collection to a Hawaiian delegation.

Germany, Austria Repatriate Dozens of Human Skulls to Hawaii

Earlier this month, a Hawaiian delegation retrieved 58 sets of ancestral remains from five European museums

Ruins of a 2,000-year-old Buddhist temple, one of the oldest discovered in Pakistan's Gandhara region.

2,000-Year-Old Buddhist Temple Unearthed in Pakistan

The structure is one of the oldest of its kind in the Gandhara region

Activists in London hold signs urging the BBC to boycott the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Is China Committing Genocide Against the Uyghurs?

The Muslim minority group faces mass detention and sterilization—human rights abuses that sparked the U.S.' diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics

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