The idea of “self-reliance” has endured in Chinese political discourse for nearly a century, transcending profound changes in China’s political, economic and strategic circumstances. Although it is frequently misinterpreted as economic isolation or autarky, the idea of self-reliance in China has always acknowledged the country’s engagement with the global economy. Drawing on the discursive institutionalist concept of ideational resilience, we show that self-reliance comprises three interlocking elements: autonomy, interdependence and order-shaping. While these sit in tension with one another, they have also accommodated one another since the earliest articulations of the idea. This tripartite structure has enabled Chinese leaders since the Republican era to reinterpret and usefully deploy the idea of self-reliance. Our findings underscore the resilience of Chinese foreign economic policy ideas, as well as the ideational logic behind Xi Jinping’s seemingly contradictory pursuit of technological self-reliance, open global markets and greater connectivity with the developing world.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Chinese diaspora in Singapore and Malaya found itself entangled in complex geopolitical and ideological struggles, where local and global forces intersected and clashed. The British colonial authorities depicted Chinese student-led, left-wing activities through the lens of the Cold War, framing them as communist insurgency and their artistic expressions as propaganda tools. However, a closer examination of the artistic practices of Chinese youth during this turbulent era reveals a plurality of motivations and ideals that transcended strict ideological binaries. This article offers a cultural and historical examination of the ascent and decline of the art societies—the Yi Yan Hui, its successor the Equator Art Society (EAS), and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), as embodied by its inaugural principal Lim Hak Tai. By tracing the personal and artistic journeys of pivotal artists and scrutinizing their aesthetic approaches, the article aims to challenge the long-held binary opposition in the art world of decolonizing Singapore and to shed new light on the on-ground experiences of Chinese youth struggling against Cold War tensions. Utilizing a visual lens, it highlights the agency of left-wing youth and socially engaged artists and reconsiders how these individuals navigated the intertwined realities of Cold War geopolitics and their imagined ideals of independent Singapore and Malaya.

The rules-based international order faces an existential paradox. Eight decades after its founding, international law has never been more vital to human flourishing, yet it has also never been more imperilled. Developments in recent years such as the invasion of Ukraine and the erosion of the multilateral trading system represent more than institutional failures – they expose critical fault lines that, if left unaddressed, threaten to fracture the foundational architecture of international law. This article explores what these trends reveal about the future of the international rule of law and contends that the way forward requires a spirit of sober optimism – one that neither abandons hope nor ignores hard realities about the existing legal order. It suggests that this approach represents our best hope for securing humanity’s shared future.

Freyberg Place in Auckland’s central business district has emerged as a focal site for youth cultural gatherings. Within this space, university students have localised transnational popular culture, generating new cultural meanings, identities, and affiliations. Over the past decade, Hallyu, and K-pop in particular, has expanded significantly in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This study draws on personal accounts from university student K-pop fans of diverse backgrounds, with attention to their involvement in Auckland’s K-festival, random play dances, and the University of Auckland K-pop Planet club and its Konstellation dance crew. These narratives demonstrate how participation in K-pop activities facilitated adaptation to the residential, social, and academic challenges of university life, while simultaneously fostering peer networks and community belonging. Engagement in these events also enabled students to acquire leadership experience and transferable skills relevant to future employment. Face-to-face fan practices and embodied participation through dance provided an avenue for affective immersion, reinforcing identification with global fan networks. For these students, K-pop constituted both an alternative to Western popular music and a medium through which they articulated transnational identities, positioning themselves as globally connected cultural consumers.

Many institutions today promote “Global Asia(s)” and “Global Asian Studies” as both a method and an initiative. As a growing field, these institutions are committed to reimagining the studies of Asia through transnational, comparative, and boundary-crossing approaches. To map its contemporary landscape and identify emerging challenges, this study draws on interviews with ten directors from diverse institutions around the world, each engaged in Global Asia(s)/Global Asian Studies in distinct and pioneering ways. Despite varied contexts, these institutions share strong commitments – particularly a collective dissatisfaction with traditional models of Asian Studies and a common drive to transcend geographic boundaries, the East–West divide, and disciplinary silos. At the same time, local histories, community needs, academic traditions, institutional structures, leadership visions, and available resources shape divergent interpretations and implementations of Global Asia(s). Rather than advancing a unified model, this study emphasizes the field’s plurality and reflexive knowledge production process, arguing that its strength lies in this diversity and ongoing dialogue.

This article examines the endurance of timbering and rafting along the upper Yellow River in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a case study of Fernand Braudel’s ‘social time’ of that critical section of the waterway, marked by intensified commerce and shifting political dynamics. The Muslim consolidation of midstream Ningxia, anchored in upstream Linxia, exemplified how Hui economic dominance intertwined with territorial control. These networks, later repurposed to support China’s resistance against Japanese imperialism, were abruptly disrupted by mid–twentieth-century dam construction and socialist collectivisation. Beyond economic history, the article interrogates historiographical silences surrounding Hui economic territorialisation. While external observers, including Republican officials and Japanese strategists, acknowledged Hui commercial monopolies, state historiography under the People’s Republic of China has often downplayed them to maintain narratives of ethnic harmony. Analysing cinematic representations across different eras of the twentieth century, the article further argues that film serves as a counterpoint to official narratives, offering an alternative medium where Hui agency and economic territoriality are articulated and contested. By bridging economic history, historiography, and visual culture, this study highlights the political stakes of ethnic commerce and the ways in which Hui identity has been shaped and reshaped across different political regimes.