This chapter explores two subfields of nineteenth-century horticultural practice – plant miniaturization and plant assimilation – to demonstrate indirect approaches to addressing botanical agency. Given differences of lifespan, size, cognition, and communication, as well as the distance of time, Victorian writing requires this indirect approach. In the case of plant miniaturization (bonsai), described admiringly in British travel narratives but bemoaned by champions of native plant life from William Wordsworth to H. Rider Haggard, writerly attention or disregard to plant suffering illuminates broader concerns of plant emotion and subjectivity. In the case of plant assimilation or its amplified parallel, plant invasiveness, human framings of plant reproduction point out the cultural constraints on plant life. When named plants reproduce across the page as well as through the garden bed, their taxonomic and vernacular incursions into nineteenth-century poetry and prose show a further assertion of expanded plant influence on the Victorian reading mind.

This chapter deals with the aspects of political economy in British India from c. 1850 to c. 1950, focusing on the major debates and controversies about economic policies, which concerned the role of the colonial state and its implications for British imperial policies. British India had wider economic relations with surrounding Asian and African regions, located as it was within dense regional trading networks, as a hub of transactions of goods, money, people (migration), services and information. Through the development of global economic history, new works and interpretations are presented as a new paradigm against the traditional Eurocentric approach. Using recent works by Asian and Japanese scholars, this chapter analyses a changing economic shift from trade to finance in British India and the transformation of the economic international order of Asia and the role of India in the interwar years, with a special focus on the drastic impacts of the Second World War.

Although rarely acknowledged, Buddhist monastics are among the most active lawmakers and jurists in Asia, operating sophisticated networks of courts and constitutions while also navigating – and shaping – secular legal systems. This chapter surveys the entanglements of Buddhist monastic law and state law in Sri Lanka while also providing a general overview of Sri Lanka as a multi-religious, multi-legal site. It introduces readers to the key methods and arguments advanced in this book, including arguments about how and why one should analyse legal pluralism ‘as a practice.’

What is Buddhist monastic law? How should one think about its key texts, institutions and principles? This chapter answers these questions in the context of Sri Lanka and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, focusing especially on ideas of unity and diversity in law. The first part of this chapter summarises key ideas and principles found in the ancient code of monastic law, the Vinaya Piṭaka, which is thought to be the cornerstone of monastic legal texts and practices. The second (longer) part of this chapter introduces readers to a range of monastic legal sources outside the Vinaya Piṭaka, which also play key roles in the practice of monastic law in contemporary Sri Lanka. These sources include commentaries, constitutions, handbooks, judicial manuals, statutes, case law, social expectations and other normative sources produced by monks, state officials and Buddhist laypersons.

Debates on human behavioral evolution have largely focused on African and European records, while Asia’s contribution remains underrepresented. Despite the significance of the Asian Pleistocene fossil record, its behavioral insights have been hindered by limited taphonomic research, restricted dissemination, and shifting academic trends. Many key Chinese archaeofaunal sites, particularly in karstic contexts, contain complex palimpsests that challenge traditional taphonomic methods prone to equifinality.

Advancements in artificial intelligence and computational archaeology now offer new ways to address these challenges. Machine learning classifiers, computer vision through convolutional neural networks, and 3D deep learning architectures enable precise discrimination of bone surface modifications. These techniques refine carnivore agency identification down to the taxon level and provide mathematical certainty in agency attribution, aiding in disentangling complex palimpsests.

This study highlights key Chinese archaeofaunal records, particularly Zhoukoudian, and proposes methodological approaches to improve their resolution. By integrating these cutting-edge techniques, the Asian Pleistocene record can take a more central role in discussions on early human behavioral variability. This research aims to establish a model for applying the “new taphonomy” globally, enhancing our understanding of hominin activities and their ecological contexts.

The contemporary expansion of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Asia has been unparalleled in the world. While London and other traditional forums remain a vital jurisdiction for Asian parties, those constructing ADR regimes in Asian jurisdictions increasingly turn to their neighbors – other Asian jurisdictions. This chapter analyzes the interactions between the prominent ADR hubs in Asia and their neighboring jurisdictions. Topics include the race between Singapore and Hong Kong for the crown, Singapore’s impact on Vietnam, and the implications of Singaporean promotion of mediation on the practice of ADR in Asia. The chapter argues that ADR centers, viewed from the perspective of legal transplantation, provide successful models for secondary markets, although such transplantation is far from seamless. This chapter suggests that Singapore and Hong Kong, as established hubs, will remain influential and play a critical role in shaping ADR legal developments in Asia, although competition may result in disparate effects.

As part of a scholarly endeavor to explore the micro-foundations of international relations amid the evolving dynamics between China and the United States, this chapter examines the Chinese public’s perceptions of the United States. A theoretical framework is established to investigate the cognitive, evaluative, and affective dimensions underlying public views of a foreign country. The findings indicate a declining perception of US influence in Asia, accompanied by an increased awareness of the negative impacts of the United States on China. Additionally, the perception of the United States as a model country has diminished among the Chinese populace. The interplay between China’s engagement with the global community and the Chinese authorities’ manipulation of political socialization represents two competing forces that shape the Chinese public’s view of the United States.

Employing a mixed-methods approach, this chapter surveys and compares how Chinese youth perceive China’s rise in relation to their Asian counterparts. The findings reveal that Chinese youth exhibit greater optimism regarding political stability and nationalism associated with China’s rise. However, they also demonstrate a willingness to acknowledge various social problems that accompany economic growth. Regarding China’s international influence, the majority of Chinese youth express strong confidence in the notion of China’s peaceful rise, while simultaneously recognizing perceived threats from other countries – factors often overlooked in the prevailing China threat thesis. Moreover, Chinese youth tend to attribute the negative evaluations of China by their Asian peers to external factors rather than interpreting them as reflections of China’s “problematic” foreign policy. Interview materials show why and how Chinese foreign policy is justified among Chinese young people.

China’s engagement with the global arena and its economic modernization are anticipated to foster democratization and alignment with the liberal international order. However, despite several decades of economic development, the authoritarian system remains resilient, and China’s foreign policy has become increasingly assertive. This chapter aims to unveil the micro-foundations underlying the unexpected trajectory of China’s rise by examining the public’s nationalist and international orientations. The findings indicate that international orientations exert a limited influence on popular attitudes toward domestic politics and foreign relations, whereas nationalist orientations significantly bolster public support for the authoritarian regime and China’s assertive foreign policy. Additionally, intergenerational variations in public opinion are evident, with the Xi generation displaying a distinct pattern of political values compared to preceding generations.

Volume I offers a broad perspective on urban culture in the ancient European world. It begins with chronological overviews which paint in broad brushstrokes a picture that serves as a frame for the thematic chapters in the rest of the volume. Positioning ancient Europe within its wider context, it touches on Asia and Africa as regions that informed and were later influenced by urban development in Europe, with particular emphasis on the Mediterranean basin. Topics range from formal characteristics (including public space), water provision, waste disposal, urban maintenance, spaces for the dead, and border spaces; to ways of thinking about, visualising, and remembering cities in antiquity; to conflict within and between cities, economics, mobility and globalisation, intersectional urban experiences, slavery, political participation, and religion.

This chapter offers a survey of cities in Asia formed by European-based state or company rule, that is, subjected to power structures originating, more or less directly, from Europe, during the period from 1500 to 1800. Some cities that hosted European trading posts while remaining under Asian sovereignty, or cities with merchant communities only loosely attached to European-based power structures, are included tangentially. The combined surveying of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, Danish and French power bases in the region runs counter to a long-established tradition of studying them within separate ‘national’ traditions. In this sense, the epithet ‘European’ stakes a claim for methodological renewal. At the same time, however, doubts persist about the pertinence of designating composite gateway conurbations as ‘European’ in the face of their profound intertwinements with Asian societies.