I am delighted to share the bountiful Fall 2026 issue of Education About Asia with you!

This rich collection of resources brings together a special section of articles on culinary history; a cluster of practical resources on teaching Chinese communism, including lesson plans developed by high school teachers; eight non-thematic articles; three interviews; and our first-ever podcast feature.

I hope that you will take your time to explore this abundant and varied content as we continue to experiment with multimedia resources and focus our attention on practical pedagogical resources for secondary and post-secondary classrooms.

Feature Articles and Teaching Resources

Our special section on culinary history begins with “From Pyongyang to Netflix: Naengmyǒn in Modern Korean History,” in which Sunho Ko concisely describes how urbanization, food science, nationalist politics, and wartime scarcity intersect to shape the ever-evolving iterations and historical meanings of Korean cold noodles. Regional adaptations of this dish are also discussed in “Chinese Food Beyond the Stereotypes: Eating, Encounter, and Adaptation from Northeast and Southwest China to Flushing, New York,” co-authored by Jinglin Piao and Tami Blumenfield. In this article, the authors draw upon ethnographic fieldwork and years of personal experiences to introduce case studies that demonstrate how Chinese food is continually reinvented through migration, cultural exchange, and political circumstances. Willa Zhen’s “Teaching Japan Through Restaurant Menus” offers three frameworks for teaching about Japanese food as well as an engaging, classroom-ready lesson plan that teaches students how to analyze the materiality and content of restaurant menus from a cultural studies perspective. Finally, Rebecca Corbett turns our attention from food to drink in “Matcha: A Short History from the Song Dynasty to Social Media,” an accessible introduction that traces the evolution of the popular drink from its origins in ancient China to its status as a global superfood trend.

The second thematic section begins with Aminda Smith’s “Stories from the Revolution in Mao’s China: Teaching Students to Think about Socialism and Communism,” an introduction that contextualizes sources, highlights key takeaways, and flags potential pitfalls for teaching about this important historical period in contemporary American classrooms. Linked at the end of her article are five lesson plans developed by secondary school teachers – Sean Fitzgerald, Randy Snyder, Paula Frohman, Angela Peck, and Natalie Roy – through a workshop sponsored by the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA). These lesson plans provide classroom-ready materials that correspond to International Baccalaureate (IB) and state-mandated public curriculum standards. Concluding this section is “The Cultural Revolution – CR/10 – Project at the University of Pittsburgh,” in which Haihui Zhang and Runxiao Zhu discuss the conception, impact, and future of CR/10, an oral history initiative that documents lived experiences of the Cultural Revolution through video interviews with English subtitles.

Our non-thematic articles begin with Stephen Black’s “Hà Nội 1978: Images of Life in the ‘Subsidy Period’ Việt Nam,” which showcases rare original photographs of daily life in Subsidy-Period Việt Nam, including this issue’s cover image of a busy Hà Nội street captured by the author in 1978.

Next, we have included two teaching resource essays that supplement recently published volumes in the AAS Key Issues in Asian Studies (KIAS) book series. The first, Brenda Jordan’s “Top Ten Things (Plus One) to Know About Japanese Art,” draws out major themes from her accessible KIAS volume, The Arts of Japan: Creativity and Innovation. EAA Managing Editor, Jon Wilson, talks with Brenda about her new book in An EAA Interview with Brenda G. Jordan. In our second AAS book companion article, “A Teaching Resource for Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia,” author Karline McLain provides an introduction to Gandhi’s residential communities with a lesson plan that draws upon the Living with Gandhi Archive. Readers interested in learning more are encouraged to explore Karline’s recently published book Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia.

Another resource that is particularly suitable to be assigned as reading in the secondary classroom or post-secondary survey course is “Engaged Buddhism: A Primer on Awakened Action in the Modern World.” In this article, Pamela Winfield offers a short introduction to core principles of Buddhist doctrine, describes how Engaged Buddhists relate these concepts to contemporary social issues, and includes creative suggested activities and questions for classroom discussion.

We have two feature articles on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the new millennium: Eduardo Accorroni’s “Teaching Chinese Elite Politics through Li Qiang, Premier of the People’s Republic of China,” and Gözde Top’s “Alienation, Instability, and the Aesthetics of Compromise: An Introduction to Sixth-Generation Chinese Cinema.” Accorroni’s article walks readers through Li Qiang’s career as a case study to illuminate key concepts in PRC leadership selection and promotion, while Top’s feature explores how cultural producers operate within the constraints of censorship in contemporary China.

Next, Jing Williams and Phyllis Kim’s “If Statues Could Talk: Teaching ‘Comfort Women’ History through Statues Using Visual Thinking Strategy” presents a classroom-tested lesson plan that proposes a fresh approach to the teaching of conflict-related sexual violence.

Finally, I want to highlight EAA’s inaugural podcast feature, Adrian Ma’s “Exploring Cultural Differences in Journalism through Tokyo Vice,” which engagingly explores what the popular HBO series can teach us about cultural differences in journalistic practice (and sets a high bar for EAA multimedia production quality!).

Buchanan Prize Spotlight

This issue also includes a spotlight on this year’s Buchanan Prize recipients, Anne Prescott and Yurika Kurakata, who introduce their freely available curriculum “Cycling Taiwan: A Virtual Multi-Disciplinary Introduction to the History and Culture of Taiwan.” This spotlight feature also includes EAA Managing Editor Jon Wilson’s interview with the authors.

Asian Studies Beyond the Academy

For the second feature in our “Asian Studies Beyond the Academy” video series, I interview Dr. Samuel Galler, Vice President of Data Science at Fidelity Investments. Dr. Galler holds a BA and MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a PhD in International Development from Oxford University. In our conversation, he reflects on the triumphs and challenges of his nonlinear career trajectory and offers valuable advice for Asian Studies degree holders navigating the job market in the age of AI.

Education About Asia for All Fundraising Campaign

Education About Asia is a public humanities project that depends on the service and generosity of individuals across the Asian Studies community. I cannot overstate my gratitude to the Freeman Foundation as well as our donors, authors, peer reviewers and board members whose time, treasure, and talents make this publication possible. Their commitment to sharing knowledge about Asia with broader audiences is at the heart of our mission.

Last year, we raised more than $100,000 over the course of ten months to support open-access publication of the journal through our “Education About Asia for All” campaign and a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation. We hope that readers will continue to support our mission – which has become more important than ever in the wake of reduced federal support for Area Studies – by continuing to write, peer review, and donate to The Lucien Ellington Fund for Education About Asia.

A Special Announcement

After almost two years as Editor of Education About Asia, I will be stepping down from the editorship at the end of September 2026. This difficult decision comes in light of personal circumstances and a new professional opportunity. I have been privileged to work with an extraordinary community of scholars, teachers, staff, and supporters during my time at EAA, and I am proud of the work we have undertaken together to relaunch the journal as an open-access online publication.

I am delighted to welcome EAA’s new Editor, Dr. Lauren Collins (University of Colorado Boulder), whose pedagogical expertise and dedication to Asian Studies education will help guide the publication in the coming years.

Sincerely,

Elise Huerta