Introduction

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, scholars have increasingly sought to place the history of Germany in a transnational context. Some of them have recently turned their attention to the rich field of German-East Asian, Southeastern, and South Asian interactions and especially began exploring gender aspects of this exciting and increasingly frequent transnational relationship. This volume contributes to the emerging field of Asian-German studies and gender studies by bringing together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars in a variety of fields, such as history, German and comparative literature, anthropology, sinology, and sociology. This group of scholars from North America and Germany has diverse international backgrounds that richly inform their multi-faceted scholarship on transnational ties between Germany and Asian countries since 1800. Rejecting traditional notions of West and East as seeming polar opposites, their contributions to this volume attempts to reconstruct the ways in which German and Asian men and women have cooperated and negotiated the challenge of modernity in various fields. They offer readers a nuanced look at the role that the German-speaking world and Asia have played in developing what is today an unusual relationship between two of the world’s currently most vibrant political and economic regions.