Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China’s Consumer Revolution, by Tim Simpson

Macau was founded by the Portuguese in 1557 and was the West’s gateway to China before becoming a colonial backwater in the nineteenth century. It became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China in 1999, something that, according to Tim Simpson, augured ‘the embryonic stirring of a world-historical geopolitical realignment [with] the...

Asian Cities: Armature, Enclave, Heterotopia

Asian cities are undergoing massive transformation in the face of globalization. Urbanization is not only part and parcel of these transformations; it is often the most visible expression of them. Three recent books explore some of these urban transformations: Marie Gibert-Flutre and Heidi Imai examine Asian alleyways as an urban vernacular...

Treaty Ports in China: Their Genesis, Development, and Influence