East and South East Asian Heritage Month 2024

The Library Liberating the Collections Group have compiled a list of books from recommendations across the UCL community to celebrate East and South East Asian Heritage Month which takes place every September.

This year's national theme is “Changing Seasons”. We asked you for book recommendations that explore experiences, cultures, and identities within East and South East Asian communities and offer a reflection on the cyclical nature of life.

How many of these books have you read?

Your recommendations

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

Recommended twice

“A literary masterpiece vividly highlighting the impact of colonisation during The British colonisation of India. This story is particularly moving for me as it allowed me to imagine a time and era that my ancestors lived through. The vivid descriptions of Burma took me back to stories my grandfather shared with me whilst he was posted in Burma during the Second World War. I have gone back to this book time and time again. As a result of reading the book, I visited Burma (Myanmar) as a result of reading this book. I would highly recommend this moving portrait of life in a time capsule that is told with authenticity and flair.”
“It taught me a lot about how this region was shaped. It made me want to know and understand more. It was also a beautiful read.”

The Buru Quartet by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Comprising: 

• This Earth of Mankind
• A Child of All Nations
• Footsteps
• House of Glass

“As someone of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, these beautiful books have been crucial to my understanding of the former Dutch East Indies and the impact and legacy of colonialism on Indonesian society today. Given voice through his lyrical, thought-provoking, and endlessly surprising prose, Toer's characters remind us that justice and equity are worth fighting for even when it costs us our own freedom, as it did for Toer. Although the Buru Quartet is set at the turn of the 20th Century, and Toer himself passed away in 2006, his writing is just as fresh and relevant now as it ever has been.”

Alexis Deighton MacIntyre, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (Alumni)

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

“This novel about a Taiwanese American PhD student desperate to finish her dissertation is deeply relatable (academic hellscapes abound), bizarre (no spoilers!), and illuminating. This strange and funny novel spends a lot of time probing the accumulated identities of an adult child of immigrants and her sudden desire to find herself within them.”

Casey MacKenzie Johnson, Hebrew & Jewish Studies

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

“This is a semi-autobiographical story of Vietnamese American author Ocean Vuong, whose family arrived in America as refugees, and his experiences growing up in Connecticut. The book is written as a series of letters to his mother, made more poignant by the fact Vuong is the first in his close family to learn how to read and thus his family cannot read his book themselves. Despite the disadvantages faced by refugees in America, Ocean Vuong went on to be an awarded poet, essayist, novelist and academic. The writing is beautiful and explores the complexities of growing up between two cultures, family dynamics, and sexuality.”

Vida, Student and Registry Services

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 

“The book spans multiple locations in East Asia and beyond, taking the reader across four generations through various characters. What happens to them, and around them, shapes their life direction and perspectives. Each of the characters are unique and unforgettable in their own way, and their stories reflect the experiences of many migrants and descendants of migrants. Also, the book has been thoughtfully adapted into a TV series.”

Kat, Inclusive Environments

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

“It is an excellent novel that everyone should read! (And also, because this sci-fi retelling of the rise of the only female emperor in Chinese history is a brilliant and thrilling introduction to ancient Chinese characters and storytelling.)”

Casey MacKenzie Johnson, Hebrew & Jewish Studies

Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley

Fiction and reality collide in this heady novel, set across a year in rural Japan.

“It sounds entertaining. I've just reserved it from my local library.” 

From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth

“It is not just a travel book or a diary: it offers personal reflections on how keeping an open mind, taking risks and facing challenges with curiosity all come together when we travel.”

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine edited by Vivienne Lo and Michael Stanley-Baker

“It is a meticulous and scientifically rich book covering such a wide range of aspects of TCM's history. It is a new standard in the field and well hopefully also influence the debate in Asian countries. Core is the focus on China and the developments over centuries. An amazing journey also of the team of editors incl. Vivienne Lo from UCL History. Of note, my team contributed a chapter linked to the situation in Europe.”
Michael Heinrich, Pharmacy

Also available Open Access through the publisher.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in UCL Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science

This activity was organised through the Library Liberating the Collections Group. The purpose of this group is to identify and oversee progress with a strategic set of actions intended to enrich the collections, increasing visibility of, and access to, works by authors who have been marginalised (and thus less heard) because of factors such as race, sexuality, gender and disability. Any titles that we don’t already own we will buy and add to our collections and will be available shortly. 

---