The growing economic and political significance of the East Asian region makes it necessary for a small European country like Hungary to start training well-prepared experts who combine wide historical and cultural knowledge on this region with up-to-date information concerning the political and economic relations between the East Asian countries. The editorial board of Világtörténet, the only Hungarian language academic journal entirely devoted to world history, has decided to strengthen its commitment to this region by putting together a thematic issue on East Asia. The articles of the current issue deal with some of the more important questions envisaging the contemporary history of the East Asian region, such as the economic modernization, the impact of the Western social model and urban planning, but also the national and territorial conflicts among regional powers of this area. We are confident that this effort will bring closer the historical debate on this crucial emerging area to the Hungarian public, and will also stimulate a new wave of research and analysis on the Asian continent.

Content:

The Asian Century? Modernisation and Contradictions of an Emerging Area. Introductory Thoughts to a Special Issue (Ildikó Farkas)

Studies

Ildikó Farkas: The Antecedents of Japanese Modernization

Attila Vargha: Japanese Americans – A Historical Overview. From the Second Half of the 19th Century to 1945

Péter Vámos: “We Are Waging a Consistent, Uncompromising Struggle Against Maoism.” Coordinated Research on Modern China and Hungarian Sinology

Gergely Salát: “Practice” vs. “Two Whatevers”. The Political Context of Chinese Reforms

Mózes Csoma: The Issue of Modernity on the Korean Peninsula

Attila Gergely: Identities and Interstate Relations in East Asia – The China-Japan-Korea Complex

Zsolt Szilágyi: The Beginnings of the Modern Mongolian State: The Quest for Independence in the Early 20th Century

Róbert Balogh: Landscape of War. Rationing and Efficiency: The World War II in an Indian Industrial Town

Review

Labour Force Market, Big Company and Kitty Canton in the British Empire

(Róbert Balogh)

Vietnam at War (Ferenc Dávid)

The journal World History (Világtörténet) is published by the Institute of History of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The four volumes of World History contains essays by Hungarian and foreign scholars on various topics pertaining to world history, as well as reviews on the secondary literature published in Hungary and abroad. The language of the journal is Hungarian, but each article includes an abstract in English.

Subscriptions can be made at any Hungarian post office, but issues of the journal (including older issues) can be bought or ordered from the Institute as well (postal address: MTA BTK Történettudományi Intézet, 1014 Budapest, Úri u. 53.; telephone: 36/1/224-6700/626; e-mail address: terjesztes@tti.hu">.)