Skip to Main Content

Core Journals in East Asian Studies (English Language)

Searching for ejournals

Asian Studies Journals

This select list of journals is a good place to start; many other journals and magazines, however, also deal with Asia or East Asia. In addition, many scholarly journals, such as Comparative Studies in Society and History or American Anthropologist, have occasional articles. All of these journals are indexed in the Bibliography of Asian Studies and can usually be found in both general and subject specific databases. Titles marked with * are in JSTOR.

The Asia Pacifc Journal: Japan Focus
This online journal provides in-depth critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific . . . and the world, as well as Japanese and international perspectives on contemporary Japanese politics, economics, society, and culture. It offers translations from Japanese, reprints of important English language texts, and Japan Focus originals.  A subscription link to their weekly newsletter is available on the website.

Asian cinema: a publication of the Asian Cinema Studies Society
Includes research articles, essays, interviews, symposia, book and film reviews, and bibliographies. All types of Asian films are featured, including full-length movies, documentaries, animation, and experimental.

Asian theatre journal*
Covers both traditional and modern theatrical forms. It offers descriptive and analytical articles, original plays and play translations, book and audiovisual reviews, and reports of current theatrical activities in Asia

Central Asian survey
Provides a comprehensive retrospective of contemporary international relations in Central Asian and Caucasian regions nations with analysis of current events, governmental policies, socio-economic development, and financial institutions.

Columbia journal of Asian law
provided a forum for legal practitioners and scholars from the People’s Republic of China, the United States, and elsewhere to discuss a broad range of issues relating to law in the PRC. Since 1996 it has expanded its geographical coverage to South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia

Critical Asian Studies : 2001-present
Formerly Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1968-2000
Perkins/Bostock Periodicals: B936CA
Born out of the crisis of the Indochina Wars as an attempt to analyze U.S. policy in cold war Asia.  See here for a discussion of its aims and purposes.

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *
Harvard-Yenching Institute, Semi-annual, 1936-present
Perkins/Bostock Periodicals: H339J
Cumulative index 1936-80; every five years thereafter
Primary focus on premodern history and literature. Extended book reviews.

The Journal of Asian Studies *
Perkins/Bostock Periodicals: F219E
Covers East, South and Southeast Asia.  The professional journal for the field.  Book Reviews are rather short.  Publishes occasional review articles.

positions asia critique
Durham, N.C., 1993-present 
Perkins/Bostock Periodicals: P855D
Formerly known as positions: east asia cultures critique.  Seeks to place cultural critique at the center of historical and theoretical practice by accounting for positions as places, contexts, power relations, and links between knowledge and knowers as actors in existing social institutions.