Other Writing
I also write regularly in popular venues. Here is a selection of my writing, grouped thematically.
Taiwan, and Returning to It
Pieces written from Taiwan and about coming back to it: protest movements, the politics of informing, and what “Asian American” means once you have left America.
Letter from Taiwan
Commonweal · 4 February 2024
Should Snitches Get Stitches?
The International News Lens · 1 November 2021 · With Michelle Kuo
Moving to Taiwan
The International News Lens · 14 May 2021
Is Asian American a Viable Category?
The International News Lens · 8 April 2021
Insecurity and Authority in the Sinosphere
Tocqueville 21 · 19 January 2018
The Black Iron Cage: Taiwanese Protesters in an Age of Global Unrest
Los Angeles Review of Books · 3 June 2014
Essays for 歷史學柑仔店, a collective of Taiwanese historians writing for a general readership.
風波中的大學 II：論人文學科的「永久危機」
歷史學柑仔店 · 28 November 2025
風波中的大學：1932年哥倫比亞大學抗議活動的一些反思
歷史學柑仔店 · 24 May 2024 · Translated by 賴炣妌
Religion, Secularism, and the State
How modern states manage belief — French secularism, the global Jesuits, and the religious imagination at work in fiction and television.
An Exceptional Tradition? The Jesuits in the World
The Immanent Frame · 2 November 2017 · A review of three books on Jesuits and globalization
Secularists for Christmas! Can France Make Room for Islam?
Commonweal · 21 February 2014
Scientology: The Mystery Sandwich
Los Angeles Review of Books · 12 May 2013 · With Michelle Kuo
In Hell, "We Shall Be Free": On Breaking Bad and Paradise Lost
Los Angeles Review of Books · 13 July 2012 · With Michelle Kuo
Marilynne Robinson and the Miraculous Privilege of Existence
Los Angeles Review of Books · 22 May 2012 · With Michelle Kuo
Church and State
Los Angeles Review of Books · 8 March 2012
Reading and Watching
Criticism, mostly for the Los Angeles Review of Books: novelists of exile and rootlessness, and American television read for what it says about empire.
Cobra Kai, the Twilight of American Empire, and the Allure of Paramilitary Violence
Los Angeles Review of Books · 8 June 2021 · With Michelle Kuo
I Dare Not: The Muted Style of Writer in Exile Ha Jin
Los Angeles Review of Books · 11 January 2015 · With Michelle Kuo
Browsers Welcome: France vs. Amazon
Commonweal · 30 October 2014
"Take the Good Life and Be Happy": On The Americans
Los Angeles Review of Books · 24 April 2014 · With Michelle Kuo
Animal Feelings
Public Books · 9 September 2013 · With Michelle Kuo
Imperfect Strollers: Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, W. G. Sebald, and the Alienated Cosmopolitan
Los Angeles Review of Books · 2 February 2013 · With Michelle Kuo
From Paris
Written during the years we taught at the American University of Paris.
Letter from Paris
Los Angeles Review of Books · 21 November 2015 · With Michelle Kuo
Those Who Leave
The Point · 31 March 2015 · With Michelle Kuo