The study of Asia is conventionally framed by regional and nation-state boundaries that profoundly shape, and constrain, the ways people understand this complex and diverse continent. Asian Borderlands is meant to draw our attention to those borders themselves in the hope of illuminating commonalities and mobilities that transcend boundaries, the often marginalized peoples who inhabit these areas, and the distinct ways of life along the borderlands that are typically missed by area studies scholarship. In addition, a focus on frontiers and borderlands can bring into sharper focus certain state practices and historical trends that often go unnoticed when we only consider the dominant political and population centers of Asia. In this sense, borderlands can be spaces where nations narrate their identities with particular clarity. For this reason, we view Asian borderlands less as marginalized spaces and more as central sites where power, place, and identity intersect and are made visible.
