When browsing in German- or French-language bookstores, I increasingly notice how much Asian literature is on offer. This was already evident more than two decades ago with manga from Japan and South Korea. Whether I was in the comic book section in the US, France, or Germany, young people would be sitting in front of the manga, engrossed in reading. Other sections with youth literature, on the other hand, seemed to be less popular.

I myself collect French comics, and I often come across manga published in French. Not only that, but also illustrated books about ghosts and demons.

Films from China, South Korea, and Japan are also enjoying tremendous popularity, and it is easier than ever to watch them. In the past, you had to visit specialized video stores and arthouse cinemas to see Jackie Chan films, but today they are available at the touch of a button on Netflix and other streaming services.

KPop Demon Hunters was one of those films that broke all records in 2025. This South Korean animated film about a KPop girl band who also hunt demons as a side job became an absolute cultural phenomenon.

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill is currently being shown in cinemas in the West again. Twenty-two years after its premiere, attention is being focused above all on the references to Japanese films in Tarantino’s work.

But Asian novels are also proving unexpectedly popular, as the book tables show. No matter which city I visit or which bookstore I go to, there is always a table with Asian literature. Even I couldn’t walk past it without buying a few books by authors I didn’t know.

I noticed a pattern here. The settings are usually a place around which the plot revolves. It could be a bookstore, a café, a stationery store, or a phone booth where the protagonists meet. Often, there is also a mystical theme involved, with the characters communicating with the dead. Or there are documents and conversations that revolve around the past.

The characters are often portrayed as shy and introverted, having difficulty interacting with others, and readers gain a better understanding of why the birth rate in Japan is so low.

The stories break away from the modern present into a life that sometimes seems quite old-fashioned, which is probably precisely why it is so appealing. These novels slow down the pace of life, pay homage to traditional rites and customs such as drinking tea or writing a handwritten letter, and create a microcosm in which everyone still knows and cares for each other.

What does that say about us? In a world that seems to be changing ever more rapidly and becoming increasingly threatening, Asian novels offer a choice that is out of step with the times, allowing us to leave the present behind and enter or even escape to a world where the simple things in life take center stage.

I am not immune to this either. As much as I am enthusiastic about innovation and technological progress, I also appreciate the tranquility of reading a book, drinking coffee or tea, and disconnecting from the hectic pace of everyday life. A Japanese tea house in my garden, where I can celebrate the ritual of drinking tea in isolation from everyday life, has been on my to-do list for a long time. I suppose I should finally get around to it.

Postscript

By Asian music, I don’t mean those catchy tunes from Singapore, of course 😉

Or this hammer from China: