I’d like to get my boyfriend a present for his upcoming birthday that relates to his passion for East Asian History. It’s hard to find anything (or anyone) specifically interested in East Asian history and was wondering if I could reach out to other history buffs for help. He particularly loves Chinese and Korean history, King Sejong, Joseon Scholars and early East Asian Buddhism.
I realize that books are generally a good gift but it’s very difficult to find them as he has the ones he wants from Amazon and also the older rare ones we pick up from university book sales. He’s told me that he’s interested in East Asian Journals from universities but I’m not even sure how to go about that...
LIT Verlag has some interesting East Asian Book Series, which aren’t well known about. Obviously a lot of the books are in German, but there are English ones too:
Is there any particular period of Chinese history he's interested in? If so, while he likely has most of the major books for it, he may not do so for a period adjacent to it – so for example if his interest in Sejong is a good guideline for his interest in Chinese history, maybe his interest is in the Ming, in which case something about the Yuan or Qing might both be of interest and not be something he already has.
You could get him a calligraphic set, as Sejong was the king who revolutionized Korean writing and Chinese calligraphy is hugely influential throughout all of Asia. He needs all four components of the Treasures of the Scholar, which are 笔，砚， 墨， 纸。Brush(es), inkstone, ink and paper. Also messing around with Chinese calligraphy is something you guys can both do, and if you end up sucking at it like me, you can just make ink-wash paintings instead.
Edit: you can also go and get him his own seal to go along with it, but I’m not sure how that’d work if he only has a Latin-charactered name