Originally released on October 3, 2023.

Warning: GEEKY CONTENT

Hosting solo in this week’s episode, David takes a geeky deep dive into the digital revolution in Chinese language learning in conversation with Chinese language pedagogy expert Matt Coss. The Sisyphean task of learning to write hundreds of Chinese characters has long been the bête noire of Chinese language students. The explosion of digital devices and apps for processing Chinese characters is giving rise to a radical rethinking (no pun intended) of the handwriting and dictation components of Chinese language curricula.

Matt Coss is on the front line of a new generation of Chinese language educators who advocate a drastic reduction, if not outright elimination, of the handwriting requirement for Chinese language learners. Topics covered include the disturbing drop in the number of American students studying Mandarin, the implications of AI tools such as ChatGPT for Chinese language learning, and the escalating problem of native Chinese speakers forgetting how to write common characters (“character amnesia” tíbǐ wàngzì提笔忘字).

Matt Coss holds a BA in Hispanic Linguistics and Asian Studies (Chinese) and an MA in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a PhD in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University. Matt has taught Chinese classes at George Washington University and Georgetown University and has worked as a Second Language Acquisition Specialist on the STARTALK project at the National Foreign Language Center. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics & Language Assessment Coordinator at the University of Alabama.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Transforming L2 Hanzi Teaching & Learning in the Age of Digital Writing: Theory and Pedagogy (《电写时代汉字教学的理论与实践》) published by Routledge 2023

https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/bookChapter/Save-Your-Strokes-Further-Studies-on/9924210987301921

L1: First language (i.e., native language)

L2: Second language

 “The New Paperless Revolution in Chinese Reading.” Olle Linge’s Hacking Chinese Site. https://www.hackingchinese.com/the-new-paperless-revolution-in-chinese-reading/

“Character Amnesia Yet Again” Victor Mair, Language Log, April 28, 2022.

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=54465

Hanzi Yingxiong 《汉字英雄》 “Chinese Character Heroes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaoxdiwKaHo&t=337s

Zhongguo Hanzi tingxie dahui《中国汉字听写大会》”Chinese Character Dictation Competition.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=insD5qbJw2g&list=PL0eGJygpmOH4xEZ7Gu2IluCL07GYcHiZu

In this episode, we reconnect with an old friend of the podcast, Canadian performer Mark Rowswell, better known in China as Dashan, or “Big Mountain.” Mark reflects on his early career in China, where his remarkable fluency in Mandarin launched him from a young foreign newcomer into the world of xiangsheng (相声, crosstalk), and soon after into a highly sought-after TV host and cultural ambassador bridging East and West.

He also shares insights into his latest creative project: a series of online videos featuring his recitations of classic Chinese poetry. What began during the pandemic with a relatively obscure Chu Ci (楚辞) poem that went viral has since grown to include well-known works by Li Bai and Su Shi, with Mark’s fresh approach—eschewing the traditional, formal style of langsong (朗诵) in favor of a more natural, conversational delivery—quickly gaining a wide audience. Over time, the project has grown increasingly ambitious, incorporating longer poems and rich musical collaborations, including performances with the Toronto and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras.

Finally, Mark offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at his role in adapting The Shawshank Redemption into a Chinese-language stage production performed by an all-foreign cast. He discusses recruiting Mandarin-speaking actors, translating and culturally adapting the script, and the production’s warm reception among Chinese audiences.

Chinese Glossary

tuōkǒu xiù 脱口秀 — Stand-up comedy (derived from “talk show”)

Tǔcáo Dàhuì 吐槽大会 — A popular roast-style comedy show format

cābiānqiú 擦边球 — Literally “edge ball”; skirting the line of what is acceptable

bēiqiū 悲秋 — Mourning the arrival of autumn; a metaphor for aging

píng píng zè zè 平平仄仄 — Strict alternating tonal meter in classical poetry

Dìngfēng Bō 定风波 — A classical poem noted for syncing well with musical rhythm

Shēngshēng Màn 声声慢 — A famous lyric poem (ci) with musical accompaniment

Qiāng Jìn Jiǔ 将进酒 — Li Bai’s boisterous drinking poem

Chánghèn Gē 长恨歌 — “The Song of Everlasting Regret,” a 10-minute tragic epic

Chūnfēng táolǐ huākāi rì 春风桃李花开日 — A line from Changhen Ge

nǐ néng shuō ràokǒulìng ma? 你能说绕口令吗？ — “Can you say a tongue twister?”

Tā zhēn huì! 他真会！ — “He really knows his stuff!”

Zhāng Kēmín 张科民 — Pianist and composer

Lǐ Délún 李德伦 — Zhang Kemin’s grandfather; pioneered symphonic music in modern China

Zhāng Guólì 张国立 — Actor and director

Links

Dashan’s YouTube

Li Bai, “Bring the Wine” 李白《将进酒》 (folk rock version)

Comments on the Chinese stage Shawshank Redemption

Night Rain by Bai Juyi 白居易《夜雨》, music by David Moser

Ding Feng Bo 《定风波》苏轼, music by David Moser (also in the episode)

“Ballad of the Pipa” by Bai Juyi 白居易《琵琶行》

Lee Moore's new book challenges both Chinese state propaganda and Western pundits on Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong with 1400 endnotes, and a drinking game for beheadings.

A historian who writes about Ming emperors getting stabbed in the balls, a drinking game for beheadings in Xinjiang, and why almost everything politicians say about Taiwan’s history is wrong. Lee Moore joins Barbarians at the Gate to discuss his new book.

In this episode, we talk with Lee Moore about China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read. It is often said that China is the most talked-about country that Americans know the least about. Lee’s book seeks to enlighten readers with a fresh perspective and a deep dive into four China-related topics that frequently appear in American media: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong.

Despite his academic credentials, Lee has chosen to write the book in an accessible style that Jeremiah characterizes as “making the complex simple and the simple complex — complicating narratives without complicating the language, and simplifying complicated histories without dumbing them down.”

With this lively and occasionally risqué prose style (one chapter is entitled “The Most Important Motherfucker in Taiwanese History”), Lee challenges the simplistic historical narratives that often dominate both Chinese state propaganda and Western commentary on China.

Our conversation explores several of the historical questions raised in his book. Was Taiwan always a part of China? It did not even appear on Chinese maps until the 17th century, and the Qing Dynasty did not take control of the island until a year after William Penn founded Philadelphia. Were the Uyghurs the first inhabitants of Xinjiang? The answer is complicated, but the region’s earliest known inhabitants may actually have been Indo-European. And is the Chinese Communist Party’s tight state control over the economy really the “secret sauce” behind China’s rise? Lee takes direct aim at Western pundits who have argued exactly that.

Lee also explains how he makes extensive use of Chinese poetry — from Tang Dynasty border verse to Qing-era colonial writing — translated into colloquial English, to convey the emotions and states of mind of the historical figures who populate his book.

Lee Moore has a PhD in Chinese literature. He is the founder of the Chinese Literature Podcast and has written for The Economist, the China Books Review, and The China Project.

China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read is available from Unsung Voices Books wherever books are sold. Find the Chinese Literature Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Warning/Advertisement: This episode contains explicit language. 

It’s another Barbarians at the Gate crossover with China Books Review. This month’s China Archives column covers Decadence Mandchoue by Edmund Backhouse, edited and annotated by Derek Sandhaus. CBR Associate Editor Alexander Boyd and I sat down to talk about all things Backhouse and try to parse one of Sinology’s more controversial memoirs.

Backhouse was the son of a British baronet who dropped out of Oxford, fled to Beijing in 1898, and spent the next four decades as a fixer, translator, and professional eccentric in the hutongs. He was also a forger, a fabulist, possibly a fascist sympathizer, and the author of what may be the most explicit expat China memoir ever written. His central claim: an extended sexual relationship with Empress Dowager Cixi. His central problem: almost nobody believed him.

And there’s a good reason. He almost certainly invented the whole thing.The real question isn’t whether Backhouse was making stuff up. He was. A lot. The question is whether this gifted fabulist, writing from inside (or at least adjacent to) the world he’s fabricating, can still tell us something real about the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Join us as we explore the decadent world of sex, lies, and power during one of the most tumultuous periods of Chinese history.

Welcome to a special episode of Barbarians at the Gate. David and Jeremiah are off this week preparing for Chinese New Year, but as a special gift to our listeners, we are cross-posting this bonus episode about the life and China travels of the American writer Emily "Mickey" Hahn. This episode is from By Their Own Compass, a podcast looking at historical travelers and past journeys co-hosted by Jeremiah with travel expert Sarah Keenlyside.

Emily Hahn partied with poets (and her pet gibbon) at Shanghai soirees. Wrote biographies while dodging bombs in wartime Chongqing, and did her best to keep herself and her family alive in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. Along the way, she became famous (some might add “notorious”) for her affairs, including with Chinese writer Sinmay Zau (Shao Xunmei 邵洵美) and the head of British intelligence in Hong Kong, Charles Boxer.

Mickey lived through some of China’s most tumultuous moments. While many foreigners experienced these events, Mickey gave her readers an unvarnished look at what was happening, with a style all her own.

We hope you enjoy this special bonus episode. Follow By Their Own Compass at bytheirowncompass.com or search for By Their Own Compass on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or where you get your podcasts.

Links:



Books referenced in the episode

• China to Me by Emily Hahn
• Nobody Said Not To Go by Ken Cuthbertson (biography of Emily Hahn)
• I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey by Langston Hughes
• The Soong Sisters by Emily Hahn

Tours & Resources:

• Historic Shanghai - walking tours (Patrick Cranley and Tina Kanagarathnam)

Further Reading:

• Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson by Paul French
• Hong Kong Holiday by Emily Hahn
• No Hurry to Get Home: A Memoir by Emily Hahn
• Mr Pan by Emily Hahn

It’s high season in Thailand. The weather is perfect. But look around the hotel lobbies and the night markets, and you’ll notice something missing: the tour buses.

For the last decade, Thailand bet the house on Chinese mass tourism. Now, that wager is looking shaky. The numbers are down, and the reasons go deeper than just a sluggish post-COVID economy.

On this episode, David dials in from Addis Ababa and we are joined by travel writer Thomas Bird (author of Harmony Express), global strategist Yajun Zhang to try and figure out where everyone went and where Chinese travelers are going next.

We look at the "scam center" panic that’s terrifying parents on WeChat, the shift from package tours to solo travel, and why a new generation of Chinese tourists might be skipping Bangkok for Singapore.

Plus, we look at how the Chinese diaspora is changing the sound of the region—literally. From the streets of Bangkok to the markets of Addis Ababa, is Mandarin replacing English as the default second language of the Global South?

In this episode:

• The Party and the Hangover: Thailand’s pivot from GI R&R spot to Chinese holiday destination—and the current crash.

• The Fear Factor: How viral stories about kidnappings and scam compounds are killing the vibe for mainland travelers.

• The New Traveler: Why the "flag-following" tour groups are being replaced by digital nomads and independent explorers.

• Diaspora Voices: Comparing the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia with the newer waves arriving in Africa.

Following a tumultuous 2025, we gallop into the Year of the Horse. Tradition says it should be a year of dynamism and progress, but which way is the stampede heading?

To help us read the tea leaves, we welcome back our occasional co-host, Zhang Yajun. As a global strategist and former innovation lead at the World Economic Forum, Yajun has spent over 16 years translating complex shifts, from AI to cultural narratives, for international audiences. She joins us to look past the headlines and offer a reality check on where China’s policies, social fabric, and daily life are actually going in 2026.

Topics include:

• The Expat Exodus: After American student numbers hit historic lows, can China lure them back? Is the "China Dream" for foreign talent dead, or can the country overcome deep-seated geopolitical friction to become a destination for career-building again?

• The AI Reality Check: Beyond the state-level hype, how is Artificial Intelligence reshaping the rhythm of the street? We look at how aggressive government promotion of the sector is filtering down to everyday life.

• The Death of the Dining Room: The delivery apps are winning. As take-out replaces the communal table, restaurants are closing at an alarming rate. Are we witnessing the end of China’s boisterous, public food culture?

• Character Amnesia: As digital input methods proliferate, muscle memory is fading. With fewer people able to write by hand, will the Ministry of Education double down on rote discipline, or is the era of handwritten Chinese officially over?

Yajun Zhang, Global Strategy & Innovation Leader | AI & XR for Policy | East–West Connector

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yajun-zhang-strategist/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@yajun_zhang
• Substack: https://yajunzhang.substack.com/

Champions Day in the city of Shanghai, November 1941.

The world was at war, but the clubhouse at the Shanghai Race Club (now People's Park) was packed with owners and punters cheering on the pony. The funeral of Shanghai's richest widow, Liza Hardoon, was a spectacle that filled the streets of the International Settlement. Japanese occupiers and their Chinese collaborators came together in a bizarre ritual to celebrate the birthday of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen. The opening of a new movie featuring, of all subjects, Charlie Chan had folks lining up at the local cinema box office.

The world had changed, but the "Lone Island" of Shanghai persisted, as it had since becoming a treaty port a century earlier.

In this encore episode from 2020, historian James Carter joins us to discuss his fascinating book Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai. Carter brings to life the vivid tableau of an era coming to an end. By the end of the year, Japanese authorities would take control of Shanghai and the city would never again be the same.

What did the end of the colonial era mean for Shanghai and its residents? Why were race tracks such powerful symbols?

Join us as we discuss the history of horse racing, colonialism, and the last days of Old Shanghai.

How does a teenage girl from Beijing’s hutongs end up ruling the world’s largest empire—without ever technically sitting on the throne? In this episode, Jeremiah traces the improbable ascent of Empress Dowager Cixi, who entered the Forbidden City as a minor concubine and departed as the most powerful woman in Chinese history.

The story begins in imperial catastrophe: the Xianfeng Emperor dies in the wake of the humiliating looting of the Summer Palace, leaving behind a four-year-old son and a power vacuum waiting to be filled. Cixi, her fellow empress dowager Ci’an, and Prince Gong move quickly to take control, using the child emperor as both symbol and shield. Jeremiah explains the peculiar constitutional fiction known as “ruling from behind the curtain” (垂帘听政), a political maneuver that allowed Cixi and Ci’an to steer the empire while officially remaining in the shadows.

When Cixi’s own son, the Tongzhi Emperor, dies at eighteen, she executes another audacious maneuver—installing her young nephew, the Guangxu Emperor, ensuring that the throne remains occupied by someone conveniently underage. For a brief period—one hundred days, to be exact—Guangxu confers with intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, planning an ambitious series of bureaucratic and military reforms. Cixi, unconvinced that constitutional monarchy and radical modernization were viable at the time, pulls the plug.

Jeremiah and David examine the mystery surrounding the death of Zhenfei, the Pearl Concubine, as well as the lingering question of whether the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned by his aunt. Finally, we weigh the verdict of history: was Cixi a ruthless “Dragon Lady” who strangled China’s chances at modernity—or a pragmatic, formidable ruler judged by a double standard?

Related Links:

• Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (Jung Chang)

• Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling

• With the Empress Dowager of China by Katharine Carl

• Decadence Mandchoue by Edmund Backhouse

• Jeremiah's review of Katharine Carl on the China Books Review website

In 1981, the Indian writer and poet Vikram Seth traveled from Nanjing, where he was studying literature, to his hometown of Delhi. Moving by train across China to Gansu, then hitchhiking southwest through Qinghai and Tibet, it was an itinerary that makes sense when a traveler has a surfeit of curiosity but a shortage of funds. Armed with half-decent Mandarin, a fistful of foreign exchange certificates, and a scrap of paper authorizing his route, he negotiated China just as it was emerging from the Maoist era. No WeChat. No Trip.com. No Google Translate. Just a student improvising his way home as the date on his travel pass crept ever closer: fording rivers in rickety trucks, suffering altitude sickness, dealing with roadside thieves and the occasional military checkpoint.

From Heaven Lake, the book that came out of that trip is sharp, observant, funny in places, bleak in others. A snapshot of a country trying to reinvent itself while one traveler tries to get home before his paperwork expires.

In this Barbarians at the Gate crossover with China Books Review, Jeremiah sits down with Alexander Boyd to talk about Seth’s strange, scrappy journey, what travel in China looked like in 1981, and how a writer from India saw things Western visitors of the same era tended to miss in the early 1980s.