NüVoices

This week, journalist and former foreign correspondent Katie Stallard joins the NüVoices podcast in a special, live stream recording to celebrate the launch of her new book Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea. Katie discusses her writing and research process, the significance and perspectives of WWII within these three authoritarian countries, and her analysis of Russia's current invasion of Ukraine. Joanna Chiu, NüVoices founder and board member, moderates this conversation.

ABOUT DANCING ON BONES: "History didn't end. Democracy didn't triumph. America's leading role in the world is no longer assured. Instead, autocrats and populist strongmen are on the rise, and the global order established after 1945 is under attack. This is the phenomenon Katie Stallard tackles in Dancing on Bones, as she examines how the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea manipulate the past to serve the present and secure the future of authoritarian rule...These three states consistently top lists of threats to US and European security, and yet the leaders of all three insist that it is their country that is threatened, rewriting history and exploiting the memory of the wars of the last century to justify their actions and shore up popular support. Since coming to power, Xi Jinping has almost doubled the length of China's World War II, Vladimir Putin has elevated the memory of the Great Patriotic War to the status of a national religion, and Kim Jong Un has invested vast sums in rebuilding war museums in his impoverished state, while those who try to challenge the official version of history are silenced and jailed. But this didn't start with Putin, Xi, and Kim, and it won't end with them. Drawing on first-hand, on-the-ground reporting, Dancing on Bones argues that if we want to understand where these three nuclear powers are heading, we must understand the stories they are telling their citizens about the past." 

Today's podcast episode is a conversation with Axios' business reporter Hope King, where she covers everything from the markets, consumer trends, and big companies such as Tesla, Apple, and Google. Joined by NüVoices board member Sophia Yan, Hope talks through her recent stories on China's lockdowns impacting global supply chains and the surprising number of China's female self-made billionaires. Later on the in episode, Hope also talks about her career pivot from finance to journalism and growing up in various parts of the US as a Chinese American. 

China's perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been what experts call a "checkered response". While Chinese authorities maintain they are neutral in the war and encourage peace negotiations, state media remains sympathetic to Russia, a significant ally for China. 

Why is Russia an important partnership China? Why have Chinese officials declined calling the conflict a war or an invasion? Where is the Russia-Chinese relationship going and how will neighboring countries respond in the region? Luckily, we have Dr. Elizabeth Wishnick, a Senior Research Scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at CNA and Professor of Political Science at Montclair State University, to break it all down. Sophia Yan, China correspondent for The Telegraph and NüVoices Board member, hosts this week's episode. 

Graphic novelist and cartoonist Laura Gao joins the podcast this week to discuss her new memoir, Messy Roots: The Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American.  When Wuhan, China captured the world's attention as the first epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Laura penned the comic strip "The Wuhan I Know" in reaction to the disgust and racism directed toward her hometown. The comic went viral and was featured in outlets like NPR, Huffington Post, and more. The comic became the basis for Laura's graphic memoir, released earlier this month.
 
A Wuhan native, Laura immigrated to Texas when she was four years old. Messy Roots is a wholesome and heartwarming tale of Laura's journey navigating their many ~strands and identities~ from being an immigrant, a Chinese-American, and coming out as queer in college. 

This conversation was hosted by Megan Cattel (usually the editor of this podcast!) They talk about internalized racism, coming out (or not) to family, Laura's favorite childhood memories in Wuhan (involving water buffalo), and delve into some Eileen Gu/Nathan Chen discourse.

This week’s episode is a conversation with Hong Konger Karen Cheung about her memoir The Impossible City which was released in February 2022. Skillfully blending reportage and personal writing, Karen takes readers through the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China and the city’s massive protest movements in 2014 and 2019.

But The Impossible City is not just an account of Hong Kong’s harrowing moments of crisis and turmoil. It is also about the struggle to navigate the city’s housing market, the mental healthcare system, strained family relationships, and Karen’s search for belonging in the place she calls home.

This episode is hosted by Jessie Lau, fellow Hong Kong writer and journalist, NüVoices board member and editor of our online magazine NüStories! Together, they discuss Karen’s writing process, her connection to Hong Kong’s indie music scene, the ongoing gatekeeping and coloniality in Asia’s journalism industry, and mental health stigma within Chinese culture.

Happy Year of the Tiger to our listeners! Our first podcast of the year is with journalist and business trends researcher Crystal Tai. She talks about her work across East Asia, the challenges of working as a non-visible "foreign correspondent" in South Korea, and how culture can reveal geopolitical tensions between countries around the world.  The conversation is hosted by Joanna Chiu, our intrepid founder who has returned from book leave! 

 Crystal has been based in South Korea and Hong Kong as a journalist since 2010. Just a few of her memorable stories include ones where she infiltrated a K-pop training academy to report on the behind-the-scenes of the industry; navigating the -30 C streets of Ulaanbaatar to report on Mongolia’s street style scene; and speaking to students and frontline workers during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests.
 
Crystal's book, Honjok, co-written with an American sociologist, is a work of nonfiction that takes a look at South Korea’s fascinating new solo-lifestyle movement. 

Our last podcast episode of 2021 features Shazeda Ahmed on Chinese cybersecurity, technology, and internet policy. Shazeda is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley's School of Information and is joined by guest host (and DC board member) Rui Zhong. How are Chinese courtrooms utilizing AI? What is algorithmic discrimination and how are Chinese companies reacting? Rui also asks Shazeda her perspective on the big question: is the U.S. in a Tech Cold War with China? All of this and more in this season finale of the NüVoices Podcast. 

Scriptwriter Shen Yang is the author of More Than One Child: Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter, which was just translated into English by Nicky Harman earlier this year in August. She joins this installment of the NüVoices Podcast with host Sophia Yan, where they discuss her turbulent childhood being shuttled between relatives and living in hiding as an "excess child" during China's one-child policy. This episode also covers the current state of family planning in China, Shen Yang's friendships with other fellow excess children, and the longlasting impact of the one-child policy in Chinese society today. 

**Note: trigger warning at the 28 minute mark for graphic descriptions of domestic violence.

The second half of Gigi Chang and Shelly Bryant's discussion about translating Jin Yong's legendary wuxia series Legends of the Condor Heroes from Chinese to English is here! Guest host and NüVoices member Cathy Tai moderates the conversation.

First, Cathy brings listeners up to speed on the Condor Heroes and Jin Yong's significance to the contemporary wuxia genre and Chinese pop culture. From there, Gigi and Shelly discuss the challenges of translating a text accurately while taking into account readers' cultural assumptions and social norms, the male gaze in wuxia, and how non-Han Chinese characters are depicted in the Condor Heroes book series.  If you missed part 1, please see the previous episode on your podcast platform! 

In a special two-part podcast, Gigi Chang and Shelly Bryant discuss their work translating Jin Yong's legendary wuxia series Legends of the Condor Heroes from Chinese to English, a revered martial-arts and fantasy odyssey among Chinese language readers around the world. Guest host and NüVoices member Cathy Tai moderates the conversation.

In this episode, Gigi and Shelly talk about the challenges of bringing Condor Heroes to life in English (such as translating elaborate fifity-page fight scenes), wuxia's cultural significance of Chinese pop culture, and the life of Jin Yong—author of the Condor Heroes. Stay tuned for part two!