Popup Chinese

New Introduction

Welcome to a new podcast from Pop-up Chinese. Barbarians at the Gate is a semi-serious look at Chinese history and culture hosted by rogue historian Jeremiah Jenne and writer James Palmer. We’ll pick a topic and then explore that subject over four episodes released every other Friday. Our first topic appropriately enough is about barbarians, and our inaugural episode looks at An Lushan: the outsider who charmed his way into the court of the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century and who almost succeeded in bringing down the empire. It’s a story made for imperial slash fic: The aging emperor, his rotund but sexy concubine, and the foreigner who came between them.

Welcome to a new podcast from Pop-up Chinese. Barbarians at the Gate is a semi-serious look at Chinese history and culture hosted by rogue historian Jeremiah Jenne and writer James Palmer. We’ll pick a topic and then explore that subject over four episodes released every other Friday. Our first topic appropriately enough is about barbarians, and our inaugural episode looks at An Lushan: the outsider who charmed his way into the court of the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century and who almost succeeded in bringing down the empire. It’s a story made for imperial slash fic: The aging emperor, his rotund but sexy concubine, and the foreigner who came between them.

50 years ago, Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, inaugurating a decade of political turmoil with his calls for young people to "bombard the headquarters." In this special live edition of our podcast recorded at The Bookworm Literary Festival in March, Kaiser Kuo and David Moser welcome Melinda Liu, longtime China bureau chief of Newsweek for a discussion of the 50th anniversary of this definitive event. Melinda shares stories about her brother, who remained in China after the civil war and experienced it firsthand. [standalone mp3 file] [rss feed]

The immense popularity of social media has afforded China watchers a terrific window onto public opinion in China. In recent years, a slew of English-language websites have emerged to interpret the various trends and phenomena, discourse and debates on the Chinese Internet for non-Chinese audiences, but for our money, the very best of the bunch is ChublicOpinion.com — public opinion with Chinese characteristics — written by Ma Tianjie. A graduate of Peking University who now works for China Dialogue, Ma Tianjie offers penetrating insight and analysis written with great flare. He joins Kaiser, Jeremy, and Ada Shen in the studio for a wide-ranging discussion that reveals the mysterious origins of "diaosi" culture and looks at some of the controversies and conversations that have dominated Weibo and WeChat in recent months. [standalone mp3 file] [rss feed]

Members of the Politburo are rarely praised for their dancing skills, but consider Xi Jinping's almost flawless execution of the political two-step: first casting himself as the voice of liberal moderation in the face of Bo Xilai's mass propaganda, and then draping himself in the mantle of Maoist China and the Communist Revolution once his position was secure. The changes are enough to prompt anyone to ask: how exactly did this happen and does it even make sense?

Today on Sinica we take a look at the political movement some academics are calling Neo-Maoists, the traditionally conservative politicians and Party members whose influence began eroding with market reforms in the 1980s but have arguably witnessed a comeback of sorts in the last two years. In conversation with Jude Blanchette, former Assistant Director of the 21st century China program at UCSD, now with the Conference Board, Kaiser and Jeremy take a look at the history of the movement, who the major players are today, and how it is playing out in the Chinese media. Also, we pick our favorite upcoming events from the Beijing Literary Festival. [standalone mp3 link] [sinica rss feed]

Kaiser and Jeremy recorded today's show from New York, where they waylaid Holly Chang, founder of Project Pengyou and now Acting Executive Director of the Committee of 100 for a discussion on spying, stealing commercial spying, spying and broadway.

Yes, you read that right. After catching the Broadway musical Allegiance about the Japanese-American internment camps in WWII, we wanted to do a show discussing the experiences people of Chinese heritage have with racial profiling today, and particularly the experiences of the Chinese diaspora community in the United States. Give the show a listen and let us know what you feel in the comments section below! [standalone mp3 download]

Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined this week by Howie Southworth and Greg Matza, creators of the independent video series Sauced in Translation, a reality show that journeys into the wilder parts of China in search of local Chinese specialities that can be repurposed into classic American dishes. The show is a great concept, brilliantly executed, and we're delighted to have Howie and Greg here to share some behind-the-scenes stories and talk about how they got started mixing Chinese and American cuisine. [standalone mp3 download]

With equity markets in freefall, housing prices skipping downwards, foreign reserves plummetting, and industrial production on a roadtrip back to the last decade, it's no surprise permabears like Gordan Chang are stocking up on popcorn to bask in what they see as the long-due collapse of the Chinese economy. It all raises the question of how bad things are going to get, which leads to the question of how bad they are right now.

Joining Kaiser, Jeremy and David in the studio today to talk about the Chinese economy and its recent tailspin is none other than Tom Orlik, an economist at Bloomberg and author of the book Understanding China's Economic Indicators. Tom has years of experience writing about China and joins to share his thoughts on what parts of the economy are doing decently and where the real problems lie. We hope you love the show. [standalone mp3 file]

This week on Sinica, Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined by Deborah Seligsohn, former science counselor for the US Embassy in Beijing and currently a doctoral candidate at UCSD, where she studies environmental governance in China. With more than 20 years of China experience, Deborah is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on the question of China's policy response to questions of air pollution and climate change, which is why we are delighted to have her on the show.

Like Sinica? Don't forget that you can subscribe to our iTunes podcast feed by using our custom RSS feed. And please feel free to download this show as a standalone mp3 file and share with anyone you think might also like hearing the show. Thanks!