Over the Easter break, the next two episodes of the podcast will be archival episodes covering the medieval and modern history of Mongolia and Xinjiang. This is in preparation for an episode I'll be doing when I get back on the New Ethnic Unity Policy released by the Chinese government. Our book club book for this month is The Last Quarter of the Moon, also on the theme of ethnic minorities in China, so it's a very topical month!

This episode discusses the historical background of the relationship between China and the Xinjiang region, putting into context the current situation of the Uyghur people. It traces Chinese imperial attempts to first turn the area into a vassal, and then incorporate the region entirely into the empire, creating a new nationalist ideology  based on a multicultural identity. The discussion starts from the 8th century AD and the fall of the Uyghur Khaghanate, and ends with the story of the reintegration of Xinjiang into the PRC after 1949, and the CCP's views on the status of the region since then.

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Over the Easter break, the next two episodes of the podcast will be archival episodes covering the medieval and modern history of Mongolia and Xinjiang. This is in preparation for an episode I'll be doing when I get back on the New Ethnic Unity Policy released by the Chinese government. Our book club book for this month is The Last Quarter of the Moon, also on the theme of ethnic minorities in China, so it's a very topical month!

The second episode of three  on the CCP’s incorporation of the periphery into the PRC after 1949. We discuss the historical relationship between the Mongolian people and the Mainland Han Chinese people, to give context to why modern China feels that Inner Mongolia is part of the great Chinese nation.

At the end of the episode, we discuss the numerous articles on attitudes towards sex in China that I've come across in my casual reading. We highlight a woman working towards bringing foreplay into Chinese couples' bedrooms, and a survey revealing the lack of sexual knowledge among Chinese university students.

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This episode is the third installment in our book club, we’re doing well guys. The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic certainly tries to live up to its name. It covers the “‘extraordinary life story’ (Publishers Weekly) of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China’s most famous political prisoner.”

My review of this book is very, very mixed. All will become clear when you listen! Please do leave your own thoughts in the way of comments, I’d love to hear what you thought about the book.

Oh and I forgot to mention in the review that Lai also blocks a state pension law using his media outlets to push anti-pension propaganda. And that’s probably why you still see old men and women picking up cardboard for pennies every morning. Enjoy!

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A look at three recent papers published in the China Quarterly, and what they say about local governance, internal propaganda and the politics of 'getting things done' in modern China.

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China’s post 90s and 00s generation are burnt out, mentally and emotionally drained, and apparently are not getting enough sunlight. While grinding in the city seems to have led to a law of diminishing returns -- typically referred to as ‘involution’ -- many young hopefuls are still seeking opportunity elsewhere. In this episode I explore the phenonmenon of the ‘rural reset’, the idea that one can up sticks and move down to a beautiful rural idyll and live out the dream life running a coffee shop and farming a small veg patch.

But is taking your urban ways of life and grindset mentality down to the countryside the true path to happiness? Is a bucolic setting all one really needs to reinvent the self? Is it really possible to outrun admin? We discuss all this and more as we try to determine whether or not this is a sustainable, long-term vision that can be supported by the government, or another flash in the pan fad for the downtrodden laobaixing to cling to while they can.

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Today's guest is Yaling Jiang. Yaling is a former journalist who currently uses her research and reporting skills to provide businesses with insights and analysis on the Chinese consumer market. She is the founder of research agency Aperture China, alongside which she runs the newsletter Following the Yuan on Substack, which provides nuanced takes on Chinese consumer trends.

We discuss how Chinese people see themselves as consumers first and political citizens second, the CCP's attempts to influence the consumer market, and how a rise in China's soft power is linked to trends like Chinamaxxing. We also talk about how movements like involution, lying flat, and feminism present in people's lives, and prove once more that Chinese people and Americans are more similar than we think.

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This is a recording of the livestream of our monthly book club. In this livestream we discuss the book Serve the People! by Yan Lianke, a banned book set during the Cultural Revolution in China.

If you would like to find out more about the book club and which books we’re reading, please click here.

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Part 8 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

The death of Mao Zedong and the trial of the Gang of Four are traditionally used as the signifiers of the end of the Cultural Revolution. The violent and turbulent 10 year period came to a sudden stop as political in-fighting continued until Deng Xiaoping was able to quash his foes and come out on top.

In this episode, we cover how the Cultural Revolution finally came to an end, how the period is interpreted both in the West and in China, and what effect the Cultural Revolution has had on Chinese society as a whole.

Intro: 00:00
Opening: 01:09
The end of the Cultural Revolution: 6:20
Interpreting the CR: 20:25
Aftermath of the CR and memory in contemporary China: 31:23
Outro: 41:25

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Part 7 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode, we discuss the changes made to China's cultural realm during the Cultural Revolution. As the main target of the Cultural Revolution Group, cultural production including art, literature, theatre, and film were all subject to the new rules of the decade. But were those rules made to last? And were the CRG able to impose their will completely when they relied on the existing bourgeois cultural producers to cultivate their new vision?

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Part 6 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode we look at how the economy and educational system fared during the Cultural Revolution decade. We discuss how a period of chaos led into a period of stagnation, where things neither got much better nor much worse. We also talk about differences between the countryside and the cities, and how every day life was irrevocably impacted by the social turmoil that occurred.

0:00 Introduction
2:11 Economy and Education to 1969
9:57 The Economy after 1969
22:45 Education after 1969
29:28 Urban and Rural life during the CR
38:53 Conclusions

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