Strangers in China

In this episode, Clay makes friends with Zhen Ayi, gets a whole ton of apples, quests for water, explains how the whole group buying thing works, and goes through a serious period of darkness.

Works consulted:

My life in Shanghai’s never-ending zero-COVID lockdown / The Guardian

A fire broke out in Shanghai's Pudong / Reddit

Children with COVID in Shanghai reportedly separated from parents – video / The Guardian

Shanghai Covid: China announces largest city-wide lockdown / BBC

How long will Shanghai's lockdown last? / BBC

What it’s like inside Shanghai’s lockdown– video/ Vice

Music credits:

Moss heim

Lakey inspired

TDP experimental

Hattirin

Bary

Ginger pitcher

Andri from page fire

Purrple Cat

Jozwyn

Terri skills

Dovi

Lofee

Artist uknown2

Dr3am

TazLazuli

Csus

Xxiuk

Jaies

Tri-tachyon

Ye olde experimental junk

Inaiya

Tristan Trey

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The 2022 Shanghai lockdown came to Clay’s neighborhood early and caught him off-guard. Struggling with his mental health, Clay documents how lockdown works on a granular level giving listeners an audio tour of his neighborhood as it plunges into the uncertainty of all the minutiae of day-to-day life living under the control of the apparatuses that shut down an entire city for several months. The boredom, the stress, the terror. He documents clashes with local bureaucracy and the ingenuity of the people of Shanghai who had to live through these dark and strange times. Clay ventures out into a city as it’s about to enter the full city lockdown and gives listeners a sense of what a city looks like before it's irrevocably changed.

Works consulted

Shanghai COVID: China announces largest city-wide lockdown / BBC

Shanghai residents remain largely locked down despite easing / Bloomberg (paywall)

Xi Jinping and the administrative hierarchy and subdivisions in China / Institute for Security & Development Policy

From Mass Campaigns to Managed Campaigns: “Constructing a New Socialist Countryside” / Elizabeth J. Perry

Community grid system helps China fight virus / Global Times

Neighborhood committees are in the vanguard of virus control / Global Times

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1184356.shtml

Grassroots Participation and Repression under Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping / University of Chicago

A Tragedy of the Commons: Property Rights Issues in Shanghai Historic Residences / Penn State International Law Review

Pocket of poverty the new Shanghai has left behind / The Sydney Morning Herald

Shanghai’s ‘Old West Gate’ neighborhood emptied for demolition and redevelopment - video / SCMP (paywall)

Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life - Ch. 4

The work of Michel Foucault

Music credits:

Csus

Moss Heim

Trey

Jaies

Bary

Ginger pitcher

TDP-Experimental

Xxiuk

Lakey inspired

Lakey inspired

Terri skills

Lofee

Dr3am

Purrple Cat

Ye Olde Experimental Junk

Le gang

Obani

Jozwyn

MCV

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Xiao Xiao runs a vintage shop in Shanghai. But it’s her particular sensibility and artistry that turned the place into something really beautiful. She certainly cares about making money and success, but the Flower World has something that is really lacking in trendy neighborhoods around Shanghai — it has a soul. There are so many places around the city that reflect the brutal consumerist cynicism that pervades Shanghai’s retail market. But Xiao Xiao’s love for quirky objects and her deep understanding of secondhand fashion have created a cloistered little paradise on Julu Road. In this episode, Clay speaks with her about the store, and her success in pumping some color back into the heart of a cold city.

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From underground rap battles to prime-time television to a fall from grace, rap music and rap culture in China has come a long way. Beginning in the 1990s, the imported cassette tapes that made it through customs unscathed by officials went on to inspire a generation. This episode features commentary from our host, Clay, as well as rapper Bohan Phoenix and journalist Lauren Teixeira. They discuss the history and origins of rap music in the country and its entangled cultural inheritance in China, a timeline of how and where it was disseminated, why the government has shunned this type of music, and more.

A special thanks goes to Alec for helping to produce this episode.

Follow Strangers in China on Facebook and Twitter, or email Clay directly at [email protected].

Support Strangers in China on Patreon: patreon.com/strangersinchina

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Clay leaves Shanghai for Beijing to speak with Huang Chenkuang, a journalist and creative who runs the interview series Beijing Lights (published on the website of the arts collective Spittoon). She shares excerpts from her writing, tells stories about her time growing up in rural China, and elaborates on some of the exceptional characters she’s profiled in the past. 

Follow Strangers in China on Facebook and Twitter, or email Clay directly at [email protected].

Support Strangers in China on Patreon: patreon.com/strangersinchina

Find Kuang’s work on the Spittoon Collective website here:

https://spittooncollective.com/category/beijing-lights/

Music credits:

“Analytical Skeletons,” “Vaporize Me,” and “Crumbling Chia Pets” by csus; “Fake Mustache,” “Tiny Ballerina,” and “Sad Ending” by Purrple Cat; Lo-Fi by Lo-fi Theory; sunny d slaps by lofee; I Was Nothing by Le Gang; and low battery drama by dr3am.

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In episode 2, Clay continues his dive into the personal stories of the people behind the ultimate frisbee scene in Shanghai. Another local team to rival the Sirens emerges, and the Shanghai Open tournament pushes the team to its competitive limits.

Follow Strangers in China on Facebook and Twitter, or email Clay directly at [email protected].

Support Strangers in China on Patreon: patreon.com/strangersinchina

Music credits: 

“Analytical Skeletons,” “Shhia Baat,” “Vaporize Me,” “Crumbling Chia Pets,” by csus; “Frank,” by Jozwyn; “Road Trip,” “Tiny Ballerina,” “Wait What,” “Fake Mustache,” “Sad Ending,” by Purrple Cat; “T.I.D,” “Hip hop Instrumental 130 Bpm,” “Hip Hop Instrumental 82 BPM,” by Terri Skillz; “classic hip hop bootleg,” “low battery drama,” “against u,” by Dr3am; “AFTERTHOUGHT,” by Evan Shaeffer; “itsover,” “Light Showers,” “xmpty,” “i felt like making this too,” by Lofee; “Kronicle-Chill Noons,” by Fox Beat 2; “Me 2,” by LAKEY INSPIRED; “I Was Nothing,” “Money Go Round,” by Le Gang.

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In the first episode of the second season of Strangers in China, host Clay Baldo explores the lives of the women of the Shanghai Sirens, China’s first women’s ultimate frisbee team. They need frisbee — they’re obsessed with it. The story of the team and its 2020 season, which was never really supposed to happen due to the pandemic, is one of self-discovery, adversity, passion, and camaraderie. 

Tune in, enjoy, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts to let us know what you think. 

Follow Strangers in China on Facebook and Twitter, or email Clay directly at [email protected].

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Season two of Strangers in China will air on Friday, February 6. Subscribe to the feed for notifications when new episodes are published!

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Strangers in China is back with a second season on November 20th, 2020. Subscribe for alerts when new episodes are published.

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Have you missed Strangers in China? We have, too. Enjoy this bonus podcast, co-produced by Clay Baldo and Chris Hankin. More episodes will come in the fall. 

The conversations you will hear center on the experiences of students who are now attending the Kaiping Culinary School (kāipíng cānyǐn xuéxiào 開平餐飲學校) in Taipei. This school accepts students who would otherwise struggle within the Taiwanese educational system. At Kaiping Culinary School, however, they find a place to be heard, and to learn.

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