Stuck in the Middle Kingdom with You

And so we are at an end.

Summer break was here, relations with the school were in the gutter, but I'd signed a contract for next year and was effectively trapped.

The only way out was to concoct a cunning scheme, and that's exactly what I did... *cackle*

谢谢，再见

亚当

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Twitter: @SMKYPodcast

As I was planning my escape from the Cradle, Lisa was just settling in. How did her experience compare to mine? From her home back in the USA, she told me her story.

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In this penultimate episode, the foreign teachers meet for one last time at Brew Kettle, and as the booze takes effect a certain clarity appears.

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We're almost at the end of this troubled tale and, because few stories end as dramatically as Lin Biao's, I think it's time to revisit the ailing marshal and find out how it all went so wrong.

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The year end is nigh. School holidays approach. The question to renewing the contract has come. What should a paranoid, anxiety-addled teacher do?

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We cycle through the wetlands of Jiangnan to the water town of Jinxi, muse a little on the contradicting feelings of restriction and freedom in China, and then get into the story of modern Tibet.

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It's Easter in Changshu, and an Easter Egg hunt at school goes hopelessly off the rails.

Also, the festival of Qingming, and the Chinese story of creation – with a giant rabbit called Pangu.

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Song: 'I am the Sea' - Epic Pirate Battle Music, supported by #TheROOMnoCopyRMusic

A change in the teacher line-up has been taking place following the surprising dismissal of teacher Tyler. The new clan heads out to a nightclub, where I get some advice about dealing with Dodi.

(dubious accent alert)

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In episode 1 of this three-parter, China was alarmed at Soviet attempts to live alongside the Americans; and in part 2 those attempts went into reverse as the Cold War reached its peak temperatures.

In the final part, we follow the secret mission of Henry Kissinger as he went to China to make contact after 25 years of silence, and how the new Sino-American relationship shook up the final decades of the Cold War.

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Part 2 of 3 in a Sino-Soviet Split miniseries, and it's time for the hopes for peaceful co-existence between the Americans and the Soviets to be roundly dashed, much to the satisfaction of a certain Chairman over in Beijing.

Next time, how the Chinese capitalised on the situation for their own ends.

Music in this episode: 

Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony

Cuba Baion by Kurt Drabek

Russians by Sting (guitar cover by Giuseppe Torrisi)

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Twitter: @SMKYpodcast