With Chinese Characteristics

We explore MORE crimes and scams in the late ming dynasty with the excellently translated Book of Swindles. This time with magic. 

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-swindles/9780231178631

In the 19th century, an unlikely international initiative took place. Despite the Qing government's reputation for conservatism and isolationist policies, it actually sponsored a group of 120 Chinese boys to study in the United States. This is the story of the Chinese Education Mission (CEM). An ambitious experiment— it built a short lived but very real bridge between two very different worlds. It was a story of political ambition, and cultural collision, but also one of baseball. 

References:

- My Life in China and America, by Yung Wing

- When I was a boy in China, by Yan Phou Lee

- Autobiography with Letters, by William Lyon Phelps

- 纪录片《幼童》(2004)

-Dr. Xiaoxing Xi on false science espionage accusations, advocacy, and Oppenheimer, MIT Science Policy Review

Cover photo: 

The "Orientals" baseball club of the CEM boys, taken in front of the Chinese Educational Mission Headquarters, Hartford, 1878. 2-1-11, Thomas E. LaFargue Papers, 1873-1946.

Courtesy Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC), Washington State University Libraries.

We explore crimes and scams in the late ming dynasty with the excellently translated Book of Swindles.

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-swindles/9780231178631

We finally meet everyone's favorite guy (Song Jiang), and learn about song dynasty interrogation techniques. 

This episode delves into Chinese stamps/seals/chops (印章), exploring the origins, ritualization, and various cultural conventions associated with this ancient practice.

Given their existence predating the invention of paper in China, what surfaces did ancient Chinese court officials typically stamp upon? Did different dynasties enforce distinct rules regarding stamps? Was the loss of an emperor's jade seals believed to signify the loss of the mandate of heaven? In the late Qing dynasty, the penalty for misusing the stamp could be as severe as death. Was this penalty genuinely enforced, or was it akin to many other historical (and current day) Chinese laws—a fallback scapegoat system?

Tune in to uncover the answers!

In this episode we discuss the Qing Dynasty's 'Self Strengthening Movement' of roughly 1861-1890. 

Recognizing the superiority of european weapons, technology, and scientific knowledge, the Qing Dynasty attempted to adopt and integrate them into an otherwise unchanged Confucian bureaucracy.  

Ambitious Westerners flocked to the country, lured by Qing silver, and with the support of towering Chinese figures such as Li Hongzhang and Cixi, helped the Qing reach a level of power and prosperity that had not been seen for a century. 

However, in resisting deeper, more structural changes, the Qing Dynasty would place itself on the wrong side of history, and eventually fall at the hands of more dynamic revolutionaries and reformers.

Hello everyone. More water margin.

Zhang Yhi has to make life changes, and we learn how to motivate your police inspectors. 

In this episode we get to the long awaited robbery of the birthday gifts (worth 100,000 strings of cash).

Will our 7 (or 8) brave heroes succeed?

Hello Everyone! 

The exciting conclusion to our yellow river discussions. In this episode we discuss the near century where active management of the river was abandoned in the late Qing Dynasty, and the Communist party's attempts to return it to order.

We also touch on modern PRC water management techniques, which often involve redirecting water from more affluent areas to less politically sensitive ones.

The plot thickens as Wu Yong seeks out the three Ruan brothers to join the dream team to rob the birthday treasure caravan worth a hundred thousand strings of cash. Could he persuade the three gallant men using this sleek tongue? In this episode, we also meet a real wizard named "Dragon in the Clouds". These 7 (or 8) men are being brought together by fate. In this episode we discuss (more!) Chinese social etiquette, how as bad as peasant Chinese men had it, peasant women had it worse, and more.