Wo Men Podcast

Debate is a historical form of discussion which was one of the earliest methods for decision making and even law and legislative making.

Six years ago, after witnessing a woman in an English debate by chance, Lysa Wei became deeply fascinated by the nature of debating – logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeals to win the audience's hearts and minds. She became determined to be a debater.

At that time she could barely present an argument in English. Today, she is the holder of numerous debate championship titles including Grand-finalist of the China National Debating Championship (FLTRP Cup) 2014, and Grand-finalist and 5th Best Speaker of Singapore Debate Camp 2014. Lysa is not only one of the most prestigious debaters in China she has also co-founded China's first women debate network and started to nurture the next generation of women debaters.

Today, we have Lysa Wei joining the show to share her extraordinary experience of English debating and how debate has widened her horizon in life and opened doors in her professional life.

Compared to the exhausting and time-consuming traditional way of finding a date, online dating apps open another door. In a fast-paced society, we don't need to stand in a club for hours to fish for a handsome man or be forced to go on unpredictable and awkward blind dates. A few swipes on Tinder can solve it all. Seems like a perfect solution.

But is that true?

Today, we are talking to Sunny Sun, a cohost of the Chinese podcast 哼哈二将 and an experienced user of online dating apps, who will share with us her observation on the differences between English and Chinese apps and her personal experiences on how she got into a relationship with an undercover FBI agent through Tinder.

Enjoy!

11.11, also known as Singles' Day, is a relatively new holiday. Originally founded to celebrate single life in the face of huge societal pressure to marry, the holiday has evolved over the years. Today, Singles' Day is better recognized as the world's biggest online shopping festival.

Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce company and originator of the Singles' Day shopping phenomenon, achieved sales of over $25 billion in 2017 — it continues to smash its own record each year.

Outside of e-commerce, the consumerist energy of Singles' Day trickles down from Taobao and Tmall, driving derivative businesses such as influencer marketing and offline retail.

Jingjing and Yajun talk about the fascinating buy, buy, buy culture behind the holiday. Let's take a look at what's in their shopping cart.

What's in a name? For Annie Huang, potentially a new lease of life.

Annie recently changed her Chinese given name from Yating (雅婷) to Yiling (奕绫) based on the instruction of a part-time fortune telling master (who incidentally holds a full-time job as a private equity investor). Even though Annie has a well paid and highly regarded job and is in a loving marriage, she was bothered that this may not be what she wants and felt confused as to where her life was going. A new name, the theory goes, could potentially free her mind and soul and allow her to be a "free horse" (she is born in the year of the horse) to pursue what she wants.

She is not alone. Many Chinese seek comfort and assurance from fortune telling masters, who don't only serve as a kind of prophet, but also to some extent play the role of psychologist. Amid the myriad pressures of modern life, many Chinese are turning back to traditional superstitions and beliefs, and fortune telling and Fengshui businesses have boomed over the past decade.

In today's episode, Annie talks about her name changing experience and how it has fed into a process of self-discovery.

The Wǒ Men podcast is a bi-weekly discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.

Like millions of Chinese students, Yang Yi took the opportunity to study abroad and explored her future in New Zealand years ago. However, rather than choosing a career which may provide more lucrative financial returns, such as law, economics or finance, she decided to take a bumpier but rewarding road to "make the world a better place" by becoming a prison psychologist in New Zealand.

As an Asian female psychologist who just graduated from college, she had no idea what was waiting for her in prison in a foreign country. She was whistled at and intimidated by inmates. She was also questioned and challenged. However, she managed to overcome all the fears and difficulties and eventually win the trust of the inmates who later benefited from her sessions.

In this episode, Yang Yi discusses her extraordinary experiences and why she continues to be an idealist.

Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at [email protected].

The Wǒ Men podcast is a bi-weekly discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.

In April 2018, we interviewed Gu Xi, a Chinese female coder and founder of Techie Cat, an online community that teaches Chinese women to code. Earlier this summer, she joined Apple's "Behind Mac" campaign as a Chinese female innovator in this global initiative. We can see her beautiful face at London Bridge tube station, Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard, and in the busy Beijing neighborhood of Sanlitun.

Today we will present a re-edited version of this episode. Through our conversations with her, you will hear more about her story as a typical and atypical example of the post-'95 generation in China, and how she built a tech community and while fighting against the strict and rigid Chinese education system to pursue the mission that she believes in. Enjoy!

Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun andJingjing at [email protected].

Folks in China love their antiques, and unsurprisingly the antique collector industry has long fascinated the Chinese public.

During the Cultural Revolution, many priceless artifacts and antiques were destroyed as inconvenient legacies of an old system. But now, antiques are making a comeback. Chinese consumers who in the 1980s and 1990s once rushed to embrace foreign products and brands as trendy status symbols are now starting to develop an appreciation for China's rich heritage and artistic traditions.

In this episode, we talk to a collector of Chinese antiquities, Mr Zang Nuo (pictured above, right), who is our guide into the world of the Chinese collectors. We visited Mr Zang's home, and he shared with us not only his collection of carvings and textiles but also his observations and insights into why the antique trade is booming in China and why people today are more interested than ever in the country's past.

Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at [email protected].

The Wǒ Men podcast is a bi-weekly discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.

Imagine not being allowed to take a shower, leave your house, or even open a window for an entire month. Sound horrible? Well, it is an experience millions of Chinese women have been through immediately after giving birth.

It's called "sitting the month" (坐月子 zuo yuezi in Chinese) and, so traditional Chinese medicine would claim, it is an essential part of the childbearing process. It's certainly a far cry from the approach of most Western women, many of whom take the first opportunity they get to take their new baby for a walk in the park — and not to mention to take a shower.

On this podcast, Jingjing and Yajun sit down with new mother Kaijing Xiao (pictured right) to hear about her "hybrid" experience, combining elements of traditional Chinese post-natal practices with a more modern approach.

Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at [email protected].

Over the past month, a somewhat belated #MeToo campaign has finally sprouted in China. Over three dozen sexual harassment cases mushroomed in universities, media organizations, NGOs and the private sector in China. Suddenly, this campaign has become a hot topic on Chinese social media.

But why now?

Why has it started in the academic arena, rather than the entertainment industry, like in the US? Can the campaign last or have a long-term impact? And how should we address the concern expressed by some professors over the#MeToo campaign in China?

To answer these questions, we invited our old friend Shi Xiaoqin, a former military officer, a feminist and now a professor in Zhejiang University to share with us her insights and observations.

Our new episode features an editor of international news at a major Chinese news portal, who gives us a rare peek inside a Chinese media organization and see their daily operations, story angles, and how they deal with censorship.

Thanks to technology, the format of media keeps evolving from print, to online, to mobile. At the same time, the media landscape keeps changing as well, from State media to commercialized media, and now to the rise of "self-media" and KOLs.

People now have so many ways to access information and interact with the information they consume. So how does media adapt to these new way of consuming news, and more importantly, how do media outlets keep the reader on their platforms?

How does Chinese media work and how does it compare to the Western media in dealing with new challenges?

For the latest pod, we sat down with Ivy Yu, a senior editor at a major Chinese media portal, to discuss the changing media landscape, the role of the media, and her life as a news editor in China.