Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchWham! in China
In 1985, the British band Wham! became the first Western pop act to play in China.
Around 12,000 fans packed into the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing to hear such hits as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Discovering the Terracotta Army
It's 50 years since a chance find by Chinese farmers led to an astonishing archaeological discovery.
Thousands of clay soldiers were uncovered in the province of Shaanxi after being buried for more th…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
The 'comfort women' of World War Two
Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Referred to as "comfort women", they were taken from countrie…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution
In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among hundreds of thousands of Chinese people sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s so-called cultural revolution.
The aim was to re-educate those not though…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write
In 1958, a brand new writing system was introduced in China called Pinyin. It used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words.
The mastermind behind Pinyin was a professor call…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944.
It was World War Two, and families in southern Italy h…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero
Winifred Atwell was a classically-trained pianist from Trinidad who became one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s in the UK.
She played pub tunes on her battered, out-of-tune piano which travel…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Paraguay adopts its second language
In 1992, Guarani was designated an official language in Paraguay’s new constitution, alongside Spanish.
It is the only indigenous language of South America to have achieved such recognition and ended …
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate
In 1992 off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the first four-legged animals to walk on earth.
They pointed to a new date for t…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
11M: The day Madrid was bombed
A regular morning turned into a day of nightmares for Spanish commuters on 11 March 2004.
In the space of minutes, 10 bombs detonated on trains around Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and injuring mo…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago