Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchOpen Doors to Isolation: A Merchant’s Tale
Season 1 Episode 19
For most of its history, China was not isolationist. For nearly 1,500 years up to the 14th century, China was a major trading nation. Maritime trade …
5 years, 7 months ago
China’s Ancient Maritime Trade: Small Dynasty, Big Business
Season 1 Episode 18
For most of time since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty in the second half of the 14th century till the early 1980s, trading with the rest of th…
5 years, 7 months ago
Baby Booms in Ancient China: Families and Beyond
Season 1 Episode 17
China’s total fertility rate has been below 2.1 for nearly three decades, the necessary number of children born to every woman to maintain current po…
5 years, 7 months ago
Elderly Care in Ancient China: the Honor of Being Old
Season 1 Episode 16
Anything in today’s toolbox for care for the elderly can be found in ancient China. The question is how old was regarded as old enough to be entitle…
5 years, 8 months ago
Mr Dongpo: Of Poems and Pork
Season 1 Episode 15
No other scholar in China’s history has had such a deep influence on popular culture as Su Dongpo, one of the brightest stars in the vast galaxy of …
5 years, 8 months ago
Money and Lending in Ancient China: Copper Talks
Season 1 Episode 14
The anticipated listing and the unexpected suspension put the microloan business of Alibaba's fintech arm Ant Group in the media spotlight. Chinese p…
5 years, 8 months ago
A Venture with Reasons: Or Without?
Season 1 Episode 13
Do people travel just because they got rich enough to afford a trip? “The world is so big, and I want to look at it,” says a middle school teacher f…
5 years, 9 months ago
To Be Rich is Glorious: A Short History of Showing off Wealth in China
Season 1 Episode 12
A group of young women in Shanghai group-bought luxury bags and booking rooms at five-star hotels just to take photos and pass them off as their own…
5 years, 9 months ago
Food Security in Ancient Times: Power of Dinner Tables
Season 1 Episode 11
To a large extent, food supply shaped the development of the world’s early civilizations, including those in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and India. In…
5 years, 9 months ago
Ancient Chinese Villages: An Illusion of Shangrila
Season 1 Episode 10
There was a lot of imagination in narratives on rural areas in ancient China. For thousands of years, rural villages have existed. Why would they ne…
5 years, 9 months ago