Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchKangxi's Conquest of Taiwan
Episode 108
Of all the recent feverish discussions on the prospect of war in the Taiwan Strait, no alleged expert that I've come across has talked about the obvi…
3 years ago
Jin Shengtan, Literary Critic
Episode 107
The late-Ming and early-Qing literary critic Jin Shengtan was quite a character. He never advanced beyond the rank of xiucai, the lowest-level degree…
3 years, 1 month ago
The Democracy of Mencius
Episode 106
Chinese culture is stereotypically perceived as authoritarian. Although there is obviously a lot of truth to the cliche, it is by no means the full p…
3 years, 1 month ago
Historic Usages of "Zhongguo"
Episode 105
It's come to my attention in recent years that a certain portion of Westerners, including people who ought to know better such as academics, believe …
3 years, 1 month ago
Cangjie, (Alleged) Father of Chinese Writing
Episode 104
By tradition, a man named Cangjie invented the Chinese system of writing that is the bane of so many foreign students trying to acquire the language.…
3 years, 1 month ago
The Chinese Labour Corps
Episode 103
Though largely forgotten in the West, during the First World War, some 140,000 Chinese went to the Western Front to support Britain, France, and the …
3 years, 1 month ago
Famous Horses
Episode 102
Bucephalus, the beloved horse belonging to Alexander the Great, brings to mind two famous horses from Chinese history: the Chitu or "Crimson Hare" Ho…
3 years, 2 months ago
The Humanism of Liu Yuxi
Episode 101
The Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi led a largely disappointing political career, but he left us with some of the most memorable expressions of individual…
3 years, 2 months ago
Yuan Chonghuan
Episode 100
A few weeks ago, then out-going Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang (or Su Zhenchang in standard Pinyin) said something that caused quite a stir:
"Had Y…
3 years, 2 months ago
The Kingdom of Dali
Episode 99
Completing our series on the other, lesser-known regimes that coexisted with the Song Dynasty, we look at the Kingdom of Dali located in picturesque …
3 years, 2 months ago