Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchWhat Is a Country, Anyway?
Episode 58
Country. State. Nation. English has three different words for three closely related but distinct concepts. Chinese makes do with a single character, …
4 years ago
Arcadio Huang
Episode 57
The Parisian life of the man who taught Europeans how to speak Chinese... and inspired Montesquieu.
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4 years ago
Allusions in the Chinese Language
Episode 56
Unfortunately for learners of Chinese as a foreign language, it is quite difficult.
One major reason for its difficulty is that the language is packed…
4 years ago
The Eight Hundred
Episode 55
News coming out of Mariupol in Ukraine reminds me of an episode from the Second Sino-Japanese War, what eventually became a part of WWII.
As the Chine…
4 years, 1 month ago
The Man Who Loses His Horses
Episode 54
“A man loses his horses, and yet who is to say whether it is benefit or bane?”
It's a common Chinese proverb, and it refers to a fable contained in Hu…
4 years, 1 month ago
The Qing Ming Festival
Episode 53
This past Tuesday was the Qing Ming or Tomb-Sweeping Festival, one of the major holidays of Chinese tradition. What is it? When? And Why?
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4 years, 1 month ago
The Philosophy of Zhuangzi
Episode 52
Outside of East Asia, the impression many have of Chinese culture is that Confucianism is its dominant school of thought and essential organizing pri…
4 years, 1 month ago
Zelenskyy and Chinese Historiography
Episode 51
Everyone knows his name by now. The law graduate who became a comic actor, the actor who became president, the president who became a wartime command…
4 years, 1 month ago
Water Margin
Episode 50
The Ming Dynasty novel "Water Margin," a.k.a. "All Men Are Brothers," a.k.a. "Outlaws of the Marsh," ranks among the greatest works of prose fiction …
4 years, 2 months ago
The Treaty of Nerchinsk
Episode 49
Let's continue our previous episode's theme of Russia.
The nationalist narrative of recent Chinese history often emphasizes the so-called "Century of …
4 years, 2 months ago