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Lost in Thailand: The New Chinese Diaspora from Bangkok to Addis Ababa
It’s high season in Thailand. The weather is perfect. But look around the hotel lobbies and the night markets, and you’ll notice something missing: t…
5 months ago
Perilous Prognostications for China in 2026
Following a tumultuous 2025, we gallop into the Year of the Horse. Tradition says it should be a year of dynamism and progress, but which way is the …
5 months, 2 weeks ago
Barbarians Remix: Horse Racing, History, and the Final Champion's Day in Old Shanghai
Champions Day in the city of Shanghai, November 1941. The world was at war, but the clubhouse at the Shanghai Race Club (now People's Park) was pack…
6 months ago
The Dowager and the Dynasty
How does a teenage girl from Beijing’s hutongs end up ruling the world’s largest empire—without ever technically sitting on the throne? In this episo…
6 months, 2 weeks ago
Barbarians at the Gate x China Books Review: From Heaven Lake
In 1981, the Indian writer and poet Vikram Seth traveled from Nanjing, where he was studying literature, to his hometown of Delhi. Moving by train ac…
7 months, 2 weeks ago
The Destruction of the Old Summer Palace
Yuanmingyuan, the "Garden of Perfect Brightness," commonly referred to as the Old Summer Palace, was a Qing Dynasty imperial residence comprised of h…
8 months ago
The Voyages of Zheng He
It’s just two guys talking China's naval history. In this episode, David and Jeremiah dig into the story of Zheng He, the 15th-century admiral who to…
8 months, 2 weeks ago
Barbarians at the Gate x China Books Review: The Records of the Grand Historian
Picture this: You’re 45 years old, halfway through writing the definitive history of your civilization. Writing this history is the family business, …
9 months ago
Barbarians Remix: Seeking News, Making China
In this encore episode of Barbarians at the Gate, first broadcast in March 2024, John Alekna talks about his fascinating new book Seeking News, Makin…
9 months, 2 weeks ago
AI-Laoshi Will See You Now
Teachers are an excitable lot prone to excessive consumption of caffeine and loudly proclaiming that [Insert New Technology Here] will doom a generat…
10 months ago