Brandon Folse joins us in our next installment on our Song Dynasty series. Today, we are discussing what is definitely the greatest female writer of the Song dynasty and is possibly the greatest female writer in all of Chinese literature, Li Qingzhao. Some might even consider her the greatest poet in Chinese history, though this […]
In honor of our good friend Katherine, a long-time listener of the podcast, we’re dedicating an episode to the poet whose work provided the Chinese characters for her son’s name.
In part three of our series, we have decided to remain resolutely apart form the world of politics by discussing a poem scrawled into the wall of an Angel Island detention cell by a Chinese scholar who was being held there.
Today, Rob and Lee say goodbye, or, at least, say goodbye to the face to face format of podcasting. Rob has earned a Chateaubriand Scholarship to the Sorbonne in Paris, where he will be researching the nexus of Chinese and French culture in the late Qing. That means Lee and Rob may have to change […]
Tao Yuanming, who we’ve already covered in a previous podcast, was not only a skilled prose writer but also a poet. In today’s podcast, we look at one of his most famous poems. http://traffic.libsyn.com/chineseliteraturepodcast/Tao_Yuanming_-_Return_to_the_Fields_and_Gardens_-_Edited.mp3
Back in action after a brief hiatus, Lee and Rob interview translator and professor Lucas Klein, whose most recent work, October Dedications, is a book of translations of the poet Mang Ke. Prof. Klein is best-known for his work with Xi Chuan, but gives a nice guided tour of historical trends in poetry translation, the differences […]
Arguably the single most important political figure of the 20th century, Mao Zedong was also an active poet whose works are still read and, more frequently, debated. How exactly do you approach the poetry of a man whose legacy includes some of the worst man-made disasters in history? By way of exploring this question, we […]
In today’s podcast, we will take a look back at Haizi, post-1979 China’s most famous poet. Previously, in this episode, we talked about Haizi in this mythologically laced poem. Today, we’re going to take a look at his most famous poem, called “Facing the Sea, the Spring Warm, Flowers Blooming.” http://traffic.libsyn.com/chineseliteraturepodcast/Haizi_-_Poem_-_Looking_Towards_the_Sea.mp3 Below, Lee has provided […]
Dead just months before the June 4th massacre in Tiananmen Square, Hai Zi is held up as the great “pure” poet of contemporary China, unconcerned with politics. But how true is that? We discuss his epic work, The Seven Books of the Sun, by way of grappling with the question. […]