Today, we are taking a look at a poem from the oldest extant work of Chinese literature, the Shijing (Book of Poem) Today’s poem is a poem about rats, but also a poem about government, and it is the first in our series on the Shijing.
Today’s episode is a joke. No really, we are looking at a joke that is making the rounds on Weibo. This is a joke that is very opaque, but that opacity points to how autocracy in China works today.
One of the world’s great philosophers meditates on the value of being useless with a parable about an old, ugly tree.
Did you know that in the 13th Century a Chinese emperor and a Tibetan monk tried to get rid of Chinese characters and create a universal script, one writing system to write every language in the world. Today’s podcast is about that writing system, Phags-Pa.
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Today, Lee has a fascinating interview with Professor Christopher Atwood, of the University of Pennsylvania. He studies the Mongolian and Chinese Frontier, and he recently published The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources. Lee and Professor Atwood talk about the book and, more broadly, the early Chinese experience with the Mongols.
In this episode, a century-old Lu Xun story, Kong Yi Ji, has become popular again. The story reflects the struggles of youth unemployment in modern China. The story blows up on the Chinese internet. A rap song reinterprets that story, addressing contemporary issues like education and working conditions. The story demonstrates that Lu Xun remains […]
A Taiwanese lesbian begins using dating apps, finds the love of her life, and then realizes she is not the love of her life, but decides to marry her any ways. You won’t want to miss this week’s episode is a strange look at marriage and death. I would highly encourage you to read the story […]
Today, we look at the somber poem of a Foxconn worker, Xu Lizhi. His poem, “A Screw Falls to the Ground,” is a masterclass of how modern Chinese poetry is able to live up to the standards set by classical Chinese poetry. In this episode, I try to discuss what role the author’s biography plays […]
This is the first in a two-part mini-series on the screw in modern Chinese literature. Yep, that is right, the screw, the humble tool which binds the world. This week, I am looking at a passage in Lei Feng’s diary on how he wants to be a screw for the Revolution, with a capital R. […]