Taiwan Travelogue – Addendum

In May, I did a podcast on Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuangzi. I screwed something up. In this episode, I explain what I got wrong and why. 

Interview with Salih Hudayar – Foreign Minister of the East Turkestan Government-in-Exile

In today’s episode, I got the chance to speak with Salih Hudayar, the Foreign Minister of the East Turkestan Government-in-Exile. We talked about Uyghur literature, Uyghur history and even American history. 

Taiwan Travelogue – Yang Shuangzi

In this podcast, we look at the novel that was, a little more than a week ago, awarded the International Booker Prize. Taiwan Travelogue is a novel that pretends to be a travelogue, where a Japanese woman from Nagasaki, an important writer in the Japanese empire. She travels to Taiwan to travel and talk about […]

Stephen Owen Obituary

I am sad to report that Stephen Owen, a professor at Harvard University who wrote about Chinese poetry, just passed away at the age of 79 in Massachusetts.  This short podcast talks a bit about one of the giants of the field. Here is a Chinese-language obituary that was just published.

Li Wai-yee and the Confucius Chronicles

In this podcast, I got the chance to do a face-to-face interview with Professor Li Wai-yee, a Harvard scholar who is one of the most prolific scholars of Chinese literature. During our interview, we discussed her new book, The Confucius Chronicles, just released by Columbia University Press, along with the massive role that Confucius has […]

Kublai Khan, Morris Rossabi and the 10th Anniversary of the Podcast

First off, I am dropping the podcast on the 10th Anniversary of our first episode. On April 9th, 2016, the Chinese Literature Podcast had its first episodes. The first episode of the podcast’s next decade is Morris Rossabi, the scholar who made the world rethink Kublai Khan and the Mongols. He wrote the first good […]

Du Fu – Spring Gazes – Tang Poetry Masters Series

Today, we finish up the 3 part series on Tang Poetry Masters with a look at Du Fu, China’s poet historian. The An Lushan Rebellion tore the Tang Dynasty in half and is one of the defining events of Chinese history. Du Fu is pivotal for our memory of that event, as his poems are […]

Tang Poetry Masters Series – Wang Wei and his Moment of Zen

Today, the podcast gets to Wang Wei and a Buddhist poem he wrote with the eye of a painter. Wang Wei is the least popular of the three High Tang poets, at least, since the Song Dynasty, but, back in the day, he was the most popular, more popular than Li Bai and Du Fu. […]

Tang Poetry Masters Series – Li Bai and the West

Today is the beginning of a three part series I am going to do on the three big Tang poets, Li Bai, Wang Wei and Du Fu. In this episode, we take a look at Li Bai, often considered China’s Greatest poet, and his relationship with the regions to China’s West, modern day Xinjiang and […]

Interview with Susan Wan Dolling

Today, Lee gets to chat with Susan Wan Dolling, Hong-Kong-American poet, novelist and translator. She recently published her latest book of Song poetry translations, What the Cuckoo Said, but she has long been working on translating Chinese poetry into an English that does what is hard to do, that preserves the music that you hear […]

Lu Xun’s Zawen – Interview with Professor Andrew Jones

What is a Zawen? It is complicated. In this episode, we try to tackle what zawen are and what they meant to Lu Xun’s career. Guiding us on our journey is Professor Andrew Jones of UC Berkeley, one of the most well-regarded scholars of Lu Xun in American academia. Professor Jones is the author of […]

Lu Xun – A Minor Incident – Interview with Alec Ash

On Today’s podcast, we have one of the best writers on contemporary Chinese youth, Alec Ash. Alec wrote an excellent book on Chinese young adults called Wish Lanterns. It was renamed China’s New Youth for the American book market. Alec joins us today on the podcast to talk about one of Lu Xun’s shortest stories. We debate how close […]

Lu Xun – New Year’s Sacrifice

One of Lu Xun’s most trenchant stories, in this episode, part of our series on Lu Xun, we tackle a story about gender, rape and class. The story is brutal, one of Lu Xun’s masterpieces. 

Lu Xun – Medicine – Interview with Dean James Carter

Blood and Bread.  A national reckoning between two mourning mothers. Today, Rob and Lee interview Professor James Carter, Dean of the History Department at Saint Joseph’s University. The story that the three discuss is Lu Xun’s story “Medicine.”  Professor Carter’s most recent book is Champions Day, a book about the last gasp of old Shanghai.  

Nixon in China – The Opera

Today, we are interrupting our podcast series on Lu Xun to celebrate the  anniversary of Nixon’s earth-shattering visit to Beijing 50 years ago this week. In this episode, we take a look at the John Adams Opera, Nixon in China, tackling how the opera incorportates elements of Chinese Cultural Revolution opera and how some of […]

Lu Xun – Soap – Interview with Professor Brown

Today’s podcast is an interview with Professor Carolyn Brown, author of Reading Lu Xun through Carl Jung. We had a great conversation with her about Lu Xun’s story “Soap.” This story, in Lu Xun’s collection titled 彷徨 (not the more well-known collection 吶喊), is too often ignored. Professor Brown shows that this story touches on issues […]

Lu Xun – True Story of Ah Q – Lu Xun Series #6

This week’s podcast is on one of the most important stories in modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun’s True Story of Ah Q (鲁迅 – 阿Q正传). Rob and Lee attempt to tackle the story that changed China and still echos down to the present. 

Kong Yiji – Lu Xun Series #5

Today, we have author, translator and teacher, Professor Bryan Van Norden, on the podcast to discuss Lu Xun’s short but fascinating story of Kong Yiji (鲁迅 – 孔乙己), the book-stealing scholar who Lu Xun imagined to be the symbol of the true state of China’s elite culture. Professor Van Norden, Rob and Lee walk through […]

Preface to War Cry – Interview with Professor Roy Chan

In Episode 3 in our Lu Xun Series, we interview one of the experts in the field of Lu Xun studies (and advisor to both Rob and Lee) about the Preface to Lu Xun’s most important collection of short stories War Cry (Nahan). This preface has been the subject of numerous debates in China and in […]