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 […]

100 Years of Chinese Literature: 1920-1929

Lu Xun again? Really? Yes, really…but we still disagree. For Rob, Lu Xun’s definitive decade was the 1920’s, and this was also when he came to define modern Chinese literature. For Lee, the 1920’s belonged to the first in a long line of powerful, innovative female writers: Ding Ling. Join us for the discussion!

100 Years of Chinese Literature: 1910-1919

Round two for China’s 20th century. Who defined the 1910-1919 period: China’s first Marxist (Li Dazhao) or its first serious literary realist (Lu Xun)? And more importantly: who had the better moustache?

Supplement #1: Lin Shu, Inc. by Michael Gibbs-Hill

Have you ever wanted to learn more about China, but were either unsure where to start, or didn’t have the money or access? Our new supplement is designed to help. Join us as we discuss our personal picks for essential works on China. Challenging, but not opaque. Interesting, but not amusing. It’s everything you need. […]

100 Years of Chinese Literature, Part 1: 1900-1909

It’s here at last! We’re discussing the definitive writers for each decade in China’s 20th century, looking at how they exemplified that era’s struggles and triumphs. Join us this first week to discuss how Wang Guowei (王国维) and Wu Jianren (吴趼人) were the representative writers of China’s last imperial decade.

A Quick End-of-the-Year Chat

We said we’d post something on the 24th, and here it is! It’s been quite a year, and breaking it all down is nearly impossible, so we’ve limited ourselves to what we know best: us. Join us for a quick tour of the changes in the podcast this year, as well as in us as […]

A Public Service Announcement

We’re switching around something in our podcast feed, which will give you access to all of our back catalogue, right from the comfort of your own app! But…there might be some disruption. If you don’t get a new podcast from us by Dec. 24, look for us again on your favorite podcasting app!

Walking Through the Plum Forest: An Interview with Mason

Mason is a fellow University of Oregon Duck, a fellow sinologist, and a fellow podcaster on Chinese literature. That’s a lot of fellows! Join us as we chat with him about everything from imperial Chinese route books to why he’s the American Pu Songling. We encourage you to check out Mason’s awesome podcast here.

Not Made in China, Part 6: Allah’s Will

Ng Kim Chew’s magnificent fiction is the last entry in our series, and I think you’ll agree we saved the best for last. He grapples with the kind of questions only those in the Chinese diaspora can truly ask, the most important of which is: what does it mean to be Chinese when we don’t […]