Barbarians at the Gate
70 episodes - English - Latest episode: 22 days ago - ★★★★★ - 17 ratingsA semi-serious deep dive into Chinese history and culture broadcast from Beijing and hosted by Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser.
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Episodes
There and Back Again: Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour and the Legacy of Reform and Opening in China
June 27, 2024 08:28 - 36 minutes - 33 MBIn this episode, we welcome back a friend of the podcast, Jonathan Chatwin, to discuss his new book, The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future. Since the Emperor Kangxi made his southern tour in 1684, many emperors and Chinese leaders have undertaken similar inspection tours, including Mao, Deng, and Xi Jinping. Deng’s southern tour took place in the backdrop of contentious debates about his radical restructuring of the economy in the Reform era. Jonathan describes ...
From Firefly to Fox News: The Evolution of "Chimerican" Media
June 05, 2024 09:12 - 39 minutes - 32.8 MBThis episode features a lively conversation with Fan Yang, Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, about her new book Disorienting Politics: Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements. The term “Chimerica” is a portmanteau word, blending “China” and “America.” The neologism denotes the economic, political, and cultural entanglements of the two countries. Fan Yang uses the concept of “Chimerican media” to explore how the conflicts an...
What happens after a Barbarian walks away from the Gate?
April 17, 2024 13:17 - 33 minutes - 50 MBThis episode represents a new direction for the podcast, recorded on the eve of Jeremiah’s move to a new home base in Geneva. We start with a retrospective snapshot of the podcast’s beginnings – with many episodes recorded under the backdrop of COVID-19 – and then segue into our perennial concern, the plight of academic exchange in China, for which our consensus was “cautious optimism," while accepting an unsatisfying "new normal.” We sign off with future plans and ideas for the next phase o...
Seeking News, Making China
March 26, 2024 09:23 - 37 minutes - 33.7 MBIn this episode, John Alekna talks about his fascinating new book Seeking News, Making China: Information Technology and the Emergence of Mass Society. In 20th-century China, the gradual importation and development of information technology had an enormous impact on the way that news was disseminated and accessed by the general public. When radio first appeared in the early 1920s, less than 8 in 1,000 people had access to newspapers, whereas, by the time of the Mao period, hundreds of millio...
The Mountains Are High with author Alec Ash
March 06, 2024 09:43 - 35 minutes - 30.3 MBIn this episode, we welcome back to the podcast our good friend, Alec Ash, who has written a fascinating book recounting a year spent in the city of Dali, Yunan Province. Unlike Alec’s previous book, Wish Lanterns, his new book, The Mountains are High, is a highly personal account of his attempt to find solace and healing after a pivotal emotional crisis and his decision to disentangle himself from his urban Beijing life and escape to a simpler life in mountainous Yunnan Province. But Alec’s...
Exile from Expat-ville
February 10, 2024 00:22 - 43 minutes - 54.6 MBIn this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, our guest is Michael Wester, founder and publisher of True Run Media and The Beijinger. Mike is a long-time resident of Beijing, and we talked with him about running the city’s most-read expat publication, his experiences in organizing the “Safe and Sane” WeChat communities during the pandemic, and what the future holds for the international population of China’s capital. Later, Jeremiah surprises David and Mike with an announcement.
Xi Built This City
January 16, 2024 15:30 - 38 minutes - 88.6 MBIn this episode, we chat with Andrew Stokols, who is currently a Ph.D. candidate at MIT researching varieties of digital urbanism globally, with an emphasis on China. On the podcast, we briefly compare notes on the urban development of Beijing in the 21st century, including the contradictions between Beijing as a technologically advanced urban center and an ancient capital city. Andrew also provides updates on the progress of Xiong’an, the digital “smart city” being constructed in Hebei pr...
No Laughing Matters: The State of Stand-up in China Today
December 20, 2023 02:45 - 38 minutes - 44.9 MBHas the Chinese government killed stand-up comedy in China? In May of 2023, a popular standup comedian made an innocuous joke in which he mentioned a phrase used to laud the fighting spirit of the People’s Liberation Army. The next day, a complaint from a nationalistic netizen resulted in the Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Company being fined a whopping $2 million and the temporary shutdown of virtually all the standup TV shows and comedy clubs in China’s major cities. The immediate afte...
Art with Altitude
December 05, 2023 08:10 - 42 minutes - 48.5 MBOn this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, I talk to Kristel Ouwehand, also known by her Tibetan language name, Tenzin Dolma, the founder of Snowland Academy in Gansu province where she lives with and teaches young Tibetan artists. Beginning at age 17, Tenzin traveled across Central America, Europe, parts of the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa before settling in India. She stayed in India for 11 years, mastering the traditional art of thangka painting. She also learned to craft b...
History Wars: The PRC pushes back against unsanctioned views of the past
November 17, 2023 00:49 - 47 minutes - 67.6 MBJeremiah kicks off the podcast with news that the decades-long Qing History Projectn being carried out by, among other institutions, Renmin University and the Chinese Academy of Social Science(CASS) seems to have been "put on ice" after the draft document produced by the team of Chinese historians was deemed as “politically unacceptable” by the authorities. One of the specific objections to the project’s content was that it was “overly influenced by the New Qing History,” referring to a gr...
Riding the "Harmony Express" with author Thomas Bird
November 01, 2023 03:59 - 37 minutes - 21.8 MBIn today’s episode, we talk with journalist and travel writer Thomas Bird about his latest book, The Harmony Express. Entering an uncertain new chapter of his life several years ago, Bird decided to embark on an exploration of the People’s Republic of China via the country’s vast web of railroad lines. In the spiritual footsteps of travel writers such as Paul Theroux (Riding the Iron Rooster and The Great Railway Bazaar), Bird took the trains as his trajectory, exploring and documenting th...
Do you really need to learn to write characters to study Chinese?
October 03, 2023 08:09 - 55 minutes - 66.4 MBWarning: GEEKY CONTENT Hosting solo in this week’s episode, David takes a geeky deep dive into the digital revolution in Chinese language learning in conversation with Chinese language pedagogy expert Matt Coss. The Sisyphean task of learning to write hundreds of Chinese characters has long been the bête noire of Chinese language students. The explosion of digital devices and apps for processing Chinese characters is giving rise to a radical rethinking (no pun intended) of the handwriting a...
A Career of Change Making: A Conversation with Isabel Nepstad of BellaTerra Consulting
August 22, 2023 01:59 - 41 minutes - 49.5 MBIsabel Nepstad’s passion for nature, food, and agriculture can be traced back to her childhood growing up in Belém, a city on the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Her connection to China dates to Isabel’s experience studying Chinese at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and economic development and environmental science at Yunnan University while still an undergraduate. For over 11 years, Isabel has worked in the food and agriculture industry in the United States, Brazil, the Netherl...
Have Tunes, Will Travel: The Musical Adventures of DJ Bo
August 09, 2023 02:51 - 35 minutes - 5 MBOn this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, Jeremiah talks to Brian “DJ Bo” Offenther. From being the FKFDJ (First Known Foreign DJ) to play in Pyongyang since 1945 to putting together the first Elvis Festival in Mainland China, DJ Bo has been at the center of China’s music scene for over a decade. The self-proclaimed "Shanghai's #2 DJ" is a DJ and event producer based in Shanghai who has performed in 29 countries and 42 cities around China. He’s involved in many cultural activities, includin...
One From the Vault: Ideology and Education in China with Educator Jiang Xueqin
July 19, 2023 20:48 - 55 minutes - 5 MBDavid and Jeremiah are on holiday this week, but we hope you enjoy this encore episode with educator Jiang Xueqin, originally released in February 2022. Contrary to the common stereotype that Chinese education is regimented and mired in tradition, the education system in China is actually one of the most dynamic sectors of Chinese society, with core aspects such as the gaokao college entrance exam constantly in flux. On the podcast, this week to discuss the evolution of Chinese education is...
A Great Leap Backwards?: The Closing of Cultural Spaces and the New Normal in Beijing
June 28, 2023 13:40 - 41 minutes - 5 MBThis episode of the podcast addresses a worrisome question: Is China’s “cultural space” shrinking? The recent crackdown on stand-up comedy content and the scrutiny of foreign musicians performing in bars have raised worries that other artistic domains will soon be targeted. Over the past decade, there has been a perception of a “death by a thousand cuts,” as increasing scrutiny and tightening regulations have slowly sanitized, squelched, or strangled many areas of artistic and cultural exp...
Rocking China with Historian Andrew Field
June 07, 2023 04:58 - 44 minutes - 5 MBIn this episode, we welcome back Andrew Field to discuss his new book Rocking China: Rock Music Scenes in Beijing, Shanghai and Beyond. While having already conducted valuable research into the history of Shanghai jazz, in 2007, Andrew began a deep dive into the nascent Chinese underground rock scene of the early 2000s with the passion of a rock fan and the intellectual fascination of an anthropologist. He spent years haunting the indie rock bars and performance venues of Beijing and ot...
Tik-Tok-for-Tat: Jeremiah and David try to Fix US-China Relations
May 16, 2023 03:20 - 42 minutes - 54.6 MBFueled by too many red bulls (Jeremiah) and some pretty good pharmaceuticals following an emergency root canal (David), our intrepid cohosts throw caution to the wind and attempt to fix US-China Relations in a single podcast. For those outside of China, the ups and downs of this troubled bilateral relationship are sometimes felt as a rather abstract quandary. Still, for those of us who have invested decades of our lives in this China, the often juvenile skirmishes between the two superpowers...
What Xi Said: Comedy and Cross-Cultural Communication with Performer and Content Creator Jesse Appell
April 18, 2023 07:04 - 48 minutes - 41 MBThis week we catch up with Jesse Appell, an English-Chinese standup comedy star better known to his more than 3 million Chinese followers as Ai Jiexi 艾杰西. Jesse talks about how he parlayed his Fulbright Fellowship research on Chinese humor into a stellar comedy career in China. Stuck in the US for several years during the Covid-19 crisis, Jesse had to find ways to continue his successful comedy career outside China. Jesse recounts how he began to make a name for himself in the media environm...
The Peking Express with Author James Zimmerman
April 03, 2023 08:00 - 42 minutes - 5 MBIn this episode, we are delighted to talk with James Zimmerman about his new book, Peking Express: The Bandits who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China. The book is an enthralling account of a largely forgotten chapter in Chinese history, the harrowing 1923 raid on a luxury train by Chinese bandits and the ensuing 37-day hostage standoff. Jim fills us in on the backstory of the incident, based on the treasure trove of diaries, newspaper accounts, and personal test...
Getting Elevated in Qinghai with Entrepreneur and Mountain Guide Ben Cubbage
March 22, 2023 09:45 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBIn this episode, we are joined by Ben Cubbage, who calls in from the lofty heights of Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Ben co-founded Elevated Trips, an organization that offers specialized tours in the remote regions of Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, and Gansu provinces. As a passionate advocate for eco-friendly tourism, Ben emphasizes principles such as respect for local cultures, providing sustainable economic value to local communities, minimizing visitor impact, and prioritizing biod...
The Forbidden City with Matthew Hu
March 06, 2023 23:00 - 40 minutes - 54.1 MBThis week’s topic is the Forbidden City, and our tour guide once again is Matthew Hu Xinyu, Trustee of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP) and founder of the Courtyard Institute. Matthew provides us with updates on recently renovated sections of the Palace Museum previously inaccessible to tourists, such as the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility (Cining Gong 慈宁宫), where the Empress Dowager celebrated her birthdays and worshipped the Buddha, and the living quarters of the ...
CCTV Follies with Journalist and Author Philip Cunningham
February 15, 2023 02:39 - 31 minutes - 37.3 MBIn this episode, we welcome to the podcast journalist Philip Cunningham, freelance writer for newspapers such as South China Morning Post and Japan Times, and was a former Knight Fellow and Harvard Nieman Fellowship recipient. Philip is currently posting a daily Substack entitled CCTV Follies, which provides a visual chronicle of the daily CCTV evening news report Xinwen Lianbo《新闻联播》, accompanied with running commentary that is illuminating and humorous. Phil talks about the program’s quasi-...
When will China re-open its doors for study abroad and educational exchanges?
January 17, 2023 00:15 - 42 minutes - 39.6 MBIn this episode, recorded on Jan 13, 2023, Jeremiah in Florida and David in Taiwan touch base and exchange updates on the evolving Covid-19 situation in China and elsewhere. We compare and contrast the foreign media accounts of China’s current Covid struggles with the reports from friends and family within China. David gives an account of his wife’s bout with Covid-19 in Taiwan. We also offer a quick update on the gradual opening of student visas for study in China and provide prognostication...
One from the Vault: Touring China with Historian Mo Yajun
January 03, 2023 21:10 - 39 minutes - 38.6 MBDavid and Jeremiah are both traveling this week, and in that spirit, we offer a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes from the archives. In this episode from March 2022, we spoke with historian and author Mo Yajun about her book Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912-1949. Enjoy, and Happy New Year! As Covid-19 gradually recedes and China resumes domestic travel, we are pleased to interview Mo Yajun about her book Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912-1949, a fasc...
Notes from the Medical Tent: Beijing Learns to Live with COVID
December 15, 2022 22:57 - 39 minutes - 51.5 MBIn an abrupt reversal, On December 7, China announced a rollback of most of its most draconian anti-COVID-19 restrictions, including limiting lockdowns, mass testing, and health app requirements for public transportation. About that same time – it had to happen sooner or later – Jeremiah caught COVID-19. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to deal with the virus at this historic juncture, joined by our frequent guest Zhang Yajun – who also has COVID-19. In addition to the first-han...
Standing Up to Zero COVID: The View from Beijing
November 29, 2022 02:09 - 35 minutes - 54.3 MBThis episode of BATG provides a “time stamp” and an initial reaction to protests in several major Chinese cities on November 26 and 27, events that are still developing at the time of this recording. After a week of growing frustration over renewed lockdowns amid a spike in Covid cases, and increasing anger over the death of 10 people in a fire in Urumqi, Chinese citizens took to the streets in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan, and other cities to protest the continuing disruptive effects o...
Lockdowns, Legacies, and Looking Back with Journalist Melinda Liu
November 16, 2022 02:22 - 51 minutes - 50.8 MBIn this week’s podcast, we are delighted and honored to talk to Melinda Liu, legendary journalist and long-time observer of post-Mao China. In addition to her long-time stint as Beijing Bureau Chief for Newsweek, Melinda has also covered the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the 1991 liberation of Kuwait, and the fall of Saddam Hussein. The conversation begins with updates on China’s “zero Covid” strategy against a backdrop of a new set of lockdowns in Beijing. Melinda then provides a journa...
Back to the Land: Author Alec Ash on escaping to Dali, rural retreats, and a return to England
October 30, 2022 09:15 - 45 minutes - 53.2 MBIn this week’s episode, we catch up with our old friend Alec Ash, writer, journalist, and author of the Wish Lanterns, a portrait of six diverse members of China’s “post-80s” generation. Having resided in Beijing since 2008, Alec migrated to the mountain valley of Dali in Yunnan province in 2019, where he encountered other like-minded Chinese and ex-pats who had fled the big cities for the relative tranquility of the Chinese countryside. His experiences in Yunnan became his latest book proje...
CoCo19 and the Quarantines: The Scene from Beijing
October 03, 2022 00:58 - 41 minutes - 57 MBPost-Covid China border closings, the expulsion of western journalists, and suspensions of academic exchanges have resulted in a woeful lack of foreign “eyes on the ground” to provide updates and insights into the current situation in China. While the like-minded community of foreign journalists and China watchers often constitutes an insular community whose reportage devolves into group-think and fixed narratives, the presence of knowledgeable China-based reporters and researchers is essent...
Beijing Calling Taipei
August 31, 2022 01:49 - 38 minutes - 51.4 MBIn this episode, David phones in from Taiwan to share some of his impressions of the current mood of the beleaguered island. The discussion touches on the recent visit of Nancy Pelosi, how the Taiwan people cope with their geopolitical plight, how the Taiwan health authorities have handled the COVID-19 crisis, the lack of Taiwanese voices in both Mainland and Western media, the influence of mainland China pop culture and media in Taiwan social life, Taiwan food culture, and the evolving ethn...
The Destruction of Yuanmingyuan (One from the Vault)
August 04, 2022 03:03 - 46 minutes - 59.4 MBDavid and Jeremiah are on vacation this month, which means, like the days of summer TV (pre-Internet and pre-InfiniteStreamingNetflixVerse), we are replaying one of our favorite earlier episodes. We hope you enjoy this one from the vault, and we'll be back with fresh episodes later this month. This episode was originally posted on October 26, 2020. Yuanmingyuan, the "Garden of Perfect Brightness," commonly referred to as the Old Summer Palace, was a Qing Dynasty imperial residence compris...
It's a Matter of Trust: Social and Political Confidence in the United States and the PRC
July 19, 2022 00:33 - 43 minutes - 54 MBwith special guest Zhang Yajun of the WOMEN podcast
Writing about China for the World
July 07, 2022 07:04 - 1 hour - 70.9 MBThis week we talk with Hatty Liu, Managing Editor of The World of Chinese. This bi-monthly magazine explores all aspects of Chinese culture and society, providing vivid storytelling accounts of the experiences of Chinese people from all walks of life. We discuss the publication’s editorial mission and target audience and the challenges of conveying complex Chinese social issues in an accessible way to foreign readers. Whether it be topics of consent culture, Chinese UFO hunters, or the pligh...
Teaching Values: Ideology and Education in China with Jiang Xueqin
June 01, 2022 10:03 - 55 minutes - 68.2 MBContrary to the common stereotype that Chinese education is regimented and mired in tradition, the education system in China is actually one of the most dynamic sectors of Chinese society, with core aspects such as the gaokao college entrance exam constantly in flux. On the podcast this week to discuss the evolution of Chinese education is Jiang Xueqin, an educational consultant who has worked with schools throughout China to promote the ideas of creativity and critical thinking skills. To...
Pride, Politics, and Pandemics: Understanding China's Nationalism with Peter Gries
May 17, 2022 09:24 - 50 minutes - 62.1 MBWhat do we know about Chinese nationalism? Do nationalistic sentiments manifest differently among different demographic groups, as is often the case in Western democratic countries? What kinds of global situations can provoke bouts of nationalism? And to what extent does grassroots nationalism influence China’s foreign policy? We explore these questions with this week’s guest, Peter Gries, Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Manchester, and the Lee Kai Hung Chair of the Manche...
Lockdown 2: Shacked up in Shanghai
April 19, 2022 15:08 - 45 minutes - 43.8 MBNo sooner had Jeremiah’s lockdown experience come to an end when Shanghai announced plans to shut down the entire city as cases of the Omicron variant skyrocketed. Now entering its third week, Shanghai’s historic citywide lockdown has imposed unprecedented restrictions and sacrifices on its 25 million people. Among the hapless homebound residents was our longtime friend and colleague, Andrew Field, who – unfortunately for him -- had plenty of free time to talk with us about his experiences ...
Locked Down in Beijing!
March 29, 2022 00:26 - 46 minutes - 57.1 MBJeremiah and David discuss the current COVID-19 situation in China along with special guest Zhang Yajun (Wo Men Podcast). Jeremiah and Yajun have been confined to their apartment complex for (as of taping) 13 days after one of their neighbors tested positive for COVID-19. Jeremiah, David, and Yajun share stories of living with the current outbreak, how other folks are handling the situation, the response by local officials, and where China's Zero COVID policy goes from here.
Touring China with Professor Mo Yajun
March 17, 2022 09:06 - 39 minutes - 38.6 MBAs Covid-19 gradually recedes and China resumes domestic travel, we are pleased to interview Mo Yajun about her book Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912-1949, a fascinating history of the development of China’s travel industry during the Republican period. Professor Mo recounts how early tourism guides and photographic travel journals enabled Chinese people to expand the concept of quanguo 全国 ”the nation as a whole,” providing the public with an enhanced mental image of the vast...
Communication Breakdown: Asymmetry, Decoupling, and the Information Deficit affecting China and the World
March 03, 2022 08:22 - 52 minutes - 64.3 MBwith special guest host Yajun Zhang of the Wo Men Podcast
Sporting Superpower: China's Olympic Dreams
January 26, 2022 08:16 - 40 minutes - 39.3 MBOn the cusp of the Chinese New Year and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Jeremiah and David record an Olympian episode of the podcast. The guest is Mark Dreyer, a veteran sports reporter, who has just released his new book, Sporting Superpower: An Insider’s View on China’s Quest to Be the Best. Mark has worked for Sky Sports, Fox Sports, AP Sports, and many other outlets and currently hosts the China Sports Insider Podcast. The conversation covers issues such as the historical importance of...
From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resistance
January 13, 2022 07:20 - 38 minutes - 34.1 MBIn this week’s episode, we talk with Jean Hoffmann Lewanda about her father Paul Hoffmann’s memoir, Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience, recently published by Earnshaw Books. Paul Hoffmann left Vienna at the age of 18 to escape the rise of Nazism, arrived in Shanghai in 1938, and became a part of the historic stream of Jewish refugees who found a haven in China during WWII. His memoirs describe the harsh living conditions in the Hongkou ...
Mandarin Mayhem III: The Cantonese Conundrum
December 30, 2021 23:08 - 47 minutes - 67 MBIn this episode, Jeremiah and David talk with James Griffiths, Asia Correspondent for the Globe and Mail, about his new book Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics of Language. This podcast can be considered the third installment of a trilogy of Barbarian at the Gate episodes that deal with the politics of language and dialects in China (see the links to the earlier podcasts below). Our previous guest Gina Anne Tam aptly sums up Griffiths’ research topic in her dustjacket review of the...
Studying China in the 21st Century (What Everybody Needs to Know) with special guest Maura Cunningham
November 19, 2021 05:20 - 45 minutes - 39.3 MBIn this episode, David and Jeremiah talk to veteran China scholar Maura Cunningham about the perils and possibilities of researching China in the "New Era."
"Yellow Jazz, Black Music" with Marketus Presswood
September 18, 2021 00:04 - 49 minutes - 46.7 MBwith historian and filmmaker Marketus Presswood
China Tripping
July 29, 2021 10:16 - 47 minutes - 62.5 MBIn this episode, Jeremiah and David talk about the foreign experience of travel in China, drawing upon their personal experiences over the years as explorers, educators, and tour guides. The two trade accounts of the rapid expansion of China’s travel industry in decades after Reform and Opening, the occasional brushes with anti-foreign sentiment, and the exploding domestic luxury travel market as the economy booms and overseas travel has been restricted. The discussion also turns to the new ...
Elegy for the Eighties
June 06, 2021 10:17 - 43 minutes - 67.8 MBIn this episode (taped on the eve of June 4th), Jeremiah and David examine the zeitgeist of China in the 1980s through the lens of the historic 1988 documentary River Elegy《河殇》. The six-part documentary was a scathing critique of Chinese traditional culture and political philosophy, portraying hallowed icons such as the Great Wall and the Yellow River as morally repugnant symbols of barbarism and cultural self-deception. The TV series also touched upon previously taboo topics such as Mao's G...
Talking the Line between Culture Shock and Racism
May 14, 2021 08:06 - 41 minutes - 44.4 MBIn this episode, we host Ruth Poulsen, Director of Curriculum and Assessment at the International School of Beijing and author of a recent article in The American Educator entitled "What's the Line between Culture Shock and Racism?" Ruth is a long-term ex-pat, having spent much of her childhood and adult life in various countries in the Middle East and Asia. In the interview, Ruth shares her cross-cultural insights gained from her years working with teachers and students living abroad and of...