Barbarians at the Gate

China’s New Youth

An episode of Barbarians at the Gate

In this episode, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser catch up with writer and editor Alec Ash, to discuss the new US edition of his book Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China. Alec’s book is an intimate portrait of six diverse members of China’s “post-80s” generation, tracing their lives’ trajectory in the context of China’s turbulent and unpredictable economic modernization process. Orville Schell called the book “a fascinating mosaic that gives us a wonderfully vivid sense of what it’s like to grow up today in the People’s Republic of China.” With the themes of the book as a jumping-off point, the topic broadens in historical scope, exploring communalities and contrasts in earlier youth movements such as the May 4th movement, the Tiananmen Square movement, the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution, and the current resurgence of nationalism among the “post-2000s” generation. Alec is China correspondent for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and his articles have appeared elsewhere including The New York Review of Books, The Economist, the Guardian, and The Sunday Times.

 

Barbarians at the Gate

China’s Education Ambitions (Part II)

An episode of Barbarians at the Gate

Following on the previous episode about the Chinese education system, Jeremiah and David continue the discussion with award-winning journalist and author Lenora Chu. Lenora is the author of Little Soldiers, a melding of memoir and journalism that brings to light the enormous cultural differences between the Chinese and American education systems. In recounting the adjustments of her young son to the academic environment of an elite Shanghai elementary school, Chu explores the complex web of social conditioning and parental cooperation that results in the high-achieving “little soldiers” in the Chinese system, and weighs the advantages and disadvantages of the East and West educational models. The conversation also touches on the gaokao, the controversial college entrance exam, the supposed “creativity gap” in the Chinese model, and the similarities in the phenomenon of “helicopter parents” in the two cultures:

Barbarians at the Gate

China’s Education Ambitions

An episode of Barbarians at the Gate

In this new episode of the Barbarians at the Gate podcast, Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser delve into the Chinese education system, focusing on the evolution of China’s universities. Starting with Trump’s recent ill-advised (and quickly rescinded) executive order to cancel the F-1 visas of a substantial number of 370,000 Chinese students studying in the US, the discussion moves to China’s multi-billion-dollar effort to enhance the soft power attraction of its universities by building world-class research institutes and recruiting top foreign academic talent. Jeremiah and David explore China’s experimentation with new education formats, the ongoing revisions to the gaokao college entrance examination, and the so-called “creativity problem” of the Chinese educational tradition:

Barbarians at the Gate

Yaqub Beg’s Western Uprising

The rebel general whose demise led to the provincializing of Xinjiang

An episode of Barbarians at the Gate

Muhammad Yaqub Beg (1820-1877) was an adventurer and soldier of fortune who led a massive rebellion against the Qing Empire in what is today Western China. From his humble origins as a petty mercenary, he exploited a weakened Qing, carved out a kingdom in the desert and drew the attention of the world's great powers. Ultimately, his rebellion was crushed by Qing forces led by General Zuo Zongtang (of the eponymous chicken dish), and his demise paved the way for the provincializing of Xinjiang by the Qing. In this old episode of Barbarians at the Gate, Jeremiah Jenne and James Palmer look at the life and times of this daring general and what his legacy means for Western China today:

Barbarians at the Gate

The Khitans and their Empire

An episode of Barbarians at the Gate

As featured eagle-hunting in the banner image above, the Khitan were a proto-Mongol people from regions of present-day Mongolia and Northeast China, whose history stretches back to the 4th century. In 907 they founded the Liao Empire, one of the first expansive empires in China to establish their capital in the area around modern Beijing. Two centuries later, caught between a rising Chinese empire in the Song (960-1279) and a new power in the Northeast, the proto-Manchu Jurchen, the Liao Empire fell in 1125 and the Khitan were scattered once more across Asia. In this old episode of Barbarians at the Gate, Jeremiah Jenne and James Palmer discuss the history of the Khitans, their empire and their legacy – helped along by analogies to the Godfather trilogy and Game of Thrones: