Category: Podcasts

Sweet, sweet ear candy

Little Red Podcast

Policing the Contour Lines

Louisa Lim

China’s cartographic obsession – Louisa Lim

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to give Chinese President Xi Jinping an antique map, she unleashed a Pandora’s box of cartographic tensions. The 1735 map – printed by a German publishing house but made by French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville – depicted a China without Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia or Manchuria. In addition, the borders of Taiwan and Hainan were shown a different colour from China. At a single glance, this document undermines Beijing’s claims that these regions have been inalienable parts of its sovereign territory since ancient times.

To many Chinese, this gift was at best a shocking breach of etiquette, at worst a slap in the face.

Chinese Literature Podcast

Rebel Rebel

Rob Moore

Rob Moore and Lee Moore read Zhang Yingyu's Book of Swindles

No matter how law-abiding we all are, there's always that part of us that wishes we didn't have to be. It turns out that just about every culture has its stories that celebrate that. Robin Hood, anyone? How about Ocean's 11 and its sequels? China has its own long history of outlaw stories, and we talk about one on this podcast: Zhang Yingyu's late-Ming classic, The Book of Swindles, available now in English thanks to a superb translation by Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk. Join us as we talk about shady Daoist priests, idiot university students, and how a 500 year-old guide to thieves is still a page-turner:

Chinese Literature Podcast

China’s First Feminist

Rob Moore

Rob Moore and Lee Moore read Ding Ling's groundbreaking short story Miss Sophie's Diary

Finding a “first” of anything is a tricky proposition, but if we had to pick a “first” great work of feminism in modern Chinese literature, it would by Miss Sophie’s Diary, by Ding Ling, published in 1928. An absolutely fascinating work that takes full advantage of the diary format in a way Lu Xun’s own Diary of a Madman didn’t, Ding Ling explored the psychology and sexuality of her protagonist with both sensitivity and intensity, and penned a work that, nearly a century on, is still a fascinating read:

Little Red Podcast

Bitter Medicine: China’s New Pacific Frontier

Louisa Lim

Is China the new imperial power in Papua New Guinea? – Louisa Lim

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE

In shops across Papua New Guinea, Chinese shop-owners perched on high chairs watch over local shoppers to guard against theft, checking their bags before they are permitted to leave the premises. This striking act of physical dominance is symbolic of the distance between Chinese migrants and locals, according to journalist Jo Chandler, who has reported extensively from the Pacific nation: “There’s a real separateness about Chinese enterprise which is above and removed from this population.” The complicated tensions unleashed by Beijing’s growing role in the Pacific are pitting political elites against ordinary people, with sporadic explosions of violence targeting Chinese communities.

Chinese Literature Podcast

The Great Maudgalyayana

Rob Moore

Rob Moore and Lee Moore dust off a Buddhist classic 

In a tale for the ages, Mulian, an Indian Buddhist monk, uses his spiritual currency in order to rescue his mother from one of the worst of the Buddhist hells. Not only is the story one of the first examples of vernacular Chinese fiction available, it is also one of the best examples of the cross-current of cultures that was China during the period when Buddhism was expanding. Rob and Lee discuss the shady dealings that led to the earliest version of this story being uncovered in the Dunhuang caves, debate the possible influence of not only Confucian but also Christian morality, and draw comparisons to Dante's Divine Comedy as a point of reference for unfamiliar Western readers.