Ep. 20: Linda Jaivin on the Cultural Revolution
The writer and China watcher talks us through her microhistory of Mao’s last decade in power, and its relevance to Trump’s MAGA movement.
Ann Bridge: Peking Picnic
A 1930s novel of manners with evocative descriptions of Old Beijing offers surprisingly timeless observations about what it means to be an expat in China.
Ep. 19: Steven Schwankert on the Titanic’s Chinese Survivors
The author of "The Six" tells us about the Chinese survivors of the Titanic, and how they were met with racist scorn on arrival in...
Lin Yutang: My Country, My People
In 1935, the Chinese author Lin Yutang offered Westerners an insider’s guide to China's society. It endures today despite his own cultural contradictions.
Kublai Khan, from Land to Ocean
Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty, like the Mongol empire, is thought of as a land power. A new work of popular history argues that its real...
Jerome A. Cohen on Chinese Legal Reform
The veteran China watcher discusses his memoirs, the challenges of reforming Chinese law, meeting Zhou Enlai in the Cultural Revolution, and the CIA's Yale recruitment...
Reginald Johnston: Twilight in the Forbidden City
A Scotsman’s memoir of tutoring Puyi, China’s “last emperor,” is more than just court gossip — it’s a tantalizing portrait of China’s imperial trappings.
What If Hu Yaobang Had Lived?
The former Chinese Communist Party leader’s ousting and death led to the Tiananmen protests, but his life reveals a deeper push and pull between reformist...
The Thrilling Truth
A new thriller set in 1930s Shanghai includes just enough historical detail to be believable. But is history at risk of being overtaken by fiction?
The Curse of the “Good Premier”
Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong’s second-in-command, has been lionized as a moderating force who held back Mao’s excesses. But does he deserve that reputation, when he...
Graham Peck: Two Kinds of Time
An American writer’s memoir of World War II China remains a timely diagnosis of the pathologies of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of the...
Ep. 15: Paul French on Wallis Simpson’s China Year
In 1924, an American socialite — who would later cause a scandal by marrying Britain's King — traveled the length of China. Her experience was...