It’s the summer travel season, and one of the most popular sites here in Beijing is the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City. To talk about China’s most famous imperial palace, we are joined by Matthew Hu Xinyu, Trustee of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP) and founder of the Courtyard Institute. Matthew provides us with updates on 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 imperial concubines located north and west of Longzong Gate. Matthew also gives us a fascinating overview of the complex task of renovating the centuries-old compound and the challenges the Palace Museum faces in restoring, protecting, and exhibiting its 1.8 million artifacts. Palaces, artifacts, and historical figures mentioned on the podcast: Hall of Mental Cultivation, Yangxin Dian养心殿 Palace of Established Happiness建福宮Jianfu Gong jinzhuan金砖 ”metal/gold bricks” Dr. Shan Jixiang 单霁翔, curator of the Palace Museum from 2012 to 2019 Imperial Fasting Palace Zhai Gong斋宫 “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” Fuchun Shanju Tu 富春山居圖, a famous Yuan Dynasty painting by Huang Gongwang (黃公望, 1269-1354). The painting was divided into two pieces after being rescued from a fire. The two sections were later separated; the main section is now housed at the Taipei Palace Museum, and the smaller section, referred to as “The Remaining Mountain,” 剩山圖 Sheng Shan Tu, is part of the Beijing collection. “Precious Works of the Stone Canal Pavilion” 石渠宝笈 Shiqu Baoji. A vast Qing collection of paintings and calligraphy by emperors and famous artists, divided into categories such as books, paintings, scrolls, and calligraphy. Hall of Three Rarities Sanxi Tang 三希堂 “Reign behind the curtain” Chuilian tingzheng垂帘听政 Retirement Lodge Juanqin Zhai倦勤斋 Palace of Longevity and Health Shoukang Gong寿康宫 Fragile Cargo: China’s Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidden City by Adam Brookes. “The gripping true story of the bold and determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond.” “Masters in the Forbidden City” Wo zai Gugong xiu wenwu 我在故宫修文物. State media documentary on the ongoing restoration projects of the Forbidden City. Available on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw6awYYu_6sThis episode originally aired in July 2023.  

We are honored to have Professor Neysun Mahboubi, Director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations, a program that provides a platform for talented U.S.-based China scholars to contribute academically informed analysis on the most important issues in U.S.-China relations. Neysun recounts his experiences as a legal scholar in China during the 1990s Reform and Opening Up period, focusing on his mentors and the legal scholars who were at the forefront of legal reform in the PRC. A passionate advocate for scholarly research on China, Neysun emphasizes the value of on-the-ground research, for those who are able to do so, in these increasingly complicated times. Neysun A. Mahboubi is Director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on Chinese history, law, and policy and hosts the China Studies podcast. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Should we view today’s powerful AI language tools as intellectual crutches or as incredibly useful assets? Can they be safely integrated into our existing toolkit for business and academia, or should we approach them with justified caution? And why is the Western world terrified of AI, whereas China is already incorporating it into all sectors of society? Spoiler alert: The West views AI as a possible extinction risk, to be monitored and controlled, while China pragmatically views it as merely a tool to improve the lives of ordinary people. In this episode, we’re delighted to welcome back Zhang Yajun, founder of Zhang Global Advisory. Yajun shares her insights on the rapidly expanding role of Artificial Intelligence in global business communication and academic research. Yajun offers a more measured and practical take. From personal experience, she knows that non-native speakers can effectively use AI to produce writing that is clear, idiomatic, and faithful to their original ideas — while still preserving their authentic "human tone" and avoiding the sterile, formulaic output that AI often generates.

The Politburo had given Mao Zedong’s personal physician Li Zhisui a direct order: prepare the Chairman’s body so that he can be on permanent display. Li was aghast. It was not what Mao had wanted, and besides, “How to pickle your country’s leader” wasn’t one of the courses he studied in medical school. But after the turbulence of the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s death meant a potential political showdown between the Gang of Four, including Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and Mao’s chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. Dr. Li did not want to be caught in the middle. So Li and his team did the best they could. Spoiler alert: it involved a massage that nobody would want to give. Li Zhisui’s controversial memoir, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, was published in 1994. Readers were titillated by Mao’s sex life, questionable hygiene regime, and gruesome medical maladies. Defenders of Mao labeled the book pure propaganda. Dr. Li was a disloyal liar, and his collaborators and publishers were pushing anti-Mao agendas. Jeremiah is joined by Alexander Boyd, Associate Editor of the China Books Review, to discuss Mao Zedong, Li Zhisui, and Jeremiah’s recent retrospective essay about The Private Life of Chairman Mao. Who was Dr. Li? What did it take to survive in the courtyards of power at the peak of Mao’s paranoia? And did Dr. Li really witness all of the major events he described in his book?

On this episode, we sit down with the one and only Jesse Appell—Chinese TV stand-up comedian, blogger, lecturer, tea entrepreneur, and passionate bridge-builder for US–China cultural exchange. In his newly published book, Jesse shares the unlikely story of how a Fulbright Fellowship to study the traditional Chinese humor form “crosstalk” (xiangsheng) launched him from student to television star, with his video clips capturing more than half a billion views on the Chinese Internet.

Mike Wester launched the first Burger Fest in Beijing 13 years ago as a scrappy response to the collapse of print ad revenue. Today, burger festivals run in third-tier cities across China, subsidized by local governments trying to drive foot traffic into half-empty malls. Hefei alone has four a year. In this episode, Jeremiah talks with Mike Wester, co-founder of True Run Media and publisher of the Beijinger, about how burgers became one of China's fastest-growing new cuisines, what the food festival boom reveals about Chinese commercial real estate, and why a generation raised on McDonald's is now opening artisanal burger shops in cities that didn't have a KFC a decade ago. They cover the social-media arms race, producing photogenic and often inedible creations, and 13 years of memorable entries — including a Wagyu patty with goose liver, cinnamon, and apple, and a pig-brain burger from a man who built his fortune on braised pig brains.

Warning: 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 and dictation components of Chinese language curricula. Matt Coss is on the front line of a new generation of Chinese language educators who advocate a drastic reduction, if not outright elimination, of the handwriting requirement for Chinese language learners. Topics covered include the disturbing drop in the number of American students studying Mandarin, the implications of AI tools such as ChatGPT for Chinese language learning, and the escalating problem of native Chinese speakers forgetting how to write common characters (“character amnesia” tíbǐ wàngzì提笔忘字).

In this episode, we reconnect with an old friend of the podcast, Canadian performer Mark Rowswell—better known in China as Dashan, or “Big Mountain.” Mark reflects on his early career in China, where his remarkable fluency in Mandarin launched him from a young foreign newcomer into the world of xiangsheng (相声, crosstalk), and soon after into a highly sought-after TV host and cultural ambassador bridging East and West. He also shares insights into his latest creative project: a series of online videos featuring his recitations of classic Chinese poetry. What began during the pandemic with a relatively obscure Chu Ci (楚辞) poem that went viral has since grown to include well-known works by Li Bai and Su Shi, with Mark’s fresh approach—eschewing the traditional, formal style of langsong (朗诵) in favor of a more natural, conversational delivery—quickly gaining a wide audience. Over time, the project has grown increasingly ambitious, incorporating longer poems and rich musical collaborations, including performances with the Toronto and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras. Finally, Mark offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at his role in adapting The Shawshank Redemption into a Chinese-language stage production performed by an all-foreign cast. He discusses recruiting Mandarin-speaking actors, translating and culturally adapting the script, and the production’s warm reception among Chinese audiences.

Lee Moore's new book challenges both Chinese state propaganda and Western pundits on Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong with 1400 endnotes, and a drinking game for beheadings. A historian who writes about Ming emperors getting stabbed in the balls, a drinking game for beheadings in Xinjiang, and why almost everything politicians say about Taiwan’s history is wrong. In this episode, we talk with Lee Moore about China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read. It is often said that China is the most talked-about country that Americans know the least about. Lee’s book seeks to enlighten readers with a fresh perspective and a deep dive into four China-related topics that frequently appear in American media: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong. Despite his academic credentials, Lee has chosen to write the book in an accessible style that Jeremiah characterizes as “making the complex simple and the simple complex — complicating narratives without complicating the language, and simplifying complicated histories without dumbing them down.” With this lively and occasionally risqué prose style (one chapter is entitled “The Most Important Motherfucker in Taiwanese History”), Lee challenges the simplistic historical narratives that often dominate both Chinese state propaganda and Western commentary on China. Our conversation explores several of the historical questions raised in his book. Was Taiwan always a part of China? It did not even appear on Chinese maps until the 17th century, and the Qing Dynasty did not take control of the island until a year after William Penn founded Philadelphia. Were the Uyghurs the first inhabitants of Xinjiang? The answer is complicated, but the region’s earliest known inhabitants may actually have been Indo-European. And is the Chinese Communist Party’s tight state control over the economy really the “secret sauce” behind China’s rise? Lee takes direct aim at Western pundits who have argued exactly that. Lee also explains how he makes extensive use of Chinese poetry — from Tang Dynasty border verse to Qing-era colonial writing — translated into colloquial English, to convey the emotions and states of mind of the historical figures who populate his book. Lee Moore has a PhD in Chinese literature. He is the founder of the Chinese Literature Podcast and has written for The Economist, the China Books Review, and The China Project. China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read is available from Unsung Voices Books wherever books are sold. Find the Chinese Literature Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Warning/Advertisement: This episode contains explicit language.

It’s another Barbarians at the Gate crossover with China Books Review. This month’s China Archives column covers Decadence Mandchoue by Edmund Backhouse, edited and annotated by Derek Sandhaus. CBR Associate Editor Alexander Boyd and I sat down to talk about all things Backhouse and try to parse one of Sinology’s more controversial memoirs. Backhouse was the son of a British baronet who dropped out of Oxford, fled to Beijing in 1898, and spent the next four decades as a fixer, translator, and professional eccentric in the hutongs. He was also a forger, a fabulist, possibly a fascist sympathizer, and the author of what may be the most explicit expat China memoir ever written. His central claim: an extended sexual relationship with Empress Dowager Cixi. His central problem: almost nobody believed him. And there’s a good reason. He almost certainly invented the whole thing.The real question isn’t whether Backhouse was making stuff up. He was. A lot. The question is whether this gifted fabulist, writing from inside (or at least adjacent to) the world he’s fabricating, can still tell us something real about the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Join us as we explore the decadent world of sex, lies, and power during one of the most tumultuous periods of Chinese history.