Barbarians at the Gate

In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, we talk with Emily Feng about her new book Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting for NPR, Emily paints a picture of how state control has intensified over recent years, reshaping Chinese society, politics, and culture. Emily explains how she wove together personal stories into the historical, cultural, and political contexts, offering insights into the lives of Uyghurs separated by detention camps, human rights lawyers battling censorship, Mongolian educators struggling to preserve their language, and ordinary citizens whose acts of remembrance have become quiet forms of resistance.

Manya Koetse, founder of What's on Weibo, offers a deep dive into the fascinating world of Chinese social media. She explores Weibo's role as a crucial platform reflecting China’s shifting nationalism and social dynamics. Manya discusses the nuances between Weibo and WeChat, highlighting how their user demographics and functionalities cater to different audiences. She reveals the challenges of curating content that resonates globally while navigating the complexities of online sentiment and cultural trends, providing listeners with valuable insights into an often-misunderstood digital landscape.

Chris Stewart, creator of The History of China podcast, shares his journey from Shanghai to Bozeman while diving deep into the intricacies of Chinese history. He reflects on the cultural implications of the pandemic and the importance of contextualizing historical narratives to grasp modern events. The conversation touches on authoritarianism, drawing parallels with China's Cultural Revolution, and highlights the challenges of engaging audiences with accurate historical content. Stewart emphasizes the role of social media in shaping cultural commentary amidst crises.

This week, we explore a topic close to our hearts: the world of jazz in China. Jeremiah and David bring their respective musical experience to the table—Jeremiah as a rock and blues keyboardist, and David as an active pianist in Beijing's jazz scene.David takes us back to his experiences in the 1980s, a period of renaissance for jazz in Beijing, when Chinese rock musicians began to discover—or rediscover—this intricate Western genre. During China's early "Reform and Opening Up" era, musicians with little prior exposure to jazz and scarce recordings embarked on the challenging journey of mastering its fundamentals: the elusive "swing" rhythm, the art of improvisation over complex harmonies, and the pursuit of a unique musical "voice." For them, jazz represented a liberating contrast to the structured pop music of their youth, offering a sense of artistic freedom and boundless creativity.David reports that a new generation of post-millennial jazz musicians has emerged who, having grown up with the genre, are quickly ascending to world-class status, gracing stages at prestigious international festivals.In a previous podcast, we covered the origins of the jazz scene in 1920s Shanghai in our interview with Marketus Presswood about his award-winning documentary "Yellow Jazz, Black Music." David's article on Jazz in Beijing: The Book of Changes: Twenty-five Years in Chinese Jazz Spotify Playlist of Contemporary Chinese Jazz

In this discussion, Jane Perlez, former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times, shares her insights on reporting from China between 2012 and 2019. She reveals the alarming decline in press freedom and the obstacles foreign journalists face under Xi Jinping's leadership. Jane highlights the expulsion of journalists in 2018 and the unique strategies reporters must now employ for investigative journalism. She also introduces her podcast, which examines the deteriorating U.S.-China relations, reflecting on pivotal historical events and political dynamics.

Happy Year of the Snake!In this archive episode from January 2024, we chat with Andrew Stokols, who is researching varieties of digital urbanism globally, with an emphasis on China.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 province, as a showcase for Xi Jinping’s vision for urban development. The urban plan was initially unveiled in 2017 to relieve pressure on Beijing and promote the coordinated regional development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, but what Xi has called a “thousand-year plan of national significance” has run into numerous setbacks and controversy.We also hear from Andrew about how the Party is merging Marxist ideology with traditional Chinese culture in recent urban architectural projects, particularly the mammoth National Archives of Publications and Culture (Zhongguo guojia banbenguan 中国国家版本馆), described as a “seed bank” of Chinese civilization. These mammoth archives, being constructed in the four geographically significant locations of Beijing, Hangzhou, Xi’an, and Guangzhou, will house original and digitized editions of imperial archives such as the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (the Siku quanshu四库全书), as well as historical artifacts, music, and literature from the Mao era, thus effecting the goal of “two combines” (liangge jiehe 两个结合), Xi Jinping’s goal of “combining Marxist theory with China’s outstanding traditional culture.”Andrew's own online archive: https://www.andrewstokols.com/

Jean Hoffman Lewanda, author of "Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China," shares her family's gripping saga of survival as Jewish refugees in 20th-century China. She highlights the transition from historical biography to storytelling, drawing from her mother's perspective. Topics include the dangers faced during their migration from Harbin to Shanghai, the struggle for cultural identity, and the concept of statelessness amidst WWII. Lewanda emphasizes the importance of preserving family history and honoring legacy through intergenerational dialogue and creative projects.

In this episode, we invite Rory Truex, an associate professor at Princeton University, to discuss a recurring issue on the podcast: the plight of the US-China academic exchange and the urgent need to attract more American scholars to do research in China. Despite the recent revival of several American academic programs in China, the post-COVID number of US students in the PRC is still woefully inadequate. Professor Truex gives an overview of some reasons for this deterioration of interest by American scholars and the challenges of doing meaningful research in the current Chinese academic environment. We also discuss predictions about the new Trump administration’s possible effects on US-China relations, the implications for government support and funding of educational exchange programs, and the perception of Chinese and American exchange students as security risks. Rory also describes his path of development as a China scholar during the so-called "Golden Age" of the early 2000s in China, and the current difficulties of carrying out unfettered academic research in a new era of tightening restrictions.Rory Truex is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. His research focuses on Chinese politics and authoritarian systems. He regularly contributes to major publications such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and New York Times.Mentioned on the podcast:“Where have all the American China experts gone?" Washington Post, January 3, 2024

In this episode, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser speak with MIT professor Tristan Brown about his award-winning book Laws of the Land: Feng Shui and the State in Qing Dynasty China. Brown reveals how Feng Shui was far more than just the art of furniture arrangement or grave placement - it was a sophisticated system of environmental management and social control in imperial China.Drawing from rare county archives in Sichuan province, Brown shows how Feng Shui served multiple functions: regulating urban development, managing environmental resources, and mediating social conflicts. Through fascinating examples, he explains how both elite families and common people used Feng Shui in legal disputes, from establishing ancestral claims through strategic grave placement to fighting against disruptive mining operations.Brown's book challenges common Western misconceptions about Feng Shui, presenting it instead as a complex system of environmental regulation and social organization that shaped Chinese society for centuries. It's a fascinating look at how cosmological beliefs, environmental management, and state power intersected in imperial China.Topics CoveredThe Power of Archives: Using rare Qing dynasty court records from Sichuan to uncover how Feng Shui shaped legal and social lifeGraves and Identity: How burial sites and ancient trees established claims to belongingEnvironmental Management: Feng Shui as an early system of zoning and environmental protectionForeign Architecture: The clash between traditional Chinese urban planning and Western religious buildingsNotable Quotes"Legal cases involving feng shui could be completely nakedly self-interested... or it could be something that's really talking about environmental ethics. It hugs that whole spectrum, which is why it's real, which is why the state had to engage with it." — Tristan Brown on Feng Shui's dual nature"It's not the number of relatives you have living there. It's the number of relatives you have in the local graveyard that ties you to a place." — On the importance of graves in establishing local identity"The thing about gravesites... what is the element of the landscape that you can't lie about? The trees. Old trees are legitimately old. Everyone knows it." — On how families proved their ancestral claimsBrown reveals how Feng Shui served as more than just spiritual practice – it was a sophisticated system of environmental management and social control. From regulating building heights to controlling industrial development, Feng Shui provided the legal framework for managing space in imperial China.The discussion illuminates how different groups engaged with these practices: elite families used them to establish ancestral claims, poor families adapted them for survival, and foreign religious groups either successfully navigated them (like Sufi Muslims) or created conflict by ignoring them (like Christian missionaries).

Last week’s election of Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. President disappointed half of the American electorate and much of the world (outside the Kremlin). To help Jeremiah and David process what’s next, they’re joined by Brendan O’Kane— writer, translator, expert in the literature of the late Ming Dynasty, and a Pennsylvania voter. Brendan explores the works of Zhang Dai (張岱 1597-1634), the Jin Ping Mei 金瓶梅, and other literary examples from the twilight of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). What was it like to witness the end of an era and the collapse of an entire state? Was the Obama era an American "restoration" (中興)? What do people do when the political order is overturned and the dynasty falls? We delve into Chinese history and literature, searching for insights to ease the pain and make sense of what lies ahead. David also shares reactions from his students in Beijing on the election results—as well as rumors of a surprising (and unsettling) prank their peers in the U.S. may have pulled at campus polling stations.Brendan O'Kane on substackThe Southern Ming by Lynn Struve, 1984The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China by Frederic Wakeman, 1986Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in the Tiger's Jaws. Edited and translated by Lynn A. Struve, 1993