Barbarians at the Gate

David and Jeremiah are on vacation this month, which means, like the days of summer TV (pre-Internet and pre-InfiniteStreamingNetflixVerse), we are replaying one of our favorite earlier episodes. We hope you enjoy this one from the vault, and we'll be back with fresh episodes later this month.This episode was originally posted on October 26, 2020. Yuanmingyuan, the "Garden of Perfect Brightness," commonly referred to as the Old Summer Palace, was a Qing Dynasty imperial residence comprised of hundreds of buildings, halls, gardens, temples, artificial lakes, and landscapes, covering a land area five times that of the Forbidden City, and eight times the size of Vatican City. This expansive compound, once referred to by Victor Hugo as "one of the wonders of the world," now exists only as a sprawl of scattered ruins on the northern outskirts of Beijing, having been thoroughly burned and looted by French and British over three days in October of 1860, in the aftermath of the Second Opium War.The razed remnants of the glorious gardens have been left in place by the Chinese government as an outdoor museum of China's "Century of Humiliation" at the hands of the foreign powers. On the 160th anniversary of the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, Jeremiah and David discuss the political and cultural clashes that led to the action, the significance of the incident for China's national self-image, and the government's attempts to repatriate the massive amounts of looted artifacts found scattered among the museums of Europe and the West. The conversation also explores the changing symbolic significance of the ruins in the context of a rejuvenated and economically powerful China.

Three years of Covid-19 chaos, political upheavals, climate change disasters, and economic downturns have triggered an increasing lack of faith in government institutions worldwide. The United States, in particular, has seen trust in government plummet, with a Pew report indicating that American confidence in government has fallen to a historic low of 20%. According to a report from the public relations firm Edelman, China might seem to be an exception to this trend. The Edelman report put Chinese citizens’ trust in their government at a record 91 percent, the highest rate in a decade. But recent outbursts of angry protests by Shanghai citizens suffering under extended Covid-19 lockdowns suggest a different story. How much faith do the Chinese people have in their government? Is Chinese nationalism still riding a wave of increasing economic prosperity, or is the Chinese model losing its luster among average citizens? How is the role of government viewed differently in the United States and China? In this episode, we welcome communications and content specialist Zhang Yajun, co-host of the WǑMEN podcast, to explore these issues of government accountability and public trust in the Chinese and US context.

This week we talk with Hatty Liu, Managing Editor of The World of Chinese. This bi-monthly magazine explores all aspects of Chinese culture and society, providing vivid storytelling accounts of the experiences of Chinese people from all walks of life. We discuss the publication’s editorial mission and target audience and the challenges of conveying complex Chinese social issues in an accessible way to foreign readers. Whether it be topics of consent culture, Chinese UFO hunters, or the plight of migrant workers under the Covid-19 restrictions, Hatty and her multicultural writing staff are bringing to light fascinating glimpses of Chinese life that are seldom featured in the mainstream press.

Contrary to the common stereotype that Chinese education is regimented and mired in tradition, the education system in China is actually one of the most dynamic sectors of Chinese society, with core aspects such as the gaokao college entrance exam constantly in flux. On the podcast this week to discuss the evolution of Chinese education is Jiang Xueqin, an educational consultant who has worked with schools throughout China to promote the ideas of creativity and critical thinking skills. Topics include the new emphasis on ideology in the curriculum since the ascent of Xi Jinping, the massive effort to turn elite Chinese universities into “world-class” institutions to compete with schools such as Harvard and Oxford, and the plight of cross-national educational projects and international schools in these years of Covid-19 shutdowns and US-China “decoupling.” Jiang Xueqin has published two books: Creative China, which recounts his experiences working in the Chinese public school system, and Schools for the Soul, which presents his approach to fostering creativity in secondary education. Jiang’s articles have appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Chronicle of Higher Education.

What do we know about Chinese nationalism? Do nationalistic sentiments manifest differently among different demographic groups, as is often the case in Western democratic countries? What kinds of global situations can provoke bouts of nationalism? And to what extent does grassroots nationalism influence China’s foreign policy? We explore these questions with this week’s guest, Peter Gries, Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Manchester, and the Lee Kai Hung Chair of the Manchester China Institute.  “Nationalism, Social Influences, and Chinese Foreign Policy” in China and the World. Shambaugh, D. (ed.). Oxford University Press, 2021.China’s New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy, University of California Press, 2004.Peter Hessler. "A Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression," The New Yorker, May 16, 2022

No sooner had Jeremiah’s lockdown experience come to an end when Shanghai announced plans to shut down the entire city as cases of the Omicron variant skyrocketed. Now entering its third week, Shanghai’s historic citywide lockdown has imposed unprecedented restrictions and sacrifices on its 25 million people.Among the hapless homebound residents was our longtime friend and colleague, Andrew Field, who – unfortunately for him -- had plenty of free time to talk with us about his experiences during these turbulent few weeks. Andrew reports from the nearby suburb of Kunshan on the mood of residents in and around Shanghai (spoiler: it’s foul), the administrative and policy fiascos of the city government, and his ways of coping during the shutdown (Andrew has left us a special musical treat at the end of the episode).Andrew Field is Associate Professor of Chinese History at Duke Kunshan University and the author of three books, including Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics 1919-1954. Andy is also a documentary filmmaker, having produced several films exploring China’s underground rock scene and the world of Shanghai jazz. We’ve wanted to get Andrew on the podcast for some time and will definitely invite him back on soon to discuss other topics – hopefully maskless and in the same room. Andrew Field’s blog Shanghai Sojournshttp://shanghaisojourns.net/ Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics 1919-1954http://cup.columbia.edu/book/shanghais-dancing-world/9789629964481 Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City (with James Farrer)https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo20298865.html Mu Shiying: China’s Lost Modernisthttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo37857676.html  

 As China launches the most stringent lockdowns since the first Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan two years ago, Jeremiah enters his second week in lockdown mode in his Beijing apartment. David and Jeremiah exchange personal accounts and analyses of their own experiences under China’s official “Zero Covid” directive. Topics include the inconsistent and sometimes baffling lockdown protocols, incessant PCR testing, and administrative policy snafus as municipal governments, district authorities, neighborhood committees, and residential property management companies cooperate or clash to implement the constantly-evolving top-down Covid-19 mandates. We are also joined once again on the podcast by Zhang Yajun, former journalist and communications specialist co-host of the WǑMEN PODCAST, an English podcast featuring Chinese people’s daily lives from a female perspective. Yajun shares her insights into the increasing sense of frustration of Chinese people under the Covid-19 restrictions, the anxieties and complaints that reverberate in social media, the gaps and breaches in the monitoring and control system, and class differences in the level of hardship and sacrifice experienced under lockdown restrictions. For additional background information, check out these social media posts: Jeremiah’s Twitter feed account of his lockdown experience.(Done as an epic fantasy of orcs, ogres, goblins, and trolls) Shane Learning’s Twitter account of his quarantine experience in Shanghai

As Covid-19 gradually recedes and China resumes domestic travel, we are pleased to interview Mo Yajun about her book Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912-1949, a fascinating history of the development of China’s travel industry during the Republican period. Professor Mo recounts how early tourism guides and photographic travel journals enabled Chinese people to expand the concept of quanguo 全国 ”the nation as a whole,” providing the public with an enhanced mental image of the vast scope and diversity of their “national space.” We also hear the story of Chen Guangfu, the father of China’s modern travel industry. He founded the China Travel Service during the tumultuous warlord period, partially responding to the hegemony of foreign travel services, which treated Chinese tourists as second-class citizens. Other topics covered include the issue of class in the tourism environment of semi-colonial China, cultural clashes with well-funded foreign researchers who traveled to historical sites such as the Dunhuang caves to study – and often purloin -- cultural relics, and the effect of the new technology of the personal camera on the perception, promotion and imagining of China’s historical sites.

Do Chinese people know more about the US than Americans know about China? Is there an “information deficit” between average educated Americans and their Chinese counterparts? Educators working in US-China academic exchange programs have noticed a marked information asymmetry, a “China cluelessness” on the part of American students. At the same time, their Chinese peers enter into American studies with a substantial amount of cultural and historical background knowledge. How serious is this problem, what are its causes? And what are the implications for building greater cross-cultural understanding of China?  To address these issues, Jeremiah and David are fortunate to be joined on the podcast by Yajun Zhang, the co-host of the WǑ MEN PODCAST, an English podcast featuring Chinese people’s daily lives from a female perspective. As a former journalist and communication specialist, Yajun has crafted content to facilitate mutual understanding between Chinese and international audiences. Now, leading content and program design for one of the largest conferences in the world, she has witnessed how information asymmetry and decoupling between China and the world has grown over the past couple of years.The podcast discussion examines the causes of the information asymmetry, which include the status of English as the world’s lingua franca, America’s decades-long global soft power dominance, and the sheer numerical imbalance (e.g., 370,000 Chinese students studying at US universities in 2019, as compared to only 11,000 US students studying Chinese language and culture in 2017-18), all factors resulting in the educated Chinese populace having a more intuitive grasp of the complexities of American culture. The podcast also discusses the effects of the information deficit amidst the chaotic news wars during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the importance of an informed electorate when American leaders formulate China policy, and the need to cultivate a supply of China-savvy policy-makers in areas such as diplomacy, military, trade.“A Fearful Asymmetry: Covid-19 and America’s Information Deficit with China”David MoserThe Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 18 | Issue 14 | Number 5 | Jul 15, 2020The WǑ MEN PODCAST co-hosted by Yajun Zhang, Jingjing Zhang, and Karoline Kan(Apple Podcasts)

On the cusp of the Chinese New Year and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Jeremiah and David record an Olympian episode of the podcast. The guest is Mark Dreyer, a veteran sports reporter, who has just released his new book, Sporting Superpower: An Insider’s View on China’s Quest to Be the Best. Mark has worked for Sky Sports, Fox Sports, AP Sports, and many other outlets and currently hosts the China Sports Insider Podcast. The conversation covers issues such as the historical importance of the 2008 Olympics, challenges of Covid-19 in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese model of recruiting and training Olympic athletes, the PR disasters of Chinese athletes due to lack of media savvy, the quest for a world-class Chinese soccer/football team, and the nexus of geopolitics, economics and soft power in China’s Olympic endeavors. Dreyer also recounts many fascinating and telling anecdotes from his many years of interviewing athletes and covering Chinese sporting events.Other books and clips mentioned:Susan Brownell (1995) Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People's RepublicMao Zedong (1917) "A Study in Physical Education"Yao Ming, "You can't f------ stop me" Video