Barbarians at the Gate

In this week’s episode, we talk with Jean Hoffmann Lewanda about her father Paul Hoffmann’s memoir, Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience, recently published by Earnshaw Books. Paul Hoffmann left Vienna at the age of 18 to escape the rise of Nazism, arrived in Shanghai in 1938, and became a part of the historic stream of Jewish refugees who found a haven in China during WWII. His memoirs describe the harsh living conditions in the Hongkou Ghetto during the Japanese occupation and the lifestyles of the multicultural, multinational community in Shanghai. Paul eked out a living teaching English and mathematics while obtaining a law degree from Aurora University (currently Fudan University). He worked for the American lawyer Norwood Allman (who was secretly the US spy chief in China). Paul remained in China during the communist takeover in 1949, managing the dissolution of his law firm, and witnessed firsthand the harassment, imprisonment, and expulsions to which the foreign community was subjected. After rediscovering her father’s memoirs, Jean Hoffmann Lewanda edited the text, weaving in the various photographs and documents Paul left behind. The result is Witness to History, a gripping and sometimes harrowing memoir of a man who was caught up in the tides of one of the most tumultuous periods in history and lived to tell the story.

In this episode, Jeremiah and David talk with James Griffiths, Asia Correspondent for the Globe and Mail, about his new book Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics of Language. This podcast can be considered the third installment of a trilogy of Barbarian at the Gate episodes that deal with the politics of language and dialects in China (see the links to the earlier podcasts below). Our previous guest Gina Anne Tam aptly sums up Griffiths’ research topic in her dustjacket review of the book: “Speak Not is a beautifully narrated and intensely smart global history of how languages are destroyed. From Hong Kong to Wales, Hawaii to South Africa, Griffiths artfully guides us through intimate stories of people fighting over decades, often in vain, to protect their linguistic heritage and identities, stories that, when taken together, reveal an oft-unexplored aspect of the ‘disasters wrought’ by colonialism, nationalism, and global inequality.” In addition to insights from the revitalization of Welsh, one of Griffiths’ native tongues, the podcast delves deeply into the recent plight of Cantonese in Hong Kong and the mainland minority languages of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. Links to: “Mandarin Mayhem” April 10, 2020 “Mandarin Mayhem, Part II: Dialect and Nationalism in China” June 02, 2020  The Great Firewall of China “A residential school system in China is stripping Tibetan children of their languages and culture, report claims” The Globe and Mail  December 7, 2021David Moser, A Billion Voices: China’s Search for a Common Language (Penguin, 2016)

In this episode, Jeremiah and David have a long-overdue discussion with historian and writer Maura Cunningham. Maura was Editor-in-Chief of the classic blog China Beat, a fellow at the Asia Society Center on US-China Relations, Program Officer at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and is now the Digital Media Manager for The Association of Asian Scholars (AAS) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maura is also the co-author, with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, of the essential book China in the 21st Century: Everything You Need to Know, and the podcast conversation starts with a reconsideration of the book’s title: “What are the new China realities ‘everyone needs to know’ in the post-Covid, post-Xi Jinping era?” We compare notes with Maura about the current state of scholarly research on China, the aftermath of the pandemic on US-China academic exchange programs, and the problems of maintaining standards of academic freedom amidst the tightening of the Chinese information environment. Other topics include a reevaluation of the fundamental goals of China research and the prospects of increased Chinese language training and sinological research activity in China under increasing research limitations in the PRC.Greitens, S., & Truex, R. (2020). Repressive Experiences among China Scholars: New Evidence from Survey Data. The China Quarterly, 242, 349-375. doi:10.1017/S0305741019000365Will I Return to China?: A ChinaFile Conversation (June 21, 2021)Wasserstrom, J. N., & Cunningham, M. E. (2018). China in the 21st century: What Everyone Needs to Know.

This week Jeremiah and David catch up with an old friend, China history scholar Marketus Presswood., who has just released a documentary on jazz in China entitled Yellow Jazz, Black Music, available on Vimeo. Based on years of research and extensive interviews, the documentary traces the influx and development of jazz music in China, from the Shanghai ballrooms of the 1920s to a resurgence in the urban nightclubs of the Reform-and-Opening period, and finally to the art form's flourishing in a new globalized, high-tech China. Marketus provides a fascinating description of the lives of the African-American jazz musicians in Republican Era Shanghai, including the experiences of Langston Hughes, who visited the city in 1934 and interacting with the stars of the local jazz scene. We also discuss the difficulties of Chinese musicians in accessing and mastering the art form, the social and artistic impact of jazz on Chinese culture, and the possibilities of a new kind of "jazz with Chinese characteristics."Links to:Website for the film:www.yellowjazzblackmusic.comYellow Jazz, Black Music on Vimeo:  https://vimeo.com/ondemand/yellowjazzblackmusicThe Yellow Jazz Black Music Spotify music site:https://open.spotify.com/album/2oDjOu5dXCUm8atpkZfJ2WJeremiah on Langston Hughes in Shanghaihttps://www.jeremiahjenne.com/the-archives/2021/1/28/langston-hughes-in-shanghaiDavid on Jazz in Chinahttps://chinachannel.org/2018/07/20/chinese-jazz/Marketus on "Being Black in China" https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/on-being-black-in-china/277878/

In this episode, Jeremiah and David talk about the foreign experience of travel in China, drawing upon their personal experiences over the years as explorers, educators, and tour guides. The two trade accounts of the rapid expansion of China’s travel industry in decades after Reform and Opening, the occasional brushes with anti-foreign sentiment, and the exploding domestic luxury travel market as the economy booms and overseas travel has been restricted. The discussion also turns to the new post-Covid-19 reality of quarantines, vaccination records, and issues with the ubiquitous health-record apps that have become mandatory additions to everyone’s mobile phone. The podcast concludes with cautious prognostications about the upcoming Olympics, vaccination passports, and the future of foreigners traveling, studying, and working in China. David also recommends the excellent new documentary about jazz and jazz-age Shanghai by Marketus Presswood, Yellow Jazz, Black Music now streaming on Vimeo.

In this episode (taped on the eve of June 4th), Jeremiah and David examine the zeitgeist of China in the 1980s through the lens of the historic 1988 documentary River Elegy《河殇》. The six-part documentary was a scathing critique of Chinese traditional culture and political philosophy, portraying hallowed icons such as the Great Wall and the Yellow River as morally repugnant symbols of barbarism and cultural self-deception. The TV series also touched upon previously taboo topics such as Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The documentary was highly controversial at the time yet was widely disseminated in State media such as the People's Daily, giving rise to an astonishingly frank public debate about the fate of China and the need for economic and political liberalization. The documentary was banned after 1989 but remains a cultural time capsule of the decade's relatively open political discourse. The podcast discussion examines the contentious intellectual currents of the 1980s and poses some counterfactual questions about how China's reforms might have progressed if the free-thinking trajectory of River Elegy had continued to exert an influence. Link to a segment of River Elegy on YouTube Moser, David, "Thoughts on River Elegy, June 1988-June 2011" (2011). The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012. 904.  

In this episode, we host Ruth Poulsen, Director of Curriculum and Assessment at the International School of Beijing and author of a recent article in The American Educator entitled "What's the Line between Culture Shock and Racism?" Ruth is a long-term ex-pat, having spent much of her childhood and adult life in various countries in the Middle East and Asia. In the interview, Ruth shares her cross-cultural insights gained from her years working with teachers and students living abroad and offers some strategies for coping with cultural shock, cultural misunderstandings, and negative stereotypes. Those new to the podcast might want to check out an earlier episode with Lenora Chu, which examined cross-cultural differences in the Chinese and American education systems.

On the show this week, Jeremiah and David dialogue about one of their long-term common missions: educating American study abroad students about the complex culture and politics of China. With the rise of the PRC as an economic power, it has always been vitally important to get American scholars to this country to gain first-hand experience with the language and culture. Yet, It has always been a challenge to establish and maintain study abroad programs in China. For decades there had always been a significant disparity between the number of Chinese students in the US vs. American students in China, but now with rising US-China tensions and the onslaught of Covid-19, the China study abroad student has become somewhat of an endangered species. The pre-Covid number of Chinese students in the US studying for undergraduate and graduate degrees had increased to about 370,000 by 2019. By contrast, the number of American students studying in China, after a brief spike prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had declined to a mere 11,000 in the 2017-18 school year. Jeremiah and David reminisce about their experience teaching US students in Beijing, discuss the geopolitical importance of fostering a China-savvy cohort of American scholars entering the US workforce, and explore possible strategies and models for building China study programs in the post-Covid world. Jeremiah on Twitter David on Twitter David Moser, A Fearful Asymmetry: Covid-19 and America’s Information Deficit with China 8.7.3

In today's episode, Jeremiah and David meet up with legendary Canadian TV personality, comedian, and cultural ambassador Mark Rowswell, better known to generations of Chinese audiences as Dashan. On the eve of the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala, "the most-watched TV show in the world," Mark briefly recounts his experiences on the show, its importance as a cultural mainstay of the traditional New Year's holiday, and the evolution of the program from the early days of Chinese television to the current Internet age. Mark also takes us through the development of comedy in China, from Qing dynasty joke books, the origins and evolution of the verbal humor from xiangsheng or "crosstalk," the rise of sketch comedy, and now, in the 21st century, the growing popularity of tuokouxiu, Chinese stand-up comedy. A recurring theme in the discussion is Chinese humor's struggle to remain funny and relevant in a tightly controlled media environment. DashanTV Youtube Channel Dashan on the web And, as promised, Mark and David's performance at the 1999 CCTV Spring Festival Gala 8.5.7

This week, Barbarians at the Gate offers another Beijing-themed podcast. Jeremiah and David talk with writer and long-time Beijing resident Jonathan Chatwin, author of the widely-acclaimed book Long Peace Street. The book is Jonathan's account of a two-day walk along Beijing's Chang'anjie (literally "Long Peace Street"), a trek of 30 kilometers traversing the capital from west to east, representing a "geographical core sample" of Beijing's history, politics, culture, architecture, and urban development. Jonathan walks us (pun intended) through some of the familiar sites of the Chinese capital, unearthing little-known historical details and recounting the ongoing tension between preserving the city's traditional landmarks and constructing a 21st-century urban space. Our discussion also touches on the Chinese government's bold "Jing-Jin-Ji" project to expand Beijing municipality into a megacity of nearly 130 million people. 8.5.5