The China History Podcast

Most of us have never tried old-fashioned snuff as they did back in the 17th to 19th centuries. But we've all heard of it. I invited Mr. Andrew Singer onto the CHP to satiate the curiosity of anyone wishing to know more about it and these gorgeous little bottles. Snuff bottles were extremely popular with the nobles and aristocrats of the Qing Dynasty. And a number of emperors too engaged in this pastime. Though snuff itself is not so popular today, the snuff bottles that came out of this period became an obsession of passionate collectors the world over. Join Andrew Singer and me in a discussion about the snuff and snuff bottle culture during the Qing Dynasty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Guangzhou history. This time we look at the events between the Second Opium War to the Northern Expedition. Featuring prominently in this episode will be Sun Yat-sen and the warlords. Before we get to them, however, we're stuck reliving all the historical short-sightedness of the foreign powers during the Daoguang and Xianfeng eras. I'm sure they all felt invincible back then against a rotted-out China government. Guangzhou became the headquarters for the Anti-Qing and later Anti-Warlord movements. As it was before in Guangzhou history, because of the local unrest, a lot of commerce shifted to other ports in China. We should be able to finish this series off next time in Part 6.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few topics have been requested more than the Forbidden City, located in the center of the great city of Beijing. To help introduce this iconic palace complex, Laszlo invited longtime Beijing resident, Jeremiah Jenne of "Barbarians at the Gate Podcast" fame onto the CHP to discuss the history of the Forbidden City from its construction in the Ming Dynasty up to the present day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history continues with the many exciting and historically consequential events of the mid-19th century. In this Part 4 episode, the history of Guangzhou takes a dramatic turn as the Europeans start showing up in greater numbers clamoring for more trade and more access to the China market. The Qianlong Emperor calls for the Canton System which leads to a number of "stepping stones" that ultimately results in the Treaty of Nanjing. And now with four additional treaty ports opened to trade, Guangzhou's importance starts to wane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history continues of China's great and historic "Window to the World", the city of Guangzhou. This time we pick up in the Yuan dynasty, where everything culturally, politically, and commercially picks up the pace going back to the Tang. Quanzhou in Fujian province outpaces Guangzhou as far as China's most important trade port. But that will change once we get the Ming and Qing dynasties. In this episode, the Europeans will finally, after more than 2,000 years, get their chance to get to know China face to face and up close. Needless to say, it didn't go too well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're picking up in the Tang Dynasty. Guangzhou continues its leading role as the gateway to Southern China coming from the South China Sea and beyond. Heaven is high and the emperor is far away. Despite its importance to the dynasty even in the 7th century, Guangzhou was still a place of banishment and not yet completely integrated with everything happening in the north. Arab and Persian traders and diplomats were regular visitors to Guangzhou and enjoyed a mini-golden age of cultural and commercial interaction. The Maritime Silk Road was in full bloom and Guangzhou was at the center of it. But all was not business as usual. Two violent disturbances will hit Guangzhou that shatters the peace. And Guangzhou's misfortune will become Quanzhou's opportunity. In this episode, we'll also look at the Southern Han Dynasty from the Five Dynasties Ten Kingdoms period that followed the fall of the Tang. Liu Yan based his dynasty in Guangzhou and left behind ruins and relics that are still around today. We'll finish off in the Southern Song Dynasty when Guangzhou's economic importance to the country reached an all-time high. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laszlo invited Kyle Anderson onto the CHP to discuss the life of the oft-called "Belgian Schindler" Qian Xiuling 钱秀玲. Kyle is the translator of the Xu Feng book "忘记我" (Forget Me) which details Madame Qian's incredible life, growing up in Yixing, Jiangsu, and later moving to Belgium for her university studies. She married, had a family, a career, and lived a quiet life until the German occupation of Belgium in 1940. Her story and the bravery and humanity she exhibited during the Nazi occupation earned her the moniker "Belgium's Schindler". Her's was a life worth knowing about, despite her modesty and wishes to be forgotten. The descendants of the hundred or so lives she saved back in the 1940s today number in the many thousands. The translated version of the book will be coming out soon. For now, please enjoy this conversation between Laszlo and Kyle Anderson as they introduce the life of someone you may not have heard of before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Part 1 episode of a multi-part series Laszlo introduces the most ancient history of the great city of Guangzhou. Long known as Canton in many places, this city has a history that is both fascinating and unique in China. In this installment of the series, we'll explore the early stories and legends from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Then we'll look at the period when the Guangzhou region first appears on the China map during the Qin. The story picks up the pace during Zhao Tuo's Nanyue Kingdom, a story told before in previous CHP episodes. Finally, we'll look at the Han and Three Kingdoms when there's no doubt about it, this part of southernmost China was here to stay and Guangzhou begins its integration with the rest of the Chinese nation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to Leigh for the inspiration to cover this sidebar to all the history happening during the end of the Qing and early Republic. This episode examines the lives of these late-Qing intellectuals who went to Paris, Tokyo, and other places to study alternative political systems that might be a good fit for China. Though anarchism works great only in theory, it was still an ideal these intellectuals aspired to. They sought to create a harmonious society where the people weren't persecuted or exploited by an oppressive government. The CCP ended up cherry-picking a few of these ideas that these anarchists wrote about in their journals and publications. These anarchists were the OG's of socialism and communism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Season 5 finale of my other show The Chinese Sayings Podcast going up yesterday, I wanted to include the season 5 opener of this show to the CHP feed just in case you haven't had a chance to check out this show. If you like the it, there are 50 episodes across 5 seasons for you to listen to! Search for The Chinese Sayings Podcast on your favorite podcast player and subscribe today! We're back with another season of wonderful and useful chengyu's for your Chinese sayings repertoire. Everyone knows this one. Well, maybe not everyone but it's pretty well-known. We ended last season in the Later Han Dynasty and that's where we'll start Season 5. Though this story was written during the Ming dynasty it concerns the 3rd Century character Sima Hui 司马徽. He was the original Hǎo Hǎo Xiānshēng 好好先生 who lived not to upset anyone or take a contrarian stance against anything that was ever said to him (by anyone). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices