The China History Podcast

In this Part 1 of a 3 episode series covering the life and times of Dai Li, we look at his early beginnings, living the thug life in Shanghai and falling in with all the right people. We'll trace his quick rise up the ranks of Chiang Kai-shek's formidable spy agencies. He was often called "China's Himmler" due to his slavish devotion to his boss, Chiang Kai-shek, and for his role in setting up Chiang's secret police and spy agencies. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though the villainous empresses always seem to generate the most popular interest, this time we'll look at the life of one of the many good ones, an outstanding one if I may add. Empress Zhangsun was the bride of Tang Dynasty heavy Li Shimin. When he became the second Tang emperor following one of the most dramatic events in early Chinese history, he reigned as Emperor Taizong. We remember Empress Zhangsun for her decency and for deporting herself in a manner that Yao and Confucius both would have approved. She became the gold standard for future empresses and was often imitated but seldom replicated. Come relive those early years of Zhenguan Era (貞觀) Tang history. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In addition to the latest CHP episode on the L.A. Chinatown Massacre, I also wanted to offer you a reading of an article that appeared in an 1894 edition of The Historical Society of Southern California journal. This article by C.P. Dorland was written only twenty-three years after the incident took place and described the events leading up to, during, and after the tragic event of October 24, 2871. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 24th, 1871 the Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre took place near the present-day location of Union Station, just north of the core downtown L.A. area. Though mostly unknown rather than forgotten, this incident that happened one hundred fifty years ago this month will be remembered through a number of commemorative events. The Chinese American Museum (today located adjacent to where the atrocities occurred) will sponsor one event. My friend, Scripps College professor Hao Huang will be participating in another event that will memorialize this tragic event in local L.A. history. Well-known and respected L.A. Chinatown scholar and activist Eugene Moy will also be among the speakers at this event. The links to both are shown below. In this CHP episode, I tell the story of the massacre and how it all went down on that tragic day. If you have time, I encourage everyone to check out these events that will offer an excellent perspective on what happened and the lessons we can all learn from it. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're going to wind things down with this episode. 1863-1864, the bitter and bloody end of the Taiping Rebellion. Charles George Gordon has his walk-on but Zeng Guofan and brother Zeng Guoquan take the limelight in the ultimate showdown with the Taiping holdouts. When it was all over, the Taiping Rebellion ended up having quite a consequential impact on China's trajectory into the 20th century. We'll close things up by looking at the historical blowback from this terrible civil war. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the Convention of Beijing was signed in 1860, the foreign pers weren't so sure about the Taiping's anymore. For the sake of preserving their hard-won gains in the Second Opium War, they hopped down off that fence and sided with the Qing forces. In this episode, we hear about Frederick Townshend Ward and the Ever Victorious Army. 1862 was the pivotal year for the allies lined up against the Taiping rebels. Victory was still a couple years away but it was well within sight at least. For more content and ways to support Teacup Media, visit our website at teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After seizing the all-important city of Nanjing in March 1853 and basking in the afterglow of this victory, the Taiping leadership launches two military expeditions, one to the north to capture the capital, Beijing, and the other to the west. In this episode, we'll see how those two ventures panned out. Then in 1856, comes the first major political crisis that happens at the very top of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leadership. Meanwhile, the foreign powers operating in China, namely Britain and France, scheme to make the best of the Qing Dynasty's bad situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back with more of the Taiping Rebellion. In this episode, we trace the Taiping Rebels as they make their way from Yong'an in Guangxi all the way to the southern capital of Nanjing. As they make their way north and east towards western Jiangsu they grow in numbers and seize great amounts of weapons, silver, and boats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now's as good a time as any to finally feature this well-known, regularly requested topic from Qing history. This is arguably the pivotal event that got the dominos falling that led to the Warlord Era and the later founding of the PRC. For anyone unfamiliar with the Taiping Rebellion, how it got started, and the situation in China during the mid 19th century, over the next few episodes, I'll try and lay it all out for you. We'll get to about 1851 this time around. This epic history has a cast of thousands. Feel free to check out the episode page at the website to view all the terms.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laszlo picks up in 1818 with the Napoleonic Wars finished and the Dutch returning to their colonies to put everything back the way it was when they left. The struggle between the Dutch and the Chinese kongsis of West Borneo discussed previously continues with a fight to the finish in Part 2. The legacy of this century of history that occurred in Kalimantan Barat between 1750-1884, lives on in our day with the Indonesian-Chinese descendants of these adventurous immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian provinces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices