Sinica Podcast

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region that encompasses both East Asia and South Asia. Evan also served as deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs under Condoleeza Rice during the second George W. Bush administration, and as vice chairman of the Paulson Institute, before joining Carnegie. Evan offers his unique perspective on how American policy over the last two decades has failed to keep up with changes happening in Asia, and how the increasing economic integration of the region has meant that the U.S. faces the threat of marginalization and relegation to a unidimensional role as a security provider. He offers useful ideas that the incoming Biden administration would do well to consider.Recommendations:Evan: The documentary Statecraft: The BUSH 41 Team, available on Amazon Prime, and the cooking podcast Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio. Kaiser: The Ministry for the Future: A Novel, by Kim Stanley Robinson.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, we bring you a conversation with Pallavi Aiyar, a prolific writer and, until 2008, a Beijing-based journalist, and Ananth Krishnan, who reported from China for The Hindu and India Today until 2018. The two chatted with Kaiser and Jeremy as part of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival in November, covering subjects from popular Chinese misconceptions and stereotypes about India to India’s curiosity about — and sparse media coverage of — its powerful neighbor to the northeast. 5:49: Mutual cultural ignorance between China and India 11:06: Indian views on Chinese authoritarianism 32:03: Social mobility and classism42:00: Comparing Chinese and Indian nationalism 52:23: 2020 as an inflection point in India-China relationsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Sinica, which was taped live at the fourth annual NEXTChina Conference on November 11, Kaiser and Jeremy chat with Yifei Li and Judith Shapiro, co-authors of a new book called China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet. Li, an assistant professor of environmental studies at NYU Shanghai, and Shapiro, the chair of the environmental politics program at American University, tackle the question of whether a state-led authoritarian approach is needed to address the crisis of global warming and other looming ecological catastrophes. And while their focus is on the environment, the book interrogates more broadly the whole technocratic authoritarian approach to governance, with relevance to pandemic response, population policy, and much more.3:43: State-led environmentalism in China 16:18: Mechanisms of state power and enforcement on the environment23:12: Environmentalism and China’s illiberal turn31:06: China’s space ambitions and technocratic leadership See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, we teamed up with Columbia University Press and the Columbia Global Centers to convene a conversation with Brian Dott, a professor of history and Middle Eastern studies at Whitman College and the author of The Chili Pepper in China: A Cultural Biography. Kaiser — who is something of a chili head himself — chats with Brian about how, when, and why the chili pepper came to China and became such a fixture of the cuisines of Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. 7:19: Where chilies made landfall in mainland China16:22: Chinese cuisine and cultural identity25:48: Theories on how chilies proliferated throughout China35:54: Chilies and medicinal applicationsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, we present the first installment in a three-part series produced in collaboration with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), highlighting the groundbreaking work of young social scientists who are focused on China. In this episode, Kaiser chats with Jennifer Pan, an assistant professor of communication at Stanford, about three of her research papers that illuminate different aspects of social control in the P.R.C.: the use of the dibao social welfare system, hiring decisions, and the use of clickbait headlines by government officials on social media.Recommendations:Jennifer: A series of escapist fiction by Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries.Kaiser: Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History, by Kurt Andersen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Rana Mitter, professor of the history and politics of modern China at St. Cross College, Oxford, and director of the University of Oxford China Centre, about his new book, China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism. The book is a meditation on how the evolving official narrative of World War II in contemporary Chinese political discourse shapes not only China’s domestic politics but its foreign policy as well.8:51: What Chinese nationalism looked like before World War II30:48: Shaping the narrative of China’s wartime experience47:13: Giving China the postwar period it never had57:55: Chinese public discussion about the war Recommendations:Rana: The Sword and the Spear, by Mia Couto. Kaiser: How the coronavirus hacks the immune system, by James Somers, and the anti-superhero series The Boys, available on Amazon Prime.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tobita Chow and Jake Werner talk about a progressive US policy towards China, considering tankies, authoritarianism, imperialism, and a potential Biden presidency. They emphasize the importance of opposing war, respecting labor, and prioritizing progressive values, while also exploring the complexity of imperialism and the need for a radical rethink under the Biden administration. Furthermore, they discuss promoting a message of international cooperation, unity on the progressive left, and provide music and book recommendations.

Film producer Peter Shiao aims to create a wuxia storyverse for global audiences. Topics include bringing wuxia to mainstream, its contribution to global pop culture, regional differences in wuxia appeal, and Immortal Studios' mission.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy chat with Sebastian Strangio, the Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat, about his new book, In the Dragon's Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century. The book examines how each of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (except Brunei) has coped with China's rapid reemergence as a regional superpower, and offers superbly written on-the-ground reportage by a longtime resident of the region.Recommendations:Jeremy: The novel True Grit, by Charles Portis. Sebastian: The novel World of Yesterday, by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Kaiser: The Swedish progressive metal supergroup Soen. Start with the album Lykaia.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Since February, a series of tit-for-tat restrictions on and expulsions of journalists in the U.S. and China have resulted in the decimation of the ranks of reporters in the P.R.C. While the bureaus of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post remain open, they've had to make do with reduced staff and journalists reporting from outside of the Chinese mainland — in Taiwan and South Korea. Emily Feng, a reporter with National Public Radio (NPR), is one journalist who is still in Beijing. She tells us about how restrictions and expulsions have impacted morale and the ability to report on China.16:58: Morale among foreign media reporters in China26:29: Rising tensions and the U.S. strategy of reciprocity33:33: Reporting from China under increasing pressure36:08: Journalist expulsions and changing perceptions on China reportingRecommendations:Jeremy: A column by Alex Colville: Chinese Lives, featured on SupChina. Specifically, Jeremy recommends Mao’s ‘shameless poet’: Guo Moruo and his checkered legacy.Emily: The Children of Time series, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Kaiser: The China conundrum: Deterrence as dominance, by Andrew Bacevich.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.