Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo
undefined
Oct 7, 2019 • 60min

Podcast Golden Week: Ta for Ta Episode 22

SupChina is celebrating Golden Week with a few of our best episodes from the Sinica Podcast Network. Today, please enjoy episode 22 of Ta for Ta, hosted by Juliana Batista.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Oct 4, 2019 • 60min

Podcast Golden Week: Middle Earth #16

SupChina is celebrating Golden Week with a few of our best episodes from the Sinica Podcast Network. Today, please enjoy episode 16 of the Middle Earth Podcast, hosted by Aladin Farré.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Oct 3, 2019 • 1h 16min

Is China the Enemy? Featuring Ezra Vogel and Orville Schell

The Sinica Podcast this week features an exclusive recording of a China Institute event in New York on September 17 that sought to answer this question: How can the United States live with a rising China, an ideologically different country that is home to one-fifth of humanity? Joe Kahn, the managing editor of the New York Times and the paper’s former Beijing bureau chief, moderates the discussion with Ezra Vogel, the eminent Harvard University professor and author, and Orville Schell, author and the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:10:50: Changing rhetoric: Harmful or helpful?24:32: The future of the “China model”33:09: Trump’s impact on U.S.-China relations38:24: The legacy of engagement41:04: A case for reengagement with ChinaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Sep 26, 2019 • 54min

Christian Shepherd on Xinjiang and China's changing ethnic policy

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser and Jeremy speak with Christian Shepherd, the Beijing correspondent for the Financial Times. They discuss his debut long-form piece for the FT, Fear and oppression in Xinjiang: China’s war on Uighur culture, dive into the policy drivers behind the assimilation efforts being carried out by the central government in Xinjiang, and discuss his experiences while reporting from the region.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:16:22: In an effort to forcefully assimilate Xinjiang into greater China, public signage in Uyghur has been replaced with Mandarin Chinese, and bookstores have been emptied of Uyghur-language texts. Christian noticed the same trend in legal language: “If you look at policy documents now, in Xinjiang and other regions, there has been that shift [to Mandarin]. The use of hanyu [汉语 hànyǔ, Mandarin Chinese] is diminished. Instead, it’s all guoyu [国语 guóyǔ, national language].” The linguistic replacement is also occurring in schools. Christian states: “In fact, in the schooling system, the emphasis is on that national language, instead of [on] the idea of there being multiple languages that were on an equal status.” 34:26: Have there been any legal efforts to change the language within the Chinese constitution regarding minority policy? Christian explains: “I think there’s a real desire on the part of the Party to continue to pay lip service to the idea of being the champion of minority rights. Clearly, that is what is talked about through all government propaganda, and you see it in billboards all over Xinjiang about how Xi Jinping cares about the rights of the individual, [about] minorities, and about fostering ethnic unity and how that will lead to one great big family nationally.” Recommendations:Jeremy: The Planet Money podcast, particularly episode 939, The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel. Christian: Under Red Skies, by Karoline Kan, and the work of Darren Byler, including his column at SupChina and his blog, Living Otherwise. Kaiser: A documentary, The Brink, by director Alison Klayman.This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Sep 19, 2019 • 34min

Introducing 'Strangers in China'

The Sinica Podcast Network is proud to introduce the latest member of our family, Strangers in China, hosted by Clay Baldo. It features the voices of an emergent new China. Dissident voices, outspoken voices, marginalized voices, queer voices. Some are people who just find one aspect of living in China unreasonable, others are people who are rebellious. Some want to push the boundaries creatively, while others are just fighting to be seen. All are uniquely Chinese.People who think differently can feel out of place in China and we capture that experience. Our perspective: If they live differently, they see Chinese society in a new way. We’re here to listen closely and illuminate their stories.Subscribe to Strangers in China to hear the voices of a new China. Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, or plug the RSS feed directly in to your favorite podcast app.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Sep 12, 2019 • 1h 18min

‘Mirrorlands’: Ed Pulford on the Sino-Russian border

This week, Sinica features a chat with Ed Pulford, author of the recent book Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys in Between. Kaiser chats with Ed about the Sino-Russian border and Ed’s anthropological travelogue exploring the border’s past and present.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:28:06: Ed describes some of the tensions and perceptions that exist in the borderlands between Siberia and China’s northeast: “I think the increasing presence of Chinese ‘things’ — whether it’s material objects, consumer goods, or people who are coming over as tourists increasingly but also for longer as traders in the post-Soviet era — it’s a big shock and it has [presented] a lot of worries about the osmotic potential for what would happen if things were balanced out in terms of population and land use.”43:43: Ed talks about Leonid, a Nanai man (赫哲族, Hèzhézú) whom he met during his travels along the Russian-Chinese border, his own ethnic awakening, and others that are occurring (and not occurring) around the world. “Among many, many indigenous groups of the Far East, the Far North, and Siberia, the post-Soviet period has been one where interest in global indigeneity — whether it’s Native American populations, Maori, or any other global indigenous cause — [there has] been a huge boom.” Ed explains that within China, conditions are different: “There’s been a lot of this inter-indigenous group communication and networking. Whereas in China, at least from the Hèzhé and other groups, including the Éluósīzú and other minority groups, they’re part of a Chinese world that is not so much a part of those same discussions.” Recommendations:Ed: The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle, by Kobayashi Takiji, and National Book Award finalist Pachinko, by Minjin Lee.Kaiser: Ivanhoe, a 1982 film adaptation of the original work by Sir Walter Scott.This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Sep 5, 2019 • 1h 5min

Trade war economics, with Andy Rothman

On this week’s podcast, Kaiser and Jeremy speak with Andy Rothman, an investment strategist at Matthews Asia, to get his take on recent developments in the U.S.-China trade war. Andy lived in China for over 20 years, and was previously the chief China strategist for the brokerage and investment group CLSA after a long career in the U.S. Foreign Service. What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:14:09: Andy comments on the protracted detentions of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig: “They need to treat the two Canadians as they would like Chinese to be treated in Canada and the United States. That’s not happening and it’s sending the wrong message, and it’s further politicizing what should be a technical issue. So, I’m hoping we’re going to see some progress on this, but certainly I don’t see any signs in that direction at the moment.” He also says a voice of reason could come from an unlikely place: “I would also like to see Huawei, as a company, speak out against this kind of retaliation.” In addition, he notes that he has mentioned this to individuals at the company, but “they did not have any response.”36:54: Andy chimes in on the issue of engagement versus decoupling: “I think the engagement option for dealing with China versus decoupling and containment gets a bad rap. I think it’s really important for us to look back over the last 40 years of engagement and recognize that it has worked pretty well. Both for Americans and Chinese citizens, and that should be important for us, too.” He continues, diving into the numbers: “On the trade side, we’ve gotten fantastic access. China was an irrelevant player on the global economy up until 20 years ago. Now it’s our number one trading partner. Since China joined the WTO, U.S. exports are up to China about 500 percent, whereas they’re only up about 100 percent to the rest of the world. Prior to the tariff dispute, agricultural exports to China were up over 1,000 percent, and it was our biggest market.” Recommendations:Jeremy: The Secrets of the Hopewell Box: Stolen Elections, Southern Politics, and a City's Coming of Age, by James D. Squires.Andy: The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, by Margaret O’Mara.  Kaiser: American Factory, by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, available on Netflix. Kaiser’s review of the documentary can be found on our website here.This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Aug 29, 2019 • 40min

Making the world safe for autocracy: Jessica Chen Weiss on what Beijing wants

Jessica Chen Weiss is Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University and a prolific writer on Chinese nationalism and China's international relations. Kaiser sat down with her recently to hear her ideas on how we should understand what it is that Beijing ultimately wants, on how to right-size the challenges that China poses to the liberal world order, and about the CCP's relationship with its own nationalistic populace.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:10:44: Has China played a role in the global retreat from democracy? Jessica provides some insight: “I think there’s a greater risk of exaggerating China’s role and not recognizing the domestic factors, and other international factors that are leading to democratic backsliding around the world. China has done some things, first, to demonstrate that autocracy can work, sort of leading by example. It’s also made cheap financing available to governments that wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. It has exported some technologies that governments can use to surveil their populations. But I don’t think that it has by and large been the main force driving democratic backsliding and erosion.”27:56: Jessica describes the tightrope Beijing must walk when navigating an increasingly hawkish Chinese public, referencing an article she wrote in May of this year: “I think surveys can help establish the baseline public opinion the Chinese government faces as it tries to navigate international disputes...the government has a lot of leeway to maneuver vis-à-vis public opinion. Rhetoric can obviously shape public opinion, and it’s important to document that. But, they still face costs for doing so. And the more hawkish the public is, the more the Chinese government has to dial back that appetite for conflict when trying to finesse a particular diplomatic situation in which maybe the online public is calling for war. There’s not a winning scenario there.” Recommendations:Jessica: Always Be My Maybe, with Ali Wong and Randall Park, and Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. Kaiser: The award-winning TV series, Breaking Bad. This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Aug 22, 2019 • 1h 13min

Matt Sheehan on California's role in U.S.-China relations

Matt Sheehan, former China correspondent for the Huffington Post and current fellow at the MacroPolo think tank, discusses his new book, The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future. In this episode, Matt talks through a few select chapters of his book with Jeremy and Kaiser, such as the fracturing linkages between Silicon Valley and the Chinese tech industry, the story of Dalian Wanda entering the United States, and his outlook on the future of the U.S.-China relationship.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:16:23: Matt describes the thought process within universities courting overseas Chinese students hurt by funding cuts and the recession: “There’s a sense that if we as a society, as an economy, as a government, are not willing to step up to the plate on a national or state level, then local actors are going to do whatever they need to do, or whatever they can to fill those holes…And I think the same thing happened in universities across the board. They knew that they weren’t going to be able to reverse the effects of the financial crisis or the long term defunding of our public education. As they looked around, the most promising source right there, was China.” 42:02: What is the toll being taken on tech ecosystems between the U.S. and China? Matt provides his take: “Right now, with the trade war and all the tensions, I see a lot of this as our attempt to ‘resolve’ the paradox — bring these things into balance, not through further integration, but by tearing apart many of those links at the ground level. Preventing integration in terms of people, sealing off money from going between them, and also looking to basically seal off ideas in one way or another.”Recommendations: Jeremy: Jeremy’s two favorite Chinese films, both classics by Zhang Yimou: To Live and Keep Cool. Matt: A call to action for more people to study and research the artificial intelligence relationship between the United States and China.Kaiser: Europe: A History, by Norman Davies. This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
undefined
Aug 15, 2019 • 57min

The world according to Jeremy Goldkorn

This special episode of Sinica starring our very own Jeremy Goldkorn was recorded in New York on July 17. With decades of experience in China-related business, entrepreneurship, and media, Jeremy shares his views on the latest developments in Chinese business, technology, and politics, and tells personal stories from his 20 years living in China.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:“Everyday you see something you don’t see every day.” —Jim McGregor, on living in China11:26: Throughout (almost) all of Jeremy’s entire professional life, he’s provided English-reading viewers coverage of China. But why? Jeremy: “First of all, it’s very interesting. China has never been well covered, ever, by European or American media. Not that there aren’t journalist and writers and scholars who do great work, but if you think about how much we know about every single city block in Manhattan compared to vast swathes of China that there’s no information at all in English — physically, culturally, or intellectually.” 20:59: Beijing was a very different place during the 90s and early 2000s. Since that time, young Chinese people are now, in Jeremy’s words, “smarter, more talented, and more qualified — and they understand China better than [westerners].” Nowadays, many job opportunities afforded to foreigners coming to China are gone. Jeremy goes on to say, laughing, “China is so different now, how can you compare? There were donkey carts on the second ring road in 1995. Now you can’t cross it because there are too many Maseratis there.” 41:30: Kaiser asks Jeremy about the “outsize role” that U.S.-China relations play in the discussion on China. Jeremy tells Kaiser, “It used to annoy me the way Americans always assume your baseline for normalcy is American…you know, Chinese people and American people are very similar in this way, they only really see their country and ‘the other big one’ — I think the Chinese people taught me to be tolerant of American self-centeredness.”This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app