History as Progression in China

Orville Schell on his experience in China in the 1980s, a magical decade in recent history that brought hope, optimism, dynamism and endless possibilities in China, and ended with Tiananmen Massacre.

The Peking Hotel podcast and newsletter are a bilingual online publication that takes you down memory lane of recent history in China, and narrates China’s reality through the personal tales of China experts. We present subjective, opinionated, and coloured views of veterans in the field based on their first-hand experience and direct observations. The project grew out of Leo’s research at Hoover Institution where he collects long oral history of China experts living in America. The stories here are a reminder of what China used to be and what it is capable of becoming. 

This episode is co-produced with China Books Review, a new digital magazine about everything China and bookish. A special shoutout to the editor, Alec, for supporting the Peking Hotel and to Taili Ni for sound-editing.

Since this is only my first episode, any feedback from our audience (you!) is warmly appreciated. We also have Substacks in English and Chinese. I hope to publish more conversations like this one, so stay tuned!

I am recruiting a producer and editor to help me run this publication. Email heliu@stanford.edu if you are interested.