Chinese Literature Podcast

A Taiwanese lesbian begins using dating apps, finds the love of her life, and then realizes she is not the love of her life, but decides to marry her any ways. You won't want to miss this week's episode is a strange look at marriage and death.

Today, we look at the somber poem of a Foxconn worker, Xu Lizhi. His poem, "A Screw Falls to the Ground," is a masterclass of how modern Chinese poetry is able to live up to the standards set by classical Chinese poetry. In this episode, I try to discuss what role the author's biography plays in how we interpret their poetry.

This is the first in a two-part mini-series on the screw in modern Chinese literature. Yep, that is right, the screw, the humble tool which binds the world. This week, I am looking at a passage in Lei Feng's diary on how he wants to be a screw for the Revolution, with a capital R. 

Mr. Close Enough...Mr. Cha Buduo. He never seems to get things quite right, but he represents everything China is about. This is his story, a short, sardonic piece by the scholar and UN Ambassador Hu Shi. In some ways, Mr. Close Enough echos Lu Xun's Ah Q, in other ways it is the polar opposite of that story. 

Xu Xu is a writer who was very famous in the 1930's and 1940's. He lived in China until 1949, he was one of the country's most important writers during this period. Then, after the victory of the CCP, he, fearing for his safety, left for Hong Kong. He continued to write but drifted into obscurity. Professor Frederik Green at San Francisco State University published a translation of his work with Stone Bridge Press. Today's podcast is a fantastic interview with Professor Green. 

Liu Xijun was a princess. Her father and mother were executed when they rebelled against the emperor, her great uncle. Liu was sent to marry a king of the distant Wusun, a group of Central Asian herders that the emperor was trying to curry favor with. This is her poem. 

This week, the Chinese Literature Podcast goes where few literary scholars have gone before. We take a look at some poetry by sex workers in the city of Dalian. In the podcast, I use the poem to tackle issues of gender in China. Be forewarned, there is some explicit language in this poetry. 

This week, Lee interviews Kyle Anderson, who has just published the first volume in a young adult series titled MountainSea Scrolls. This first volume is called The 9 Tailed Fox. Dr. Anderson describes the series as Narnia meets China.  Dr. Anderson has also worked in translation and academia, and his work includes the translation of the fascinating Forget Me. 

On the previous episode, I went all the way to the beginning of Chinese literature. This episode, I explore a contemporary novel, Mo Yan's Red Sorghum. It won Mo Yan the Nobel Prize, it has been made into a famous movie, this novel has been very influential. Let's dive in!

Oracle Bones (甲骨文) are the oldest written Chinese texts that have ever been discovered. Today, Lee looks at what Oracle Bones are, how they were discovered in the 1890's and reads out the translation of two of them in a podcast that takes it back to the very beginning of Chinese literature. 

Our 'traditional' new year/end of the year podcast where we update listeners on what is happening with our lives and the podcast. This year, we sadly have to announce that Rob is no longer going to be a regular contributer to the podcast. Lee will be taking both reins, though Rob will come back on from time to time. In this episode, Rob and Lee discuss the podcast, its history and their lives. 

This week we have a poem by Gu Cheng 顧城, one of the wonderboys to come out of the 1980's. He left China, immigrating to New Zealand, got a teaching job and then murdered his wife with an ax. His poetry was as sharp and succinct as his ax.

In this week's episode, we look at a series of three poems by Su Dongpo, the Song poet who was sent into exile multiple times. This series of poems is about his time in the crummiest of exiles, on Hainan Island. Drunkeness here is a metaphor for giving up on life in officialdom (though it was also non-metaphorical as well...). 

This week, Rob and Lee look at a short essay where Ouyang Xiu talks about a Mei Yaochen poem that he finds woven into the fabric of a barbarian's bag. Their discussion touches not only on the poem, but also on questions of the materiality of literature. 

Bei Dao is one of the first great poets in the Post-Mao era, and this short poem demonstrates why. 

This week looks a poem by Mao Zedong celebrating the communist defeat of a tiny parasite. "Shooing Away the God of Epidemics" was written in 1956 upon Mao hearing that a county in Jiangxi had eliminated all their blood flukes.  #1 China’s green waters and the blue mountains are so numerous but even the great ancient Chinese medical theorist Hua Tou is unable to take care of this little worm, The thousand villages are covered in vines and peppered with their leaking shit, the ten thousand homes are abandoned, only ghosts sing inside them.  He sits on the Earth everyday and walks 80,000 miles, He roams through the heavens and looks out the distance at the thousand rivers. China’s Orion constellation desires to ask the God of Epidemics about it, happiness and hopelessness are all the same as time goes by.   其一 绿水青山枉自11多，华佗2无奈小虫何！ 千村薜荔3人遗矢12，万户萧疏13鬼唱歌。 坐地日行八万里，巡天14遥看一千河。 牛郎4欲问瘟神事，一样悲欢15逐逝波5。 #2 A spring wind blows through a billion poplar and willow branches, the 600 million Chinese of today live like the sa

This week, we are looking at a poem in the news. We are airing on Saturday, October 15th, 2022. On Thursday October 13th, 2022, just three days before Chairman Xi Jinping is supposed to be anointed for his third term, someone mounted the Sitong Bridge in Beijing and unfurled two banners. One had a poem which read:   We don’t want nucleic acid [tests], we want to eat We don’t want the Cultural Revolution, we want reform    We don’t want lockdowns, we want freedom We don’t want a leader, we want voting   We don’t want lies, we want respect We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be citizens   不要核酸1要吃饭3，不要文革要改革 不要封城要自由，不要领袖4要选票 不要谎言要尊严，不做奴才2做公民

Today's podcast is Rob-less, and it looks at the 1052 poem by Wang Anshi, China's controversial economic thinker. This poem (probably) has little to do with Wang's economic policies, but is rather all about his love for his father and elder brothers and his meditation on his own mortality.