Chinese Literature Podcast

Shalom and welcome to the Chinese Literature Podcast. Today, we have a very special Chinese Literature Podcast in celebration of Passover. We will be looking at the book The Haggadah of the Kaifeng Jews of China by Fook-Kong Wong and Dalia Yasharpour. 

...And then there were the Maoist years. Following the Chinese Communist Party's victory in 1949, literature was tightly controlled until 1976. That means, well, it's a pretty rough period to discuss. But we still found some gems! Join us to find out more!

19 different translations of a single short Tang Dynasty poem add up to a fascinating guided tour of how rich and peculiar it is to encounter the Chinese poetic tradition. Join us to find out more!

There's only one decade whose representative writer we both agree on, and this is it. Debates are more fun, but really? It's hard to argue about Zhang Ailing.

This slim little volume has a whole lot packed into it. Not only does it give the reader a concise history of a crucial moment in Chinese history, but it also beautifully explains to a non-Chinese audience just why Du Fu was so brilliant. 

Who owned the 1930's: the author who gave us talking Martian cats, or the one who gave us a sentient decapitated head? Yes, it was a weird decade, was the 1930's. Join us to learn more!

The greatest scholar on China ever to emerge from the U.S. academy? That's Lee's line in the sand. But even Rob would agree you can't go wrong reading Jonathan Spence. Join the discussion and tell us what you think!

Lu Xun again? Really? Yes, really. But we still disagree. For Rob, the 1920's were Lu Xun's definitive decade. For Lee, it was the era of Ding Ling, who fired the opening salvo in what would become a century of powerful, innovative female writers. 

Who was the most important Chinese writer of the 1910-1919 period? Was it Li Dazhao, and his experiments with prose poetry and Marxist theory? Or was it Lu Xun, with his adaptation of Russian realism to a Chinese context? And who, most importantly, had the best moustache?

Have you ever wanted to learn more about China, but were either unsure where to start, or didn't have the money or access? Our new supplement is designed to help. Join us as we discuss our personal picks for essential works on China. Wowkrs that are challenging, but not opaque, interesting, but not amusing. It's everything you need.

Here it is: part one in our new series! We're discussing the definitive writers of each decade in China's 20th century. Along the way, you'll get a mini tour of modern Chinese history, and see how literature played a part in its development.  This week? See how Wang Guowei and Wu Jianren were the writers who defined the last imperial decade in Chinese history.

We said we'd post something on the 24th, didn't we? And here it is. Just a friendly chat about some of the things that have changed for the podcast, and for us as podcasters and scholars.