"We can overestimate and underestimate how much things changed when Xi Jinping took power, but the intensity of concern over historical narratives has definitely grown under his leadership." - Jeffrey Wasserstrom In this episode, Jeremiah and David are joined by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California,…

In this episode of Barbarian at the Gate, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser are joined by special guest Karlis Rokpelnis, China country representative for the European Union's Euraxess Research Mobility Initiative. Together, they delve into the evolving landscape of international education in China, discussing the factors influencing the decline…

As David at least gets set for another semester, he and Jeremiah reconnect to catch up on a mix of timely topics from China and the US. They explore the declining number of Chinese students studying in the US and the cautious return of American students to China, offering insights and practical advice on how to introduce China to American students …

In this episode, Edward Wong, diplomatic correspondent and former Beijing Bureau Chief for the New York Times, joins us to discuss his new book, Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China. Edward’s father, Yook Kearn Wong, lived through the Japanese occupation and the Communist Revolution in China. Captivated by Mao’s vision of a powerful Chin…

In this episode, we welcome back a friend of the podcast, Jonathan Chatwin, to discuss his new book, The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future. Since the Emperor Kangxi made his southern tour in 1684, many emperors and Chinese leaders have undertaken similar inspection tours, including Mao, Deng, and Xi Jinping. Deng’s south…

This episode features a lively conversation with Fan Yang, Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, about her new book Disorienting Politics: Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements. The term “Chimerica” is a portmanteau word, blending “China” and “America.” The neologism denotes the econo…

This episode represents a new direction for the podcast, recorded on the eve of Jeremiah’s move to a new home base in Geneva. We start with a retrospective snapshot of the podcast’s beginnings – with many episodes recorded under the backdrop of COVID-19 – and then segue into our perennial concern, the plight of academic exchange in China, for which…

In this episode, John Alekna talks about his fascinating new book Seeking News, Making China: Information Technology and the Emergence of Mass Society. In 20th-century China, the gradual importation and development of information technology had an enormous impact on the way that news was disseminated and accessed by the general public. When radio f…

In this episode, we welcome back to the podcast our good friend, Alec Ash, who has written a fascinating book recounting a year spent in the city of Dali, Yunan Province. Unlike Alec’s previous book, Wish Lanterns, his new book, The Mountains are High, is a highly personal account of his attempt to find solace and healing after a pivotal emotional …

In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, our guest is Michael Wester, founder and publisher of True Run Media and The Beijinger. Mike is a long-time resident of Beijing, and we talked with him about running the city’s most-read expat publication, his experiences in organizing the “Safe and Sane” WeChat communities during the pandemic, and what th…

In this episode, we chat with Andrew Stokols, who is currently a Ph.D. candidate at MIT researching varieties of digital urbanism globally, with an emphasis on China. On the podcast, we briefly compare notes on the urban development of Beijing in the 21st century, including the contradictions between Beijing as a technologically advanced urban cent…

Has the Chinese government killed stand-up comedy in China? In May of 2023, a popular standup comedian made an innocuous joke in which he mentioned a phrase used to laud the fighting spirit of the People’s Liberation Army. The next day, a complaint from a nationalistic netizen resulted in the Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Company being fined a who…

On this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, I talk to Kristel Ouwehand, also known by her Tibetan language name, Tenzin Dolma, the founder of Snowland Academy in Gansu province where she lives with and teaches young Tibetan artists. Beginning at age 17, Tenzin traveled across Central America, Europe, parts of the Middle East, and the east coast of A…

Jeremiah kicks off the podcast with news that the decades-long Qing History Projectn being carried out by, among other institutions, Renmin University and the Chinese Academy of Social Science(CASS) seems to have been "put on ice" after the draft document produced by the team of Chinese historians was deemed as “politically unacceptable” by the aut…

In today’s episode, we talk with journalist and travel writer Thomas Bird about his latest book, The Harmony Express. Entering an uncertain new chapter of his life several years ago, Bird decided to embark on an exploration of the People’s Republic of China via the country’s vast web of railroad lines. In the spiritual footsteps of travel writers s…

Warning: GEEKY CONTENT Hosting solo in this week’s episode, David takes a geeky deep dive into the digital revolution in Chinese language learning in conversation with Chinese language pedagogy expert Matt Coss. The Sisyphean task of learning to write hundreds of Chinese characters has long been the bête noire of Chinese language students. The expl…

Isabel Nepstad’s passion for nature, food, and agriculture can be traced back to her childhood growing up in Belém, a city on the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Her connection to China dates to Isabel’s experience studying Chinese at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and economic development and environmental science at Yunnan University…

On this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, Jeremiah talks to Brian “DJ Bo” Offenther. From being the FKFDJ (First Known Foreign DJ) to play in Pyongyang since 1945 to putting together the first Elvis Festival in Mainland China, DJ Bo has been at the center of China’s music scene for over a decade. The self-proclaimed "Shanghai's #2 DJ" is a DJ and …

David and Jeremiah are on holiday this week, but we hope you enjoy this encore episode with educator Jiang Xueqin, originally released in February 2022. Contrary to the common stereotype that Chinese education is regimented and mired in tradition, the education system in China is actually one of the most dynamic sectors of Chinese society, with cor…

This episode of the podcast addresses a worrisome question: Is China’s “cultural space” shrinking? The recent crackdown on stand-up comedy content and the scrutiny of foreign musicians performing in bars have raised worries that other artistic domains will soon be targeted. Over the past decade, there has been a perception of a “death by a thousand…

In this episode, we welcome back Andrew Field to discuss his new book Rocking China: Rock Music Scenes in Beijing, Shanghai and Beyond. While having already conducted valuable research into the history of Shanghai jazz, in 2007, Andrew began a deep dive into the nascent Chinese underground rock scene of the early 2000s with the passion of a rock fa…

Fueled by too many red bulls (Jeremiah) and some pretty good pharmaceuticals following an emergency root canal (David), our intrepid cohosts throw caution to the wind and attempt to fix US-China Relations in a single podcast. For those outside of China, the ups and downs of this troubled bilateral relationship are sometimes felt as a rather abstrac…

This week we catch up with Jesse Appell, an English-Chinese standup comedy star better known to his more than 3 million Chinese followers as Ai Jiexi 艾杰西. Jesse talks about how he parlayed his Fulbright Fellowship research on Chinese humor into a stellar comedy career in China. Stuck in the US for several years during the Covid-19 crisis, Jesse had…

In this episode, we are delighted to talk with James Zimmerman about his new book, Peking Express: The Bandits who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China. The book is an enthralling account of a largely forgotten chapter in Chinese history, the harrowing 1923 raid on a luxury train by Chinese bandits and the ensuing 37-day…

In this episode, we are joined by Ben Cubbage, who calls in from the lofty heights of Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Ben co-founded Elevated Trips, an organization that offers specialized tours in the remote regions of Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, and Gansu provinces. As a passionate advocate for eco-friendly tourism, Ben emphasizes principl…