China Books Podcast

Епизоди

• Murder in Hong Kong with Simon Elegant 02.06.2026 32мин

  The Hong Kong-born novelist and journalist talks us through his new novel "City on Fire," a whodunnit thriller set against the 2019 protests. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ancient Chinese Politics with Daniel Bell 05.05.2026 38мин

  The Legalists and Confucians still run the show in today’s China, argues a scholar of classical Chinese thought — but the Mohists and Daoists still have a voice in the debate. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Confucius and Women, with Erin Cline 07.04.2026 37мин

  Misogyny and patriarchy are a later misreading of The Analects, argues the author of a new translation of the Confucian classic. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Chinese Comedy with Jesse Appell 03.03.2026 46мин

  The bilingual comedian talks us through the traditional “xiangsheng” form of Chinese comic repartee, and explains whether Beijing can take a joke. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Islamic China with Rian Thum 03.02.2026 37мин

  Islam has been part of China’s religious and cultural fabric for over a millennium, yet often it is seen as a foreign element. The author of a new study explains just how wrong that is. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Chinese Horror with Xueting C. Ni 06.01.2026 30мин

  Horror writing has an unsavory reputation in China, but comes with a long history and is full of biting social commentary. The translator of a recent collection explains what lurks beneath. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 27: Sex, Scams and Sorcery with Bruce Rusk and Christopher Rea 02.12.2025 38мин

  Tales of trickery were popular in the late Ming dynasty. The translators of a new collection explain how they still resonate today. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 26: Chris Horton on Taiwan’s History and Present 04.11.2025 43мин

  Colonized by the Dutch, Qing China and Japan, the island of Taiwan has a complicated past and a tense present. We invited the author of a new primer to lay it out for us. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 25: Timothy Thurston on Tibetan Satire 07.10.2025 34мин

  Tibetans inside China have found various ways to push back against Beijing and voice their dissatisfaction. A lesser-known form of subtle resistance is the art of “zurza,” or satirical repartee. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 24: China Conspiracy Theories 02.09.2025 31мин

  From Covid as a bioweapon to Chinese soldiers infiltrating America, Alexander Boyd discusses the right-wing conspiracy theories that lead our ranking of bestselling China books. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 23: Mark Kitto on Shanghai in the 2000s 05.08.2025 30мин

  The author and former media mogul explains why he chose fiction as the best way to capture Shanghai’s go-go years in his new novel. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 22: Michael Luo on the Chinese-American Story 01.07.2025 37мин

  The New Yorker writer discusses his new history of the Chinese in America, and immigrant identity from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Trump. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 21: Jenna Tang on Taiwan’s MeToo Movement 03.06.2025 30мин

  We talked to the translator of a novel that helped launch #MeToo in Taiwan, about why both the movement and the book are having a second wind. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 20: Linda Jaivin on the Cultural Revolution 06.05.2025 42мин

  The writer and China watcher talks us through her microhistory of Mao’s last decade in power, and its relevance to Trump’s MAGA movement. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 19: Steven Schwankert on the Titanic's Chinese Survivors 01.04.2025 38мин

  The author of "The Six" tells us about the Chinese survivors of the Titanic, and how they were met with racist scorn on arrival in America after the disaster. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 18: Lijia Zhang on Women’s Stories 04.03.2025 39мин

  The memoirist and novelist talks us through her grandmother and mother’s stories, as well as her own, and discusses how the status of women has changed in China through the decades. The China Books Podcast is a companion of China Books Review, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and The Wire China. For any queries or comments, please write to info@chinabooksreview.com.
• Ep. 17: Lau Yee-Wa on Hong Kong Fiction 04.02.2025 35мин

  We talked to the author of "Tongueless" about how Cantonese is disappearing from Hong Kong schools, and what literature can do to raise awareness. Our guest this month is Lau Yee-Wa, one of Hong Kong's most exciting emerging fiction writers, whose debut novel Tongueless (The Feminist Press, 2024) came out in English last summer, translated by Jennifer Feeley. Lau studied literature and then philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she also started writing poetry. She worked as...
• Ep. 16: Oriana Skylar Mastro on China’s Challenge to the U.S. 07.01.2025 44мин

  As 2025 gets into gear, all eyes are on the year ahead, with a degree of trepidation (or excitement, depending on whom you ask) for the early impacts of the incoming Trump administration on U.S.-China relations, and global politics at large. From the Ukraine war to possibility of conflict across the Taiwan Strait, not to mention economic and diplomatic conflict across the Pacific, it’s a fresh era of uncertainty. To unpack these risks, our guest this month is the academic and author Oriana Sk...
• Ep. 15: Paul French on Wallis Simpson's China Year 03.12.2024 36мин

  The American socialite Wallis Simpson is best known as the wife of former British king Edward VIII. When they announced their intention to marry, her status as a divorcée (and an American) caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication in 1936. But long before that, Simpson's adventures had led her to spend a year in interwar China, from 1924-25, while fleeing her abusive first husband and allegedly transporting U.S. diplomatic documents. Later maligned by the British press fo...
• Ep. 14: Kishore Mahbubani on the Asian Century 05.11.2024 36мин

  In this episode, we’re pleased to have had the opportunity to talk to Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean former diplomat who was Singapore’s representative to the UN in the 1980s and 1990s, and later Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore. Mahbubani is the author of ten books on Asia and the world, most recently Living the Asian Century (2024). Though the book has a broad scope, we focused more generally on China in this conversation, given our remi...