Trump's re-election disappointed many in the U.S. and abroad. To help them process, Jeremiah and David talk with literary translator and Pennsylvania voter Brendan O’Kane about Zhang Dai, the Ming-Qing transition, and living through an age of upheaval.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom joins Barbarians at the Gate to discuss the legacy of the Hong Kong protests, Xi Jinping’s patriotic education law, and how Beijing’s control over historical narratives is reshaping academic engagement with China.
How China transitioned from imperial rule to Chinese Socialism and all about the key characters whose opposing visions for China's future created so much chaos along the way.
A supernatural crisis pits an anxious autocrat against his own functionaries when a hunt for soul-stealing sorcerers turns into a political witch-hunt among 18th-century China’s “deep state.”
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gates, Edward Wong of the New York Times joins David and me to discuss Ed's new book, At the Edge of Empire. We discuss frontiers, what the Qing Dynasty means for China, and the different generational perspectives on China's recent past.
While “The Brickening” has so far mostly affected commercial properties, including wiping out many well-known and beloved food and beverage institutions, the next phase in Beijing’s ongoing urban rejuvenation will start to affect residents of areas designated as historical and cultural conservation zones. These areas are mostly located within the Second Ring Road north of the Forbidden City.
The forced eviction of some of Beijing’s most vulnerable residents has sparked a backlash with even Chinese state media offering (albeit tepid) criticism of the city’s handling of this latest round of “urban renewal.”
But it’s not just Beijing’s poor and migrant communities which are being affected. Many international residents are feeling the pinch as well.
