The China History Podcast

The history continues with the many exciting and historically consequential events of the mid-19th century. In this Part 4 episode, the history of Guangzhou takes a dramatic turn as the Europeans start showing up in greater numbers clamoring for more trade and more access to the China market. The Qianlong Emperor calls for the Canton System which leads to a number of "stepping stones" that ultimately results in the Treaty of Nanjing. And now with four additional treaty ports opened to trade, Guangzhou's importance starts to wane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history continues of China's great and historic "Window to the World", the city of Guangzhou. This time we pick up in the Yuan dynasty, where everything culturally, politically, and commercially picks up the pace going back to the Tang. Quanzhou in Fujian province outpaces Guangzhou as far as China's most important trade port. But that will change once we get the Ming and Qing dynasties. In this episode, the Europeans will finally, after more than 2,000 years, get their chance to get to know China face to face and up close. Needless to say, it didn't go too well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're picking up in the Tang Dynasty. Guangzhou continues its leading role as the gateway to Southern China coming from the South China Sea and beyond. Heaven is high and the emperor is far away. Despite its importance to the dynasty even in the 7th century, Guangzhou was still a place of banishment and not yet completely integrated with everything happening in the north. Arab and Persian traders and diplomats were regular visitors to Guangzhou and enjoyed a mini-golden age of cultural and commercial interaction. The Maritime Silk Road was in full bloom and Guangzhou was at the center of it. But all was not business as usual. Two violent disturbances will hit Guangzhou that shatters the peace. And Guangzhou's misfortune will become Quanzhou's opportunity. In this episode, we'll also look at the Southern Han Dynasty from the Five Dynasties Ten Kingdoms period that followed the fall of the Tang. Liu Yan based his dynasty in Guangzhou and left behind ruins and relics that are still around today. We'll finish off

Laszlo invited Kyle Anderson onto the CHP to discuss the life of the oft-called "Belgian Schindler" Qian Xiuling 钱秀玲. Kyle is the translator of the Xu Feng book "忘记我" (Forget Me) which details Madame Qian's incredible life, growing up in Yixing, Jiangsu, and later moving to Belgium for her university studies. She married, had a family, a career, and lived a quiet life until the German occupation of Belgium in 1940. Her story and the bravery and humanity she exhibited during the Nazi occupation earned her the moniker "Belgium's Schindler". Her's was a life worth knowing about, despite her modesty and wishes to be forgotten. The descendants of the hundred or so lives she saved back in the 1940s today number in the many thousands. The translated version of the book will be coming out soon. For now, please enjoy this conversation between Laszlo and Kyle Anderson as they introduce the life of someone you may not have heard of before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Part 1 episode of a multi-part series Laszlo introduces the most ancient history of the great city of Guangzhou. Long known as Canton in many places, this city has a history that is both fascinating and unique in China. In this installment of the series, we'll explore the early stories and legends from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Then we'll look at the period when the Guangzhou region first appears on the China map during the Qin. The story picks up the pace during Zhao Tuo's Nanyue Kingdom, a story told before in previous CHP episodes. Finally, we'll look at the Han and Three Kingdoms when there's no doubt about it, this part of southernmost China was here to stay and Guangzhou begins its integration with the rest of the Chinese nation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to Leigh for the inspiration to cover this sidebar to all the history happening during the end of the Qing and early Republic. This episode examines the lives of these late-Qing intellectuals who went to Paris, Tokyo, and other places to study alternative political systems that might be a good fit for China. Though anarchism works great only in theory, it was still an ideal these intellectuals aspired to. They sought to create a harmonious society where the people weren't persecuted or exploited by an oppressive government. The CCP ended up cherry-picking a few of these ideas that these anarchists wrote about in their journals and publications. These anarchists were the OG's of socialism and communism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Season 5 finale of my other show The Chinese Sayings Podcast going up yesterday, I wanted to include the season 5 opener of this show to the CHP feed just in case you haven't had a chance to check out this show. If you like the it, there are 50 episodes across 5 seasons for you to listen to! Search for The Chinese Sayings Podcast on your favorite podcast player and subscribe today! We're back with another season of wonderful and useful chengyu's for your Chinese sayings repertoire. Everyone knows this one. Well, maybe not everyone but it's pretty well-known. We ended last season in the Later Han Dynasty and that's where we'll start Season 5. Though this story was written during the Ming dynasty it concerns the 3rd Century character Sima Hui 司马徽. He was the original Hǎo Hǎo Xiānshēng 好好先生 who lived not to upset anyone or take a contrarian stance against anything that was ever said to him (by anyone). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this 301st CHP episode, we cover some more great Overseas Chinese history. Rather than biting off more than I could chew by taking on the bigger story of Chinese emigration to the Caribbean, the focus will be on the island nation of Jamaica. The Chinese Jamaican story is another Hakka story. Contained in this episode is just one sliver of the history of this great and musical nation. I hope this episode piques your interest. If you want to learn more about Jamaica you're in luck. Lots of great resources out there. I hope I can visit there one day and see it for myself. I flipped a coin to decide what pronunciation of "Caribbean" I would use for the episode. Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all fellow Yanks. Roifield Brown’s “How Jamaica Conquered the World”: https://open.spotify.com/show/53GxTOmpv0VLsIY426KYa8?si=f6eacb5b996a40d8&nd=1 Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1akUOJhf77cbKJveLHgxpy?si=7vj-VPKAQMyBj0GYXMtPKg&nd=1 VP Records: https://www.vprecords.com/ Learn more a

For this Milestone Episode in CHP history, we finish off our overview of the history of Chinese alchemy. Top billing this time will be the biggest name in the industry, Ge Hong 葛洪. Other notable alchemists and alchemical works will be introduced up to the Ming, followed by a Lightning Round of emperors who died by alchemical poisoning. Thanks to all of you who have supported me these past three hundred episodes and to all of you who discovered me only recently....永远感谢.

This is the first of a two-part series that will explore the history of Chinese alchemy. We'll look at the most important names of alchemists and the works they produced. The emphasis of this series will be on "Waigong" 外丹 External Alchemy. Hard to believe people ingested toxic heavy metals as long as they did to achieve immortality. In this Part 1 episode, we'll look at alchemy's most ancient origins and take things up to the end of the Han Dynasty. Next time in Part 2 we'll look at alchemy's most renowned practitioner in China, Ge Hong, and how alchemy evolved all the way to the end of the Tang. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm happy to welcome Dr. Brandon Gauthier onto the CHP. His new book, just out, "Before Evil" looks at the early lives of six dictators: Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, and Kim Il-Sung. In this discussion, we'll mainly look at Mao's early life. Despite only focusing on one of the six dictators, this lively chat runs for about an hour. Since I've never presented Mao in a standalone series, this is a nice talk about a topic not covered in any previous CHP episode. Link to purchase "Before Evil": https://www.amazon.com/dp/1948954613/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_X4V152TM2M5EA3N0F1G3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is another listener request. In fact, Homer Lea's been requested regularly throughout the years. He's more of a footnote from history than actual history itself. Homer's story is kind of unique because of the stumbling blocks life threw his way. He didn't live long but in his short life he got to witness a lot and be a sort of "fly on the wall" to some of the great moments in Revolutionary Chinese history that we're all so familiar with. So let's go relive those years from 1908 to 1912 and the walk-on roles Homer Lea got to play as history unfolded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laszlo welcomes Scripps College professor of music Dr. Hao Huang onto the CHP to discuss the stories of Jewish musicians from Germany and Austria who fled Europe and ended up in Shanghai. This is a companion episode to the six-part series on the Jewish Refugees in Shanghai (Episodes 208-213). Professor Huang discusses the trials and tribulations these musicians faced, stories of their survival, and the great legacy many of them left behind in China. GREAT BIG thanks go out to: CINEVISION GLOBAL INC for allowing us to use a sample of the original Chinese version of Rose, Rose I Love You, better known as Shanghai Rose. The Exilarte Center at the MDW - the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna for allowing us to use an audio sample of the Wolfgang Fraenkel, Drei Orchesterlieder / Three Orchestral Songs (1941) that composer Fraenkel wrote while he was in Shanghai Youtube channel Onkel Greifenklau for allowing us to use a sample of violinist Alfred Wittenberg the Allegro molto from Mozart's String Quartet

In this episode, we will finish up this overview of the relations between Rome and China. The Roman Empire in the West ended in 476. In this Part 2 episode, we'll look at relations between the Byzantine Empire and China during the Tang, Song, and Yuan. As you'll soon discover the Nestorians and then later the Catholics led by John of Montecorvino dominated official and unofficial relations between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Empire of China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is sort of a strange topic. In Part 1 we'll look at the early history that took place between the Han Dynasty and the Western Roman Empire. Before we tuck into the chicken ribs that are Sino-Roman Relations, I'll introduce you to the far-out theory that Professor Homer Dubs came up with in the 1950s. A lot of people swear this happened. Then we'll look at the famous Gan Ying mission of 97 AD and take it from there. In Part 2 we'll look at the events that happened mostly during the Byzantine Empire. Don't forget, to hear these episodes nice and early without commercials, sign up for CHP Premium here: https://teacupmedia.supercast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the title sounds familiar, that's because this is a new version of an old episode from 2014 that got pulled from the CHP back catalog. But here it is, newly recorded and enhanced. This episode looks at the Ma family of soldiers and warlords in the northwest provinces of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai. Their story began in the last years of the Dungan Revolt and concluded with the victory of the Chinese Communists in 1949. Please check the website for a cheat sheet that lists all names used in this episode. There are a lot of characters surnamed Ma in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Documentarian and podcaster James Harper of Filter Stories has joined up with history professor Jonathan Morris to produce a nice, short but sweet, six-part series that looks at the history of this aromatic psychoactive seed that, like tea, played no small part in changing the world. If you liked the tea history series, I warmly welcome you to go check this one out from James and Jonathan that examines the impact of the coffee trade on world history.  Behind that goodness that many of us enjoy once or several times daily, there’s a centuries-long history that is both fascinating and at times, quite dark. Like with the history of tea, many people in the first links of the coffee supply chain faced all manners of little-known human suffering. I invite you to listen. Only six episodes. Enjoy it with your morning cuppa. Did you know coffee is also produced in China? Yeah, the PRC is one of the top 20 producers in the world. Almost all the coffee in China is overwhelmingly grown in Yunnan Province, the same place

In this 293rd CHP episode, we feature the Sriracha Chili Sauce King, David Tran. His life is a great immigrant success story and an inspiration to many aspiring immigrants and entrepreneurs. It's not often that a living person is featured on the CHP. David Tran's ancestors came from the Chaozhou region of China and emigrated to Vietnam in the 19th century. After a traumatic turn of events that forced him to flee his country, he ended up on the US west coast. There he went on to build his dream and ultimately become another great American immigrant success story. His culinary creation, Sriracha chili sauce, and his company, Huy Fong Foods, became a huge sensation in the US and later, all over the world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Laszlo introduces the story of Olive Yang, 杨金秀. She was a Kokang Chinese born and raised around the border region of Myanmar and China. Her story took place in the Shan State of Myanmar. Though she was not someone of great historical impact on the times she lived in, she was part of a lot of the drama happening around her. She mixed with many interesting parties from the 1950s to the 1980s. This included Kokang royalty, KMT remnant armies, the CIA, and drug lords. For more content and ways to support the show, visit our website: teacup.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lu Xun's been on the long list of future topics since 2010 and I still haven't gotten to him. Why wait for me? Lee and Rob Moore of the Chinese Literature Podcast just launched a multi-episode series on the life and literary works of Lu Xun. Here is the introductory episode from Lee and Rob. You can listen to all the episodes of this guaranteed hit series at the Chinese Literature Podcast. See links below : The Official CLP Website: https://www.chineseliteraturepodcast.com/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chinese-literature-podcast/id1102235260 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ENZeuSqIjJwqVuYD5qiWp CLP on Twitter https://twitter.com/chinlitpod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2mr2HX2ZJl2bH5DFndD5TA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices