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 our consensus was “cautious optimism," while accepting an unsatisfying "new normal.” We sign off with future plans and ideas for the next phase of Barbarians at the Gate ..read more

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 first appeared in the early 1920s, less than 8 in 1,000 people had access to newspapers, whereas, by the time of the Mao period, hundreds of millions of citizens were receiving daily news and information via radio, TV, and shortwave technology.&n ..read more

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 crisis and his decision to disentangle himself from his urban Beijing life and escape to a simpler life in mountainous Yunnan Province. But Alec’s life in Dali was not completely hermitic. Quite the contrary, Alec found his new life interwo ..read more

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 the future holds for the international population of China’s capital. Later, Jeremiah surprises David and Mike with an announcement ..read more

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 center and an ancient capital city. Andrew also provides updates on the progress of Xiong’an, the digital “smart city” being constructed in Hebei province, as a showcase for Xi Jinping’s vision for urban development. The urban plan was initially unveile ..read more

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 whopping $2 million and the temporary shutdown of virtually all the standup TV shows and comedy clubs in China’s major cities.  The immediate aftermath of the incident also cast a pall over other entertainment venues, leading to increased s ..read more

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 Africa before settling in India. She stayed in India for 11 years, mastering the traditional art of thangka painting. She also learned to craft butter sculptures and sand mandalas, contributed as one of 30 artists painting a new prayer hall, and even ..read more

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 authorities. One of the specific objections to the project’s content was that it was “overly influenced by the New Qing History,” referring to a group of prominent Western historians who have used Manchu-language sources and new perspectives to offer a ..read more

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 explosion of digital devices and apps for processing Chinese characters is giving rise to a radical rethinking (no pun intended) of the handwriting and dictation components of Chinese language curricula. Matt Coss is on the front line of a n ..read more

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 while still an undergraduate. For over 11 years, Isabel has worked in the food and agriculture industry in the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands, and China. From 2011 to 2012, she worked as an Analyst for a Brazilian NGO, Alliança da Terra, in ..read more