On the latest episode of Barbarians at the Gate, David Moser and I discuss new directions. We reflect on our COVID-era episodes, discuss the current situation on academic exchanges in China with cautious optimism, and outline future plans for the pod.
David and Jeremiah speak with Mike Wester about running @thebeijinger, organizing the “Safe and Sane” communities during the pandemic, and the future of expats in Beijing. Also, Jeremiah surprises David and Mike with an announcement.
David and I discuss what's going on with the Qing history project, a controversy about Genghis Khan in France, and how PRC continues punching back against potentially problematic pasts.
20 years after “Shangri-La” was coined in the Western imagination, a Russian adventurer published a memoir from the valley of Lijiang, southwest China, that is strikingly similar yet a world apart.
In 1916, an American activist and writer traveled to China from the frontlines of World War I. What she saw in the city delighted her; what she saw in the opium trade appalled her.
Chinese history — very distant and very near — is filled with people who did not, and do not, abide by the government's "official" version of events. Ian Johnson gives them a voice in his latest book, Sparks.
“The success of US-China relations relies on forging relationships at a personal level,” writes Jeremiah Jenne reviewing John Delury’s “Agents of Subversion” and Terry Lautz’s “Americans in China."
From the Cultural Revolution and Chinese millennials to the Kangxi Emperor and hutongs, this list of books to read on your trip through Beijing will keep you entertained, informed, and enlightened.
Who will shape China’s youth narrative—millennials, or the Westerners who can’t stop writing about them? A review of Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World by Zak Dychtwald.