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.
When classes first convened on June 16, 1924, China’s first modern military academy aimed to reunite a divided nation. It didn’t quite work out that way.
A series of controversial social media posts claim the Party is censoring the past to preserve its legitimacy in the present. Why is the Cultural Revolution such a sensitive topic these days?
The Republic of China Military Academy, better known as the Whampoa Military Academy, only spent six terms on Changzhou Island, but those six terms between 1924 and 1927 were a crucible from which some of China’s most influential 20th-century political and military leaders emerged.
Probably the most commonly asked question in my classes is “What was Mao’s deal?” It’s a tough question to answer, even for folks from China. Approach ten people in a Beijing park, ask them about Mao and be prepared to get ten wildly different answers.
Retroactively outing a historical figure remains problematic, not because of the sex — Zhou Enlai may well have had erotic relations with other men — but because such studies are often methodologically flawed.
In an article on censorship in the PRC published in the LA Times, historian Tim Brook argues China fetishizes signs of legitimacy, it's a fun phrase and worth considering.
The CCP calling somebody out for being unable to accept historical responsibility is like Chris Brown putting his arm around your shoulder in a club and saying, “Dude, you really need to chill around your lady.”