Chinese Literature Podcast

There's only one decade whose representative writer we both agree on, and this is it. Debates are more fun, but really? It's hard to argue about Zhang Ailing.

This slim little volume has a whole lot packed into it. Not only does it give the reader a concise history of a crucial moment in Chinese history, but it also beautifully explains to a non-Chinese audience just why Du Fu was so brilliant. 

Who owned the 1930's: the author who gave us talking Martian cats, or the one who gave us a sentient decapitated head? Yes, it was a weird decade, was the 1930's. Join us to learn more!

The greatest scholar on China ever to emerge from the U.S. academy? That's Lee's line in the sand. But even Rob would agree you can't go wrong reading Jonathan Spence. Join the discussion and tell us what you think!

Lu Xun again? Really? Yes, really. But we still disagree. For Rob, the 1920's were Lu Xun's definitive decade. For Lee, it was the era of Ding Ling, who fired the opening salvo in what would become a century of powerful, innovative female writers. 

Who was the most important Chinese writer of the 1910-1919 period? Was it Li Dazhao, and his experiments with prose poetry and Marxist theory? Or was it Lu Xun, with his adaptation of Russian realism to a Chinese context? And who, most importantly, had the best moustache?

Have you ever wanted to learn more about China, but were either unsure where to start, or didn't have the money or access? Our new supplement is designed to help. Join us as we discuss our personal picks for essential works on China. Wowkrs that are challenging, but not opaque, interesting, but not amusing. It's everything you need.

Here it is: part one in our new series! We're discussing the definitive writers of each decade in China's 20th century. Along the way, you'll get a mini tour of modern Chinese history, and see how literature played a part in its development.  This week? See how Wang Guowei and Wu Jianren were the writers who defined the last imperial decade in Chinese history.

We said we'd post something on the 24th, didn't we? And here it is. Just a friendly chat about some of the things that have changed for the podcast, and for us as podcasters and scholars. 

Today, we have a guest, Antonio Leggieri on the podcast to talk about his phd research on the late imperial novel Guzhang Juechen.     

The 三字經, usually translated as the Three Character Classic , is a fascinating text because it functions like a "my first Confucian text." Children were given this text when they were quite young and asked to memorize the book, teaching them moral lessons that would prepare them to master the real Confucian classics later in life. In this episode, Rob and Lee debate the first few lines of the po...

Today, Rob is off doing research in China, so Lee interviews Professor Van Norden. Professor Van Norden is a philosophy professor at Vassar, and he works on early Chinese philosophical texts. He recently published a textbook for learning Classical Chinese (文言文). The book is the outgrowth of Professor Van Norden's teaching, and he seeks to make Classical Chinese more approachable than do other t...