Stuck in the Middle Kingdom with You

And so we are at an end. Summer break was here, relations with the school were in the gutter, but I'd signed a contract for next year and was effectively trapped. The only way out was to concoct a cunning scheme, and that's exactly what I did... *cackle* 谢谢，再见 亚当 Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast

As I was planning my escape from the Cradle, Lisa was just settling in. How did her experience compare to mine? From her home back in the USA, she told me her story.   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast

In this penultimate episode, the foreign teachers meet for one last time at Brew Kettle, and as the booze takes effect a certain clarity appears.   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

We're almost at the end of this troubled tale and, because few stories end as dramatically as Lin Biao's, I think it's time to revisit the ailing marshal and find out how it all went so wrong. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

The year end is nigh. School holidays approach. The question to renewing the contract has come. What should a paranoid, anxiety-addled teacher do? Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

We cycle through the wetlands of Jiangnan to the water town of Jinxi, muse a little on the contradicting feelings of restriction and freedom in China, and then get into the story of modern Tibet. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

It's Easter in Changshu, and an Easter Egg hunt at school goes hopelessly off the rails. Also, the festival of Qingming, and the Chinese story of creation – with a giant rabbit called Pangu. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast Song: 'I am the Sea' - Epic Pirate Battle Music, supported by #TheROOMnoCopyRMusic

A change in the teacher line-up has been taking place following the surprising dismissal of teacher Tyler. The new clan heads out to a nightclub, where I get some advice about dealing with Dodi. (dubious accent alert) Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast  

In episode 1 of this three-parter, China was alarmed at Soviet attempts to live alongside the Americans; and in part 2 those attempts went into reverse as the Cold War reached its peak temperatures. In the final part, we follow the secret mission of Henry Kissinger as he went to China to make contact after 25 years of silence, and how the new Sino-American relationship shook up the final decades o...

Part 2 of 3 in a Sino-Soviet Split miniseries, and it's time for the hopes for peaceful co-existence between the Americans and the Soviets to be roundly dashed, much to the satisfaction of a certain Chairman over in Beijing. Next time, how the Chinese capitalised on the situation for their own ends. Music in this episode:  Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony Cuba Baion by Kurt Drabek Russians by Sting...

If only the two big communist powers had gotten on, perhaps they could have stuck it to the Americans during the Cold War, but it wasn't to be. Personalities and ideologies got in the way. In this first part of an SMKY doublepod, we look at the period leading up to the split in the early 60s. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast  

China might be a big scary communist country to people in the West, but for Neo-Maoists the country has lost its way, and sometimes it seems that communism in China is more of a nostalgic indulgence. Apart from Mao, Lei Feng is the mascot of commie merchandise.  We also take a trip into the Humble Administrator's Garden, and the Suzhou Museum, before a dramatic race for the bus. FYI: Songs that fe...

As we head back to Suzhou, we look at the story of the ancient city and make sense of all those Wus associated with the area. We then dive into the local tourist hotspot at Shantang Street, it's poetry and nostalgia, for dinner. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

A number of curious phrases have popped up lately in China, as a new internet-native generation join the workforce and find themselves getting knocked about by office politics and social pressures.  In this episode, a Shanghai-based worker joins me to explain these terms. Sang culture - 丧文化 Lying flat - 躺平 Let it rot - 摆烂 Neijuan - 奶卷 Touching fish - 摸鱼  

After visiting the harsh cold countryside for the Lantern Festival, I get back to the school only to be thrown into more office politics. But compared to the Chinese workers, laowai work is pretty tame. Let's explore that a little. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

Having returned from the winter break, I head off into rural Jiangsu to spend the Lantern Festival in Lily's Town. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @AdamSMKY

Picking up at the end of the last episode, today Grade 7 teacher Penny and I travel to the epic Yangtze River, and we get stuck in to the Opium Wars. Not Britain's finest moment, that. And we discover why Penny left a note under my door while I was sick.... Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @AdamSMKY  

It's time to recall the Opium Wars that began China's Century of Humiliation. After the lofty heights of the Ming expeditions with Zheng He's epic fleet, the Chinese lost their ability to rule the waves. This episode details the prelude to the first Opium War, how the British set up their drug trade and why they did it. Next episode, battle commences. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodca...

As Winter Break approaches, I take a trip to the biology department.   And a new guy starts at the school...   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

Today we go back in time to find out about "China's most respectable prostitute", and the winners and losers in the concubine system.  Also, the dramatic end of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing! And #MeToo in China, or #RiceBunny... Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast  

As events in the school take a curious turn, we turn to the topic of love, sex and marriage in China. How have the ruptures of the modern age changed this part of life? Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @AdamSMKY

It's time to go back to the school, where the dawning of a new year gives this troubled teacher a chance to reset the clock, and begin afresh with a new positive spirit. Or something. Meanwhile, one teacher makes an untimely departure, and the prospect of romance is in the air. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: SMKYPodcast

To conclude this two-parter exploring how Mao's ideas manifested outside China, we look to the world of the hippies and stoners and idealists. Why did this strand of Marxist thinking, with its emphasis on the peasantry and anti-imperialism, appeal to the relatively comfy students, activists and thinkers of the developed West? Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast 

Does Maoism really deserve all the criticism that it gets? Er, yes. Yes it does. For some it was a fad, but for others it became a way of life which endures to this day. Over the next two episodes, we’re going to have a look at Maoism, from the bad to the very bad. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast  

On the past few episodes of SMKY, we covered some of the challenges in modern China with regard to the competition, guanxi and ruthlessness which infuse the culture. China is indeed a competitive society where relationships matter more than anything, and one-upmanship is the name of the game. But, despite Xi Jinping’s cult of personality, the situation now is nothing when compared to the headiest...