The China History Podcast

Laszlo's back from Germany and after a long delay we pick up where we left off. In this episode we reacquaint ourselves with the background and early years of the Silk Road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Triads of Hong Kong have an interesting historical past that shaped their development throughout the years. Today we look at their origins and some of the more important historic events that made them the violent international criminal gangs they are today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that we have Deng Xiaoping out of the way, we're back looking at random topics throughout the ages. This week we look at the great Song Dynasty statesman and sage Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072). In this episode we'll review aspects of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and Ouyang Xiu's place in this amazing age. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we conclude our eight-part overview of Dr. Ezra Vogel's recent biography of Deng Xiaoping. In this installment we focus on Deng's dramatic and brilliant Southern Tour of January-February 1992. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a holiday delay, Laszlo is back with the 7th and almost final episode of our overview of Ezra Vogel's new biography of Deng. In this episode we look at the meat and potatoes of the Reform years from 1979 to 1989. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this sixth installment of the Deng Xiaoping overview, we focus on 1978-1979. In this episode we see Deng return to power a third time. Deng immediately throws all his energy into advancing the cause of modernization in China.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode looks at the exciting events that all went down in 1976. Deng Xiaoping is on the defensive thanks to his 1975 policies to revive the nation. But a concatenation of events will happen starting on January 8 and ending on October 6 that will both bring Deng back and rock China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a bit of a delay, this week we look again at Deng Xiaoping and his struggles during the Cultural Revolution Years from 1966 to 1975. Seems we still have a long way to go yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today in Part 3 of our Deng Xiaoping overview we look at The Great One's life from 1952 after his return from the Southwest Bureau all the way up to the start of the Cultural Revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time we continue on with our overview of the great leader Deng Xiaoping. We pick up in 1937 with the invasion by Japan, the civil war, and the founding of the PRC. We examine Deng's achievements all the way up to 1952, the year he left the Southwest Bureau and returned to Beijing to serve as Vice Premier and to take the lead, with Mao, Zhou, Liu Shaoqi, and others in building the PRC from the...

Laszlo is happily back in Cali with a new episode that looks at the early years of Deng Xiaoping. Most of the narrative is based on passages gleaned from Ezra Vogel's new biography of The Great One.  Inspired by the events of May Fourth, 1919, Deng Xiaoping was a lifelong revolutionary and by the end of his days had personally seen to it that China ended up the nation it was meant to be on the wor...

This time we take a look at four Westerners who committed their lives to the People's Republic of China. These four foreigners, Agnes Smedley, Anna Louise Strong, George Hatem and Israel Epstein were all friends of China and were admired by China's leaders. Upon their deaths they were given the honor of internment at China's continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

Today we jump over much of the history of the 1940′s and zero in on the moment when the PRC was officially established on Oct 1, 1949. Today's podcast episode offers a general overview of the first year of the PRC and some of the multitude of challenges Mao and China's new leaders faced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we head back to modern times, we look at the mythological beginnings of the Chinese people and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. This period preceded China's legendary Xia Dynasty and the beginnings of Chinese recorded history in the Shang. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we look at the immortal Zhou Gong, the Duke of Zhou. If he isn't the most revered person from Chinese history, he's certainly in the top three. He guided the earliest years of the Zhou Dynasty through treacherous times. Zhou Gong was responsible for building a great amount of the foundation from continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode runs a little long as there won't be anything for the following week. Today's episode looks at the life and interesting career of Sir Robert Hart (赫德), an Ulsterman from Northern Ireland. For most of his life he lived in China in the employ of the Zongli Yamen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mid-Autumn Festival takes place every year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese calendar. This year that date falls on September 12. The Chinese world will be celebrating the holiday in very much the same way that generations have enjoyed going back to ancient times. Families will get together and stroll continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to RL in Hefei for the inspiration, this week we take a look at China and Japan's difficult history. We focus on the historical events that led to "2,000 years of friendship and 50 years of confrontation," as CPCCC member Zhao Qizheng 赵启正 said recently in the People's Daily. We look at the background continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're back with more history. We look at the Shanghai Massacre of April 12, 1927. This was the defining moment when Chiang Kai-shek and his allies and supporters made a bloody break with the Communists.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1920′s in Republican era China was anything but quiet and uneventful. In this episode we focus in on the general situation in China during the period of the early 1920′s. This was a time when the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and KMT (Kuomintang) were in the same bed dreaming their different dreams. It was continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We close out our little overview of Daoism by looking at the most powerful and popular Daoist deities. In this episode you will meet the Three Pure Ones and the Eight Immortals with a focus on Lu Dongbin and Zhongli Quan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Daoism this week. We look at Zhuangzi and trace the development of Daoism during the classical age from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, Laszlo tackles Daoism, a philosophy, a religion and a way of life that everyone has heard about but not everyone learned the backstory. This time we look at the history and the times that spawned this most fertile of philosophies. In later episodes, we'll dig a little deeper and look more at continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we have some lighter fare than usual. Nine months ago we looked at one great Hong Kong tycoon, Li Ka-shing. Today we look another. In this episode we look at the life and career of entertainment mogul Sir Run Run Shaw and the Shaw Brothers organization. Born in Ningbo in 1907, along with his continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's another oldie from 2011 that was published to coincide with the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. This was released before Xi Jinping was made General Secretary of the Party and before the Party began insisting the naming convention of the Party be changed to CPC. CCP was  seen by the Party as a Western-influenced abbreviation that carried negative Cold War–e...