Lee Moore talks about Chinese Literature.
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Today, in the second podcast in the Sima Qian series, we take a look at some of the first literary evidence we have for the Nan Yue, the People of the Southern Yue, the ancestors to modern-day the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in China and the people of Vietnam. Sima Qian describes the Han Dynasty's colonial conquest of the Yue in vivid detail…
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Today, we take a look at Sima Qian's Biography of the Capitalists, chapter 129 in the Records of the Historian. This chapter is Sima Qian's two-millennia old defense of free market capitalism. The chapter is one of the most interesting his oeuvre because Sima Qian was condemned for it by later historians.…
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Sima Qian is not only the first historian in Chinese history, he is also one of the greatest writers that China has ever produced. Today, writers of Kung Fu novels point to Sima Qian's stories on fighters and assassins as the origins of the Kung Fu genre. Chinese business people point to his "Biography of the Capitalists" as the reason why Chinese …
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Today, we do something different. We take a look at a children's book that was originally written in English, and then translated into Chinese. Strangely, the translation into Chinese was done in a way that took the English and translated it into classical poetic forms that hark back to the Tang Dynasty. Journey with me to find out how deeply Chine…
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Today, in our last episode of the year, we look at 1079 when Su Dongpo was tried for a poem. Bitter partisan fighting, liberals versus conservatives...except for the great poetry, this Song Dynasty fight might remind you of something closer to home.By Chinese Literature Podcast
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Qiu Fengjia - Taiwanese or Chinese Nationalist?
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18:06
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Today, we look at Qiu Fengjia, a Taiwanese-born Mandarin, who, in 1895, upon hearing that Taiwan had been given to Japan as a part of the Treaty of Shiminoseki, wrote a poem expressing his sadness and confusion. We discuss that poem and Qiu's larger legacy.By Chinese Literature Podcast
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Qiang Flute - Interview with Zhang Yanshuo
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33:53
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Today, we have an interview with Professor Zhang Yanshuo, a scholar at Pomona College who studies a group of people that have existed on the peripheries of Chinese soceity for several millennia. The Qiang are a group of people who exist in China today, but also who have records discussing them as early as the Oracle Bones of the Shang Dynasty 3,000…
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Wang Anyi - I Love Bill - Interveiw with Todd Foley, the Translator
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34:24
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Today we have a great interview episode with Todd Foley, an adjunct professor at NYU and the translator of Wang Anyi's book, I Love Bill and Other Stories. Our discussion of this fascinating author was a deep dive into Wang Anyi's novella, I Love Bill. Todd's translation just came out.
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The Book of Poetry is the earliest work of Chinese lyric poetry in existance. But it has a reputation as being a bit fusty. Today, we are going to explore the naughtier side of the anthology.
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The third in the series on the Book of Poems, this episode looks at the mythological poem on the birth of the god of agriculture, Lord Millet.
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Cao Xue's The Hut on the Mountain - Nobel Rerun?
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19:52
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Can Xue is the odds on favorite for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature tomorrow. Rob and I did a podcast on her way back in 2018, and I am rereleasing it in honor of her consideration. Whatever the choice of the Swedish Academy, Can Xue has already won in my heart.
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Today is part two of the podcast series on the 詩經, the Book of Poems. This episode looks at Those Tender Peaches, a highly sexualized poem talking about more than peaches.By Chinese Literature Podcast
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Today, we are taking a look at a poem from the oldest extant work of Chinese literature, the Shijing (Book of Poem) Today's poem is a poem about rats, but also a poem about government, and it is the first in our series on the Shijing.
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Today's episode is a joke. No really, we are looking at a joke that is making the rounds on Weibo. This is a joke that is very opaque, but that opacity points to how autocracy in China works today.
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One of the world's great philosophers meditates on the value of being useless with a parable about an old, ugly tree.
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Did you know that in the 13th Century a Chinese emperor and a Tibetan monk tried to get rid of Chinese characters and create a universal script, one writing system to write every language in the world. Today's podcast is about that writing system, Phags-Pa.By Chinese Literature Podcast
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Rise of the Mongols - Interview with Professor Christopher Atwood
1:00:53
1:00:53
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Today, Lee has a fascinating interview with Professor Christopher Atwood, of the University of Pennsylvania. He studies the Mongolian and Chinese Frontier, and he recently published The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources. Lee and Professor Atwood talk about the book and, more broadly, the early Chinese experience with the Mongols.…
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In this episode, a century-old Lu Xun story, Kong Yi Ji, has become popular again. The story reflects the struggles of youth unemployment in modern China. The story blows up on the Chinese internet. A rap song reinterprets that story, addressing contemporary issues like education and working conditions. The story demonstrates that Lu Xun remains re…
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A Taiwanese lesbian begins using dating apps, finds the love of her life, and then realizes she is not the love of her life, but decides to marry her any ways. You won't want to miss this week's episode is a strange look at marriage and death.
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Today, we look at the somber poem of a Foxconn worker, Xu Lizhi. His poem, "A Screw Falls to the Ground," is a masterclass of how modern Chinese poetry is able to live up to the standards set by classical Chinese poetry. In this episode, I try to discuss what role the author's biography plays in how we interpret their poetry.…
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This is the first in a two-part mini-series on the screw in modern Chinese literature. Yep, that is right, the screw, the humble tool which binds the world. This week, I am looking at a passage in Lei Feng's diary on how he wants to be a screw for the Revolution, with a capital R.
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Mr. Close Enough...Mr. Cha Buduo. He never seems to get things quite right, but he represents everything China is about. This is his story, a short, sardonic piece by the scholar and UN Ambassador Hu Shi. In some ways, Mr. Close Enough echos Lu Xun's Ah Q, in other ways it is the polar opposite of that story.…
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Xu Xu - Bird Talk - Interview with Frederik Green
59:19
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Xu Xu is a writer who was very famous in the 1930's and 1940's. He lived in China until 1949, he was one of the country's most important writers during this period. Then, after the victory of the CCP, he, fearing for his safety, left for Hong Kong. He continued to write but drifted into obscurity. Professor Frederik Green at San Francisco State Uni…
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