About this podcast
NewsChina explores the perspectives driving today’s China and its people with a deep dive into the histories that shaped them.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 360 episodes
- Chiwan: Gateway to the Silk Road · 16 minToday, as Shenzhen welcomes APEC leaders, we’ll talk about how Chiwan’s maritime heritage of bay legends, sea trade glories and wartime ruins are intertwined with its current…
- Shao Piaoping: The Journalist Who Refused to Be Silenced · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Shao Piaoping, a pioneering Chinese journalist who challenged political power through fearless reporting, helped lay the foundations of journalism…
- Lin Shu: The Translator Who Never Learned a Foreign Language · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Lin Shu, a Chinese scholar who introduced generations of readers to Western literature without learning a foreign language himself. Through collaboration…
- Zhang Jiuling: A Poet, Prime Minister and Voice of the High Tang · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about the celebrated Tang poet and statesman Zhang Jiuling and how the recent discovery of his wife’s tomb has reunited two people separated by 1,300 years…
- Cangyuan Rock Paintings: Ancient Stories Etched in Red · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about the ancient rock paintings of Cangyuan in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, where red images of hunters, dancers and mysterious spiritual figures offer a…
- A City on a Scroll: Discovering 18th-Century Suzhou · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Prosperous Suzhou, an extraordinary 18th-century Chinese painting that captures the bustling streets, busy waterways and everyday lives of one of China’s…
- A Jade Seal, a Lost Emperor and a 2,000-Year-Old Silk Road · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about the tomb of Liu He, a Han dynasty ruler whose brief reign ended in disgrace, and how a tiny jade seal, along with thousands of other artifacts, is…
- Yuelu Academy: A Thousand Years of Learning · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about Yuelu Academy, a historic center of learning in central China whose 1,050-year legacy offers a window into the country’s intellectual traditions…
- Yunnan-Xizang Highway: Highway to Prosperity · 12 minToday, we’ll talk about how an important transport artery from Yunnan Province to Xizang Autonomous Region, following old trade routes, relieved social and economic isolation in…
- The Collector Who Gave Away Half the Forbidden City · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about Zhang Boju, the legendary art collector who sacrificed his fortune, endured kidnapping, and ultimately preserved some of China’s greatest artistic…
- Bronze Witness: How the Taibao Ding Tells the Story of Yan and Early Beijing · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about the Taibao Ding, a remarkable bronze vessel from the early Zhou dynasty whose story reveals the origins of the ancient state of Yan, the struggles of a…
- Jade Turtle: When Astronomy Met Astrology · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about a 5,000-year-old grave in eastern China and learn about the man with three identities buried inside it: he was an astronomer who measured the solstices…
- The Sacred Ladder: How China’s World Tree Fell from Within · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about how a sacred tree in ancient China was deliberately destroyed by its own worshippers, thus marking the end of divine kingship and the rise of secular…
- Buried for 3,000 Years: The Story of China’s Golden Sunbird · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about the Sun and Immortal Bird, a delicate gold ornament that unlocked the secrets of a lost Bronze Age civilization and, in doing so, became a symbol of…
- The Little Brick That Tells a Big Story About Chinese Math · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about a 2,000-year-old pottery brick in Shenzhen that preserves an ancient multiplication table and offers a glimpse into how mathematical knowledge spread…
- Yellow Crane Tower: A Landmark Rebuilt by Memory · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan’s iconic landmark with a story stretching back 1,800 years. It’s been a military watchtower, the subject of Chinese poetry, it’s…
- Shenyang Imperial Palace: Where a Dynasty Began · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about Shenyang Imperial Palace, a nearly 400-year-old royal complex that witnessed the rise of the Qing Dynasty, revealing through its distinctive architecture…
- A 2,000-Year-Old Joke, Frozen in Clay · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about a lively 2,000-year-old pottery performer from the Han Dynasty whose infectious smile, comic pose and love of performance offer a fascinating glimpse into…
- Jingdezhen: Glaze of Glory · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about how UNESCO has honored the world’s first porcelain-centered industrial heritage site—keeping the traditional flame alive and allowing it to continue…
- The Little Pot That Changed the Story of Rice and Civilization · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about a humble 20,000-year-old clay pot from Jiangxi that is helping archaeologists rethink the origins of pottery, agriculture, and humanity’s long journey…
- Mawangdui: A World Preserved for 2,000 Years · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about the Mawangdui Han Tombs, an extraordinary archaeological discovery that has preserved the life, art, beliefs, and remarkable story of an aristocratic…
- Bao Zheng: China’s Symbol of Justice · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about Judge Bao Zheng, a legendary government official during the Northern Song Dynasty whose unwavering integrity has made him an enduring symbol of justice in…
- The Blood, the Tears, and the Fortune: China’s Southern Exodus · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about one of the largest and most overlooked migrations in modern history, a movement of millions from China’s coast to Southeast Asia that lasted for…
- Luoyang Bridge: The Ancient Stone Giant That Defied the Tides · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about Luoyang Bridge, a nearly thousand-year-old stone bridge in southeastern China whose ingenious use of oyster reefs, tidal forces, and innovative…
- A Temple Built on a Miracle: The Living History of Kaiyuan Temple · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about a famed temple in Quanzhou, a thousand-year-old landmark where legend, maritime exchange, and cultural fusion converge to reveal the enduring openness of…
- Institution Behind Letters: Rise and Fall of Tianyi Post Office · 19 minToday, we’ll talk about Tianyi Post Office, the pioneering remittance and postal agency that connected overseas Chinese communities across Southeast Asia with their families in…
- Yongle Encyclopedia: Six Centuries of Mystery and Survival · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about the Yongle Encyclopedia, a monumental Chinese text dating from the Ming dynasty, and provide you with a fascinating narrative detailing its…
- Pearl S. Buck: A Bridge Between East and West · 17 minToday, we’ll tell the bittersweet story of Pearl S. Buck, the American Nobel laureate who lived in China for the first half of her life at the turn of the last century and how…
- Li Jingxun: The Most Spoiled Child in Chinese History · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about a new exhibition at the National Museum of China that tells the story of history’s ‘most spoiled child’, a girl whose tomb was sealed with her…
- She Wrote of Love, Then Watched a Dynasty Fall · 19 minToday, we’ll talk about Li Qingzhao, China’s greatest female poet, whose extraordinary life of love, loss, and resilience inspired some of the most beautiful verses in Chinese…
- Anne Swann Goodrich: The American Who Saved Beijing’s Paper Gods · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about an American woman who devoted nearly a century building bridges between cultures and preserving the paper gods, folk beliefs, and everyday spiritual life…
- The Dutch Diplomat Who Made a Chinese Detective Famous · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about how a Dutch diplomat who first reached China during WWII transformed ancient Chinese courtroom tales into globally popular detective fiction, bridging…
- Manila Galleon: From Silk to Silver · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about a new museum in the Philippines that brings to life the golden age of trans-Pacific sailing ships and the link to a Chinese port at the heart of this…
- Zhang Boling and the Dream of a Chinese University · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about the pioneering educator Zhang Boling and how he built a private education system in modern China while navigating war, politics, and shifting ideologies…
- Sanniangzi: The Mongolian Lady of Peace · 19 minToday, we’ll talk about an extraordinary stateswoman from the Ming Dynasty whose wisdom and courage ended nearly 200 years of border warfare, and how this remarkable female…
- A Shang Dynasty Zoo: What Animal Bones at Yinxu Reveal About Ancient China · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about a surprising discovery at Yinxu that suggests Shang dynasty kings may have raised tigers, elephants, and other wild animals in a kind of royal “zoo” more…
- Beyond the Legend: The Untold Story of the Epang Palace Ruins · 13 minToday, we’ll talk about the legendary Epang Palace Ruins and how modern archaeology has revealed that this iconic symbol of imperial excess was likely never completed or burned…
- Early US-China Relations: Monumental Gesture · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about a Chinese stone tablet that informs readers about early US-China connections, revealing the mutual respect and admiration that bridged oceans long before…
- Mulan: The Invented Hero Who Has Endured for 1,500 Years · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Mulan, a legendary heroine who has inspired the world for over 1,500 years by disguising herself as a man to take her elderly father’s place in the army…
- When Tigers Ruled the Wild: The Story Behind the Tiger-Devouring-Man Bronze · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about a rare bronze ritual vessel from the Shang dynasty decorated with the striking image of a tiger devouring a human, and how this powerful motif reveals…
- One Hundred Horses: An Italian Master in Imperial China · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione, who crossed cultural boundaries to serve three Qing emperors and created a groundbreaking fusion of…
- A Grain in the Sea: Liu Haisu and the Birth of Modern Art in China · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Liu Haisu, whose life and work over nearly a century helped to pioneer modern art education in China and forge a bold new path that blended Chinese…
- A Bronze Beast’s Journey: The Dowry That Traveled a Thousand Miles · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about a mysterious 3,000-year-old bronze vessel from China that once traveled as part of a noblewoman’s dowry, revealing how marriage, wealth, and political…
- Hall of Mental Cultivation: The Restored Heart of China’s Last Empire · 18 minToday, we’ll talk about the Hall of Mental Cultivation, a modest courtyard in Beijing’s Forbidden City that served for nearly two centuries as the living quarters and political…
- Luoyang Museum: Amplifying An Empire’s Eternal Echo · 13 minToday, we’ll talk about a newly opened museum that rose from the very earth containing evidence of a complex interplay between military conquest, ethnic integration, and…
- Niuheliang: The Ancient Discovery That Pushed China’s Civilization Back 1,000 Years · 15 minNiuheliang: The Ancient Discovery That Pushed China’s Civilization Back 1,000 Years Today, we’ll talk about Niuheliang, an ancient remote landscape north of the Great Wall that’s…
- Climate Pressure, Bronze Innovation: The Story of the Lotus and Crane Vessel · 15 minToday, we’ll talk about a magnificent bronze artifact from ancient China whose elegant design and innovative casting techniques reveal how craftsmen responded creatively to…
- Crossing the Impossible River: Mao Yisheng and China’s First Modern Bridge · 14 minToday, we’ll talk about Mao Yisheng, China’s pioneering bridge engineer, who devoted his life to building bridges that carried a nation toward modernity, and how his most famous…
- Wuwangdun: Rising from Ruin · 16 minToday, we’ll talk about artifacts from a Warring States-era royal tomb that reframe the story of a kingdom in decline to one of a magnificent and resilient culture, despite its…
- Painted on Stone, Scattered Abroad: The Fate of China’s Ancient Cave Murals · 17 minToday, we’ll talk about how China’s ancient cave murals were cut from desert walls, scattered across the world, and painstakingly reunited through scholarship, art, and digital…
