The China History Podcast

• Ep. 369 | Chenxiang, Pound for Pound, Costs More than Gold

  Here's something a little different from the usual CHP fare. It concerns a natural substance that's not too well-known outside of Asia, mainly because it's so dang expensive! Chénxiāng 沉香 or Agarwood as it's also known, grows inside the heartwood of certain Aquilaria trees. Chenxiang has a few interesting things about it and is often mentioned in Chinese literature. This episode includes a bunch of poems and a couple of chengyu's that all contain references to chénxiāng. While I was on the subject, I'm also mentioning five other trees that, while nowhere nearly as expensoive as chenxiang, were rare and precious enough to be driven to the brink of extinction. These four are Xiǎoyè Zǐtán 小叶紫檀, Hǎinán Huánghuālí 海南黄花梨, Lǎowō Dàhóng Suānzhī 老挝大红酸枝, Jīchìmù 鸡翅木, and Jīnsī Nánmù 金丝楠木.  You could have heard this episode three months earlier if you subscribed to the Official CHP Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheChinaHistoryPodcast CHP Premium: https://teacupmedia.supercast.com/ The Teacup Media Website: https://teacup.media/ Thanks to all of you for listening. Reach out to me anytime at [email protected].        

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• Ep. 368 | Wang Jingwei

  Hi Everyone, just coming up for air. This is actually one of the several new episodes that have been available on Patreon and CHP Premium since July, three months ago. This is a brief overview of the life and times of Wang Jingwei, the 中国头号大汉奸. Strong words. Why is he so despised? What drove him to make the decisions he did that forever branded him as a traitor to the Chinese people? He's another figure from those early ROC years that everyone has heard of but perhaps not so sure of the role he played in the history of that era. Enjoy. If the FOMO is making you lose sleep at night, consider subscribing below. Thanks!!! Laszlo's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheChinaHistoryPodcast CHP Premium:     https://teacupmedia.supercast.com/ Early access to shows. Ad Free. Easy and convenient access to Laszlo. 

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• Introducing The Chinatown Sting: Lucky Bird

  Here’s a preview of a new podcast, The Chinatown Sting, from our friends at Pushkin Industries. In the late 1980s, a group of women connected through the mahjong parlors in Manhattan’s Chinatown were caught in a massive undercover drug bust. But this bust was just the beginning of an even bigger case. Host Lidia Jean Kott and co-reporter Shuyu Wang interview sources who’ve never spoken on record before, including witnesses, defendants, and federal prosecutors, to reconstruct a case that still has repercussions today and impacted the history of American Chinatowns themselves, which developed to protect immigrants from a hostile society. Listen to The Chinatown Sting wherever you get podcasts and binge the entire season, ad-free, with a Pushkin+ subscription—sign up on The Chinatown Sting Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.

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• Ep. 367 | The Unsung Chinese Heroes of D-Day

  Here's another quickie for you, only a half hour long. It seems not only are the portions at fast-food chains shrinking, so are the CHP episodes. Thanks to a team of amateur historians, WWII enthusiasts, and survivors, this interesting tale can now be told. It concerns a forgotten man named Mr. Lam Ping Yu 林炳堯, who left behind a WWII diary from 1944 that was rediscovered by chance in 2015. I hope you'll enjoy this story. For more info, you can visit the website: https://www.dday.hk/.  Thanks to Mr. John Mak, Mr. Angus Hui, and Mr. Jackson Chan for telling me about this story in 2024. Photo Credit: Thanks to Mr. Frank Tsou.

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• Ep. 366 | The Guangxi Massacre

  This is a rather long episode, running at just about one hour. The Guangxi Massacre is one of those dark chapters from the Cultural Revolution. Down in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it was particularly dark. I was listening to Stanford Professor of Anthropology Andrew G. Walder on the New Books Network discussing his 2023 book covering this topic. That gave me the initial inspiration. Dr. Walder's book and a few others are very disturbing to read. I didn't dwell on some of the more gory and grotesque parts of this story. Hoowever, the books are all rather free with their descriptions of some of the atrocities committed. There's one excerpt I did include in the Patreon and CHP Premium audio. But I won't be including it in the regular CHP feed. This episode is particularly interesting because it involves a province other than the usual suspects along the coast. And it stars Wei Guoqing 韦国清, someone I'm guessing doesn't ring a bell. Let me know what you think. This was a painful episode to research and present.   Suggested Reading: Zheng Yi, “Scarlet Memorial: Tales Of Cannibalism In Modern China  https://a.co/d/89TkvH6 Andrew G. Walder, “Civil War in Guangxi: The Cultural Revolution on China's Southern Periphery”  https://a.co/d/8XWipif Yang Su, “Collective Killings in Rural China during the Cultural Revolution”  https://a.co/d/5BF7C2R New Books in East Asian Studies Podcast featuring Andrew G. Walder: https://pca.st/gh0p9udt Search for The Secret Archives About the Cultural Revolution in Guangxi《廣西文革機密檔案資料》  

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