Podcast
New Books in Chinese Studies
Hosted by New Books Network · EN
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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38episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Weipin Tsai, "The Making of China's Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation" (Harvard UP, 2024)
6d ago00:58:12Tap to summarizeHow did a vast, nationwide institution like a modern postal system come into being in Qing China—right at the very end of the empire? In The Making of China’s Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation (Harvard University Press, 2024), Weipin Tsai takes up this question by tracing the origins and early development of China’s postal system. The book asks not only how such an institution was built, but why it emerged when it did and in the particular form it took. In doing so, Tsai situates the post office within the Qing’s broader efforts to modernize, showing how its development intersected with political maneuvering, imperial pressures, and changing ideas about the nature of the state. The Making of China’s Post Office examines both the high-level decisions and the ground-level operations that shaped the system’s creation and expansion. Tsai pays particular attention to the economic and social pressures that drove its growth, as well as the everyday work of postal employees, including the nitty-gritty of routes, logistics, and administration. This dual focus allows Tsai to show how the circulation of mail depended on the interplay between central ambitions and local realities, while also uncovering the work that happened at the local level. Tsai’s book offers a new perspective on China’s encounters with imperialism, efforts at centralization, and changing conceptions of governance. In following the routes and emerging and routines of the post, The Making of China’s Post Office delivers a rich account of how a modern communications network took shape. This book will be of interest to readers of modern Chinese history, as well as those working on global histories of infrastructure, communication, and the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Charlie Qiuli Xue and Arwen Yingting Chen, "American-Designed Shopping Malls in China" (Hong Kong UP, 2026)
1w ago00:52:34Tap to summarizeChina’s remarkable journey from poverty to becoming the world’s second-largest economic power is marked by extraordinary urban growth and consumption capacity of its urban population. Central to this development fervor are multifunctional commercial complexes and shopping malls, now key features of modern urban districts. The concept of shopping malls, originally introduced to China by American architects in the 1980s, has since flourished on an even larger scale than their American counterparts. American-Designed Shopping Malls in China (Hong Kong University Press, 2026) by Dr. Charlie Qiuli Xue and Dr. Arwen Yingting Chen delves into the origins of shopping mall development in the United States after World War II, tracing how American architects exported this building type into China’s rapidly evolving urban landscapes, particularly in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, and Guangzhou. Using primary sources, statistical analyses, and illustrated case studies, the book explores the evolution of shopping malls as a consequence of China’s profound economic, social, and cultural change over the past four decades. The book also highlights the impact of American consumerism on the everyday lives of Chinese people, altering not only consumer patterns but also local architectural practices. This tale of transformation is essential reading for anyone interested in China’s rapid urban development. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Chunmei Du, "Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
2w ago00:55:04Tap to summarizeChunmei Du is an Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of modern China, specifically looking at cross-cultural encounters and the lived experiences of ordinary individuals during periods of profound political transition. In this New Books Network episode, we chat with Du about her latest book, Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2025). While many Anglophone histories about the “loss of China” focus on high-level diplomacy and grand strategy, Everyday Occupation zooms in the street-level micropolitics of a brief period between 1945–1949 when American troops were stationed in post-WWII China. The book explores the daily friction between American soldiers and Chinese civilians—from traffic accidents involving jeeps to the sensory shocks from urban odors—and their impact on Chinese sentiments towards the US. Du reveals how these everyday encounters helped pave the way for the communist takeover of China, and continue to cast a shadow over modern US-China relations. Anthony Kao is a writer who intersects international affairs and cultural criticism. He founded/edits Cinema Escapist—a publication exploring the sociopolitical context behind global film and television—and also writes for outlets like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, and Eater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Mengqi Wang, "Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market" (Cornell UP, 2026)
3w ago01:04:47Tap to summarizeAnxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market (Cornell UP, 2026) is a study of the power that shapes the forms of the homes Chinese citizens strive for and the possible paths they may take to realize their home ownership dreams. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Mengqi Wang discusses how the Chinese real estate industry functions in the everyday, welding aspirational middle-class families, especially migrant families, to the property-owning class and the urban growth machine. Urban housing was a socialist benefit in China until the market reforms and privatization in the 1990s. Today, most Chinese citizens consider homeownership a necessity rather than an economic privilege. Wang analyzes the making of homeownership ideologies through "inflexible demand" (gangxu)—a concept that real estate brokers, developers, homebuyers, and the government in China use to craft homeownership as indispensable for fulfilling dreams of urban citizenship. The ethnography shows that gangxu helps to articulate diverse attempts to accumulate value through housing at China's urbanizing city periphery, while giving shape to a housing-based, postsocialist right to the city. Anxious Homes argues that homeownership does not necessarily engender independence but suggests further inclusion of citizens within the dominant regime of accumulation. Mengqi Wang is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interests include economic anthropology, urban anthropology, political economy, gender studies, and science and technology studies. Yadong Li is an anthropologist-in-training. He is a PhD candidate of Socio-cultural Anthropology at Tulane University. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Evan N. Dawley, "Taiwan: A People′s History" (Reaktion Books, 2026)
3w ago01:10:45Tap to summarizeWhile most English-language histories of Taiwan focus on its geopolitical role, Taiwan: A People’s History (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Evan N. Dawley centres on the people of Taiwan themselves and explores how they have formed a unique polity, telling the story of the Indigenous Taiwanese, the Hoklo and Hakka who came from China before the twentieth century, Japanese colonialism and the Chinese who arrived after 1945. Dr. Dawley describes how successive waves of immigration changed Taiwan and how these diverse groups of Indigenous tribes and settlers interacted economically and culturally, creating new Taiwanese identities in the process. Over the last century Taiwan has developed from an authoritarian state to one of the world’s most vibrant democracies and advanced economies. It is a successful independent society, albeit one whose existence remains under a shadow. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Gregg A. Brazinsky, "Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
3w ago00:46:10Tap to summarizeIn this major new interpretation of Sino-North Korean relations, Dr. Gregg A. Brazinsky argues that neither the PRC nor the DPRK would have survived as socialist states without the ideal of Sino-North Korean friendship. Chinese and North Korean leaders encouraged mutual empathy and sentimental attachments between their citizens and then used these emotions to strengthen popular commitment to socialist state building. Drawing on an array of previously unexamined Chinese and North Korean sources, in Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance (Cambridge UP, 2026), Dr. Brazinsky shows how mutual empathy helped to shape political, military, and cultural interactions between the two socialist allies. He explains why the unique relationship that Beijing and Pyongyang forged during the Korean War remained important throughout the Cold War and how it continues to influence the international relations of East Asia today. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Charles L. Glaser, "Retrench, Defend, Compete: Securing America's Future Against a Rising China" (Cornell UP, 2025)
4w ago00:59:26Tap to summarizeIn Retrench, Defend, Compete: Securing America's Future Against a Rising China (Cornell UP, 2025), Charles L. Glaser advances a thought-provoking strategy for securing vital US interests in the face of China's rise. Many believe China's ascent will drive it to war with the United States. Yet this is far from inevitable; geography and nuclear weapons should ensure US security. The real danger, Glaser contends, lies in East Asia's territorial disputes, especially over Taiwan. To reduce the risk of war, Glaser makes a bold case for ending US security commitments to Taiwan and carefully calibrating its policies on protecting South China Sea maritime features. The United States should also strengthen its alliances with Japan and South Korea and eliminate unnecessarily provocative nuclear and conventional weapons policies. These measures, Glaser argues, would defuse China's biggest security concerns while preserving America's core strategic interests. Fusing theoretical insights with policy analysis, Retrench, Defend, Compete lays out a distinctive and compelling approach for managing the world's most consequential geopolitical rivalry—before it's too late. Our guest is Professor Charles Glaser, who is a Senior Fellow in the MIT Security Studies Program. His research focuses on international relations theory and international security policy, including U.S. policy toward China, nuclear weapons policy, and U.S. energy security. Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →J. Michael Cole, "The Taiwan Tinderbox: The Island-Nation at the Centre of the New Cold War" (Polity, 2025)
May 600:55:17Tap to summarizeJ. Michael Cole is a Taipei-based security analyst and writer who has spent over two decades documenting Taiwan’s political and security landscape. A former analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), he is a Research Fellow and Executive Editor with the Prospect Foundation in Taiwan, and advises various private and governmental actors. He is also a Senior Non-Resident Fellow with the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, D.C., the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, and the University of Nottingham’s Taiwan Hub. In this episode of the New Books Network, we chat with Cole about his latest book, The Taiwan Tinderbox: The Island-Nation at the Centre of the New Cold War (Polity, 2025). Starting with the Sunflower Student Movement and rise of Xi Jinping, the book explores why the Taiwan Strait has become such a “tinderbox”, and surveys various tactics that the People’s Republic of China has used to destabilize Taiwan. With the Ukraine War’s shadow looming, Cole also examines the prospects of conflict between Taiwan and China, and discusses various means through which Taiwan and its liberal democratic allies can build resilience and interconnection. Anthony Kao is a writer who intersects international affairs and cultural criticism. He founded/edits Cinema Escapist—a publication exploring the sociopolitical context behind global film and television—and also writes for outlets like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, and Eater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Through the Lens of Taiwan: Film, History, and Identity
Apr 30Tap to summarizeThis podcast episode is hosted by Mart Tšernjuk, the Taiwan Coordinator at the University of Tartu Asia who is talking to Prof. Robert Chen, a leading scholar of Taiwanese cinema, discussing the relationship between film, history, and identity in Taiwan. Drawing on Chen’s teaching experience at the University of Tartu, he highlights how Estonian students engage deeply with Taiwanese films, particularly due to shared historical experiences of colonisation and political repression. This common ground allows students to connect emotionally with themes such as trauma and national identity, especially in films addressing the White Terror period. Chen emphasises that understanding Taiwan’s cinema requires strong historical awareness, as film history closely mirrors Taiwan’s broader political and social development. Unlike other East Asian film industries, Taiwan’s cinematic identity is shaped by its complex colonial past, multicultural society, and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Language also plays a crucial role, reflecting shifts in identity from a China-centred perspective toward a distinctly Taiwanese consciousness. Aesthetically, Taiwanese cinema, especially the New Cinema movement, is characterised by realism, long takes, and a contemplative style that resonates globally. Directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien create stories with universal themes, allowing international audiences to relate to Taiwanese experiences. Chen also discusses King Hu’s films, which blend action with Buddhist philosophy, emphasising harmony with nature and the concept of emptiness. In contrast, films about the White Terror demonstrate how cinema helps process collective trauma and educate younger generations. While earlier films treated these topics with gravity, newer filmmakers approach them more lightly, making them more accessible. Ultimately, Chen suggests that films such as Dust in the Wind capture the essence of Taiwan through universal coming-of-age narratives, offering an accessible entry point into understanding Taiwanese culture and cinema. Robert Chen (陳儒修) is a Professor at the Department of Radio and Television at National Chengchi University in Taipei. He earned his PhD in Cinema-Studies from the University of Southern California (USC) and is a prolific author, known for foundational works such as Historical Memory and National Identity in Taiwan Cinema. Throughout his career, he has taught and researched extensively on how national identity and historical trauma are projected onto the silver screen. Robert is currently visiting University of Tartu as the Taiwan Chair. He is teaching a course "Culture and Politics in Taiwan Cinema". Mart Tšernjuk is the Taiwan Coordinator at the University of Tartu Asia Centre. He is also a lecturer in Chinese language and culture at the Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures, and President of the Estonian Academic Oriental Society. He has lived and studied in Hong Kong and Taiwan. --- Chen’s selection of films for introducing yourself to the history of Taiwan cinema: The Mountain (1962) depicts young people living under a repressive atmosphere. Raining in the Mountain (by King Hu, 1979) Super Citizen Ko (by Wan Jen, 1995) Dust in the Wind (by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986) The Skywalk Is Gone (2003) explores modernity and urban alienation and shows how Taiwan undergoes similar modernisation processes as Estonia and other developed countries. The Electric Princess House (2007) brings the focus back to Taiwanese cinema itself and connects to the shared experience of watching films in theatres. As well as Raining in the Mountain (by King Hu, 1979); Super Citizen Ko (by Wan Jen, 1995); Dust in the Wind (by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Transcribe →Ker Gibbs, "The Fragile Dragon: Trade, Trump, and China's Vulnerabilities" (Earnshaw Books, 2026)
Apr 2500:56:38Tap to summarizeThe Fragile Dragon offers a unique exploration of China's rapid transformation and its evolving commercial relationship with the West. Drawing on the author's experience as president of the American Chamber of Commerce under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden, the book examines key business and political developments from both Western and Chinese perspectives. The narrative intertwines the story of his family -- including an opium addict, an American codebreaker, and a Chinese revolutionary -- with broader geopolitical themes. As an American businessman of Chinese ancestry, the author had firsthand access to leaders on both sides and provides insightful analysis on why tensions between the US and China have escalated, threatening global commerce and stability. Finally, the author offers guidance on how business people can think about China, and what it takes to succeed, whether it's navigating the narrow corridor between what China wants and what the US will allow, partnering with rather than competing against local players, or structuring businesses to minimize risk if a catastrophic event takes place, as appears more and more likely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
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