This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Villanova University historian Andrew Liu. Andy published an excellent essay in n+1 magazine in April that captured how the eclipse of the "wet-market" theory of COVID origins and its replacement by the "lab-leak" theory illustrates how an old racial form — "Orientalism," which sees countries of Asia as backward, dirty, and barbarous — gave way to what's been termed an "Asiatic" racial form, which reflects anxiety over Asians as hyperproductive, robotic, and technologically advanced.
3:05 – Andy's n+1 essay on the lab leak theory and the two racial forms
6:26 – A primer on Edward Said's Orientalism and why it's a poor fit for Asia today
10:41 – The "Asiatic racial form" and the notionally "positive" Asian stereotypes
13:58 – How Orientalism and the Asiatic racial form interact today and historically
23:50 – Conspiracies on China, and what's wrong with the Asiatic form
27:51 – Japan's rise as a parallel
30:57 – How to talk about Chinese attitudes toward tech without invoking Asiatic stereotypes
37:27 – Race, culture, and global capitalism
A full transcript of this podcast is available on SupChina.com.
Recommendations:
Andy: Stay True: a memoir by the New Yorker writer Hua Hsu and donating to abortion providers in states affected by the end of Roe v. Wade:, like Abortion Care for Tennessee, abortioncaretnd.org
Kaiser: The Danish political drama Borgen on Netflix
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Political Scientist Iza Ding on Authoritarianism, Legitimacy, and "Resilience"
The View from China: Leading IR scholar Da Wei of Tsinghua's CISS
Did Netflix's Adaptation Ruin The Three-Body Problem?
Live from AAS in Seattle: What has become clear to you recently?
Back to the Future: David M. Lampton and Thomas Fingar on What Went Wrong and How to Fix It
Kerry Brown: on What does the West Wants from China, and the Exercise of Chinese Power
Historian Rana Mitter on ideology in China's "New Era" — live from Salzburg, Austria
Schwarzman Scholars Capstone Showcase: The 2023 Winners
The Ukrainian Factor in China's Strategy: a roundtable
Peter Hessler, live at Duke University's Nasher Museum
This Week in China's History: The Qing Abdication — February 12, 1912
Sinica comes roaring back in the Year of the Dragon: A chat with Jeremy Goldkorn
Live from New York: China and the Global South, with Maria Repnikova and Eric Olander
In Memoriam: Jeffrey A. Bader, from February 2022
Live from Chicago: Decoding China — China’s economic miracle interrupted?
Robert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on the morality of U.S. China policy
China Tobacco: How China's tobacco monopoly also has ensured that China keeps smoking
The Philadelphia Orchestra commemorates the 50th anniversary of its groundbreaking China tour
Ian Johnson on "Sparks," his new book on China's underground historians
U.S. Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) on his new U.S.-China policy white paper
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free