Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
To mark 50 years since the discovery of the Terracotta Army, we're exploring modern Chinese history.
We hear from the man who helped to modernise the Chinese language by creating a new writing system. It's called Pinyin and it used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words.
Our expert guest is the writer, Mark O'Neill, whose book 'The Man Who Made China a Literate Nation' forms the basis of a great discussion about historical language changes throughout history.
Plus, a first hand experience of life in labour camps during Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution and the women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial army during the 1930s. This programme contains disturbing content.
Contributors: Mark O'Neill - writer Zhou Youguang - linguist Jingyu Li - victim of Mao Zedong's labour camps Peng Zhuying - survivor of sexual slavery Yuan Zhongyi - archaeologist Dr Li Xiuzhen - archaeologist Simon Napier-Bell - manager of Wham
(Photo: Terracotta Army. Credit: Getty Images)
Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa
Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns
The history of art heists
Swedish History
Seventy-five years of Nato and the Heimlich Manoeuvre
Finding early vertebrate’s footprints and the Deaflympic badminton champion
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
Whisky wars and the Lord of Sipan
Skiing and two-headed dogs
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
Inspirational black women
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
Traitors and treachery
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
The first lesbian couple to get married and World Laughter Day
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
Pad Thai, kiwis and the chef Ken Hom
Tsunamis and Caster Semenya
Mandela's funeral and Tsar's reburial
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Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
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Elis James and John Robins