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)
Storming the Stasi HQ
The Computers for Schools revolution
The book that warned of an end to civilisation
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Romanian revolution
The Cuban writer who defied Castro
The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking
I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests
Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean
Britain's secret propaganda war
'Jane' - the underground abortion service
The fall of the Berlin Wall
An environmental history special
Black British history
The birth of the People's Republic of China
Fighting the Islamic State group online
The Cambridge spy network
Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war
The outbreak of World War Two
The Kindertransport children
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It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins