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)
Chipko: India’s tree-hugging women
Darfur's ethnic war
When the Taliban ruled Kabul
North Korea's 1990s famine
Supernatural sightings
The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race
When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor
The war on drugs
Amilcar Cabral: an African liberation legend
When Egypt said Enough
Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline
The IRA hunger strikes
The killing of Osama Bin Laden
How the NRA became a US political lobbying giant
The first woman in the US Supreme Court
The women who reclaimed the night
Black Jesus
The History Hour
The History Hour
The women of Egypt's Arab Spring
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It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins