Chinese Literature Podcast

Mao Zedong - Soaked Garden in Spring - Snow

This episode, the podcast takes a look at a poem Mao Zedong wrote in February 1936, after he and his party had undergone the near-death experience of the Long March. Yet still, Mao has the gumption to imply in the poem that he would be the greatest ruler China had ever seen.    My Translation of the Poem: Spring in a Soaked Garden - Snow The north country scenery, frozen over for a thousand miles, snow floating for ten thousand miles.    I look inside and outside the Great Wall of China,  all that remains is boundlessness.    Up and down the Yellow River, it has suddenly lost its surging vigor.   The mountains dance like silver snakes, the plains gallop like white elephants,  I want to compete with Heaven and see which of us is taller.    I must wait for a clear day,  and look at the snowy landscape wrapped in red and white, it’s really bewitching.  The rivers and mountains, this land, is so pretty, it has brought out countless heroes to compete and serve the nation.   Pity Qin Shihuang, the first Chinese emperor, and Han Wudi, the greatest Han emperor, their writing ability ain’t all that good.    Tang Taizong, the greatest Tang emperor, and Song Taizu, the greatest Song emperor, they kinda lack style.    Those northern barbarian rulers,  like Genghis Khan,  all they knew how to do was shoot arrows at big eagles.    Those guys are all dead, if you want to count the true badasses look to today.     Original Poem:  沁园春·雪 北国风光，千里冰封，万里雪飘。望长城内外，惟余莽莽；大河上下，顿失滔滔。山舞银蛇，原驰蜡象，欲与天公试比高。须晴日，看红装素裹，分外妖娆。 江山如此多娇，引无数英雄竞折腰。惜秦皇汉武，略输文采；唐宗宋祖，稍逊风骚。一代天骄，成吉思汗，只识弯弓射大雕。俱往矣，数风流人物，还看今朝。

Fox Butterfield Interview - First Post-1949 - New York Times Correspondent in China

This episode is a special one. The podcast has a conversation with Fox Butterfield, the first correspondent for the New York Times after 1949. Mr. Butterfield set up the Beijing Bureau for the New York Times in 1979 and was the bureau chief from 1979 to 1981.  Mr. Butterfield started studying Chinese in 1958, and was a student of John Fairbank.  In this episode, I got the priveldge of interviewing Mr. Butterfield at his home. We talked about his experience with John Fairbank, his friendship with Senators John McCain and Joe Biden, his work on the Pentagon Papers and many other topics.   

Mo Yan - Explosions

In today's episode, we look at a work that tackles the controversial topics of aborition and the One-Child Policy. Today's story, by Nobel-Prize Laureate Mo Yan, watches a father/government official after his wife becomes pregnant with a son. Their first child, a daughter, is not good enough for the official's dad, he wants a son. But the official is tasked with enforcing the One-Child Policy, China's draconian rule that each family was only allowed to have one child. We watch as the official forces his wife to get an abortion while explosions happen all around them. 

Hao Jingfang - Folding Beijing

"Folding Beijing" is one of the most talked-about science fiction stories to come out of China since Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang's story is about a Beijing divided into three parts. First Space is for the rich, Second Space is for the middle class and Third Space is for the poor, who clean up after First and Second Space Beijing. The three spaces never exist simultaneously, but rather when First Space is open, Second and Third Space are folded up and put away. A man, struggling to put his daughter through school, agrees to take up an illegal job to smuggle a message from Second to First Space.  This is a story that is fascinating because it is all about class, even though China has been run by the CCP for almost a century. Join the podcast as we get folded into Third Space and find ourselves in a new world. 

The Greatest Fart Joke in Chinese History

Today, we are looking at a story involving Su Dongpo, who was the butt of the greatest fart joke in all of Chinese history. The story involves Su Dongpo, the Song Dynasty's greatest poet, and a Zen Buddhist named Buddha's Stamp.