Popup Chinese

We've all heard about the difficulty of finding good schools in China, and know first hand about the food and air safety problems. But what about the terrors of pedestrian crossings, the dilemmas of how much trust you should inculcate in your kids, or how much abject poverty should be included in family outings? For our answers to these questions and much more, join Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser for this no-holds-barred and boys-only discussion of what it's like to be a father in China. Enjoy Sinica? If you'd like to have Kaiser and crew show up automatically on your computer whenever a new episode of Sinica is published, you can subscribe to our RSS feed by opening iTunes, selecting the option "Subscribe to Podcast" from the File menu and providing the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica when prompted. We also welcome listeners to download this show as a standalone mp3 file. Thanks for listening, and enjoy!

This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy are joined by Colin Chinnery from the Beijing Sound History Project, a recording project that aims to preserve the distinctive clangs, songs and shouts of traditional Beijing life. In addition to sampling some recordings from the archives, we also talk about Chinnery's work with the Shijia Hutong Museum, which recreates life in the narrow hutongs of Old Beijing. Have thoughts? Once you've done listening, please share your thoughts in our comments section, or write us at sinica@popupchinese.com. We encourage everyone to subscribe to the Sinica show through RSS as well. You can do this by opening up iTunes, clicking on the "Advanced" menu and selecting the option "Subscribe to Podcast". When prompted, copy the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica into the box. Or download this show as a standalone mp3 file.

This week on Sinica, Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser are pleased to be joined by Sascha Matuszak, a Chengdu-based expert on Chinese martial arts and the producer of a new documentary on Chinese MMA, a competitive tournament series where competitors combine different styles from varying schools of combat in a frenzied quest to pummel their opponents into submission. Enjoy Sinica? If you'd prefer to have new episodes of Sinica stream to your computer automatically as they're released, subscribe to our special RSS feed using iTunes. Alternately, you can get into the spirit of Daoism and download our shows week-by-week as we release them: this podcast is available for download right here as a standalone mp3 file. We also welcome feedback on our shows as well as suggestions for future guests or topics by email directly to Kaiser and Jeremy at sinica@popupchinese.com.

Rather than a regular podcast, today we are pleased to publish a longer Elementary dialogue designed to test your listening comprehension. The language used here is not terribly difficult, but it is spoken at native pace and with the sort of emotional inflection you'll find living and working in China. So take a listen and click through to our quiz to see how much you understand. Our annotated transcript is there as always in case you have difficulty.

Kaiser and Jeremy are joined this week by Mara Hvistendahl, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and long-standing resident of Shanghai, to discuss her two main works. Along with discussing the twists and turns of her murder novel, And the City Swallowed Them, we also touch upon on law enforcement in China, the global modeling industry, the parallel lives of ex-pats and migrant workers in big Chinese cities, and the different philosophical approaches to punishment. Also, we look into sex-ratio imbalances around the world and its diverse adverse social repercussions, the topic Mara explores in Unnatural Selection. You like listening to Kaiser and Jeremy as much as we do? Subscribe to Sinica through our private RSS feed, or download this show as a standalone mp3 file to share with your friends. If you have questions or suggested topics, feel free to reach out to us anytime by email at sinica@popupchinese.com.

With the Alibaba IPO throwing daytraders worldwide into a frenzed adulation of all things China, and the press going wild over Jack Ma and his Chinese e-commerce engine, this week's show takes a closer look at Taobao - the jewel in the Alibaba crown - with a hard-hitting quiz covering the most important things no-one seems to be able to remember about our favourite shopping site. Also on the show: questions about Beijing and the secrets of Uighur time.... Quiz Night is a regular feature here at Popup Chinese that we've put together for intermediate to upper-intermediate students. And our goal is not so much teaching anything in particular so much as producing a half-mandarin, half-english show that features higher-level vocabulary you won't run into in other learning materials. Today, join us and learn everything from the name of Goldman Sachs in Chinese, to the essential catchphrases needed to outsource your thesis to somewhere south of Wuhan.

This week on Sinica, Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser are joined by Fan Popo for a discussion of the way life works for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community in China. For those who have not heard of him, Fan is an accomplished film-maker and social activist, best known as author of the book Happy Together, a complete record of 100 queer films, as well as the director of the China Queer Film Festival. If you like this show, give a thought to subscribing to Sinica through our private RSS feed, or download this show as a standalone mp3 file to share with friends. Finally, if you have questions or suggested topics for the show, please feel welcome to reach out to us anytime by email at sinica@popupchinese.com.

Through many countries and over many seas I have come, dear brother, to this futuristic society in which you live, only to find myself astonished and humbled by its paradoxical embrace of social monitoring tools which seem to assure social order, yet also remain respectful of individual privacy and democratic rights. But alas! What is that pale cry? From whence comes that demonic shriek which fills the air with groans of woe, and strikes my soul with fear? Learning Chinese? This is a fairly easy beginning lesson that covers the basics of asking and answering questions, such as asking what things are. We also give you a great phrase you can use to make yourself seem more understood, and help you apologize as you push yourself off the subway. So if you're just getting started with mandarin, check it out!

With the recent capture of a Chinese ISIS solder triggering speculation about the involvement of Chinese citizens in the Iraqi civil war, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn are joined in our studio by Edward Wong from the New York Times and Prashant Rao of AFP, both of whom have spent considerable time reporting from Iraq. Their discussion starts off with an expose on the nature and identity of IS before moving on to China, talking about the ways in which the rise of the militant Islamic movement has affected Iraqi perceptions of China, and then a look into how these events relate to the broader crisis in the Middle East and US-China relations. As always, if you enjoy Sinica, let us remind you that you can download this episode as a standalone mp3 file. Everyone is also welcome to subscribe to our Sinica RSS feed through iTunes, or get in touch with us at sinica@popupchinese.com with suggestions about topics and guests you'd like to see on the show.

The government had first dismissed rumours of the city's impending water scarcity, yet as the months dragged on and the supply trucks grew less and less frequent, public denial morphed into slow acceptance as the city baked. In time, even the moat around the Forbidden City drained to nothing, its dry stones picked clean by the dessicated husks of those who remained, parched shadows of their former selves. Learning Chinese? This is an upper-level recording that features an original movie trailer. If your Chinese is getting up there, take a listen and see how much you understand. While we don't walk through the recording line-by-line, David and Grace do point out some of the more difficult bits, including some revolutionary language you may not yet know. So take a listen and let us know what you think.

Remember the good old days when people did not talk obsessively about real estate and housing prices, and dinner parties would feature conversations about art? Well so do we, but with those days long gone, we're delighted to host two experts on the real estate market in China, who join us for a show that looks into the current state of China's most famous ghost towns from the last decade as well as the retail space with mall development and more. Joining host Jeremy Goldkorn for this discussion are Rob Schmitz, China correspondent for the American Public Media's Marketplace show, who shares his personal experience visiting famous ghost cities like Ordos and who will tell us what they are like these days. Also in the studio is Timothy Coghlan, a long-time China hand who is an expert in the luxury and fashion industries and currently works as an expert on the real estate market for Savills real estate consulting company. Please note: all listeners are warmly invited to download this show as a standalone mp3 file. We also encourage anyone who wants to be notified when new episodes are released to subscribe to our custom iTunes feed. Questions and comments are also always welcome at sinice@popupchinese.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

This week, Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are delighted to host Jeremiah Jenne, Director at The Hutong, Beijing’s premier cultural exchange center, for a conversation that picks apart this country's obsession with "Chinese characteristics" and asks whether this is empty rhetoric, or something that actually matters. In the process, we wade back to Imperial efforts to reconcile the "essence" of China with "practical" Western technologies and ideas (中体西用). Have your own thoughts? Share them in the comments section below, or write to us at sinica@popupchinese.com. And remember, to subscribe to the Sinica show through RSS, just open up iTunes, click on the "Advanced" menu and select the option "Subscribe to Podcast". When prompted, copy the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica into the box. If you'd like to download this mp3 directly from our site you can also grab it as a standalone mp3 file. Enjoy!

“梦想是很单纯的”、“当你无法左右这个世界的时候，就去创作吧”、“妈妈，我希望下辈子你可以做我的女儿，这样我就可以像你爱我一样来爱你”……今天，让我们一起走近朱婧——一位才华横溢的创作歌手，去了解她与音乐的不解之缘，去聆听她歌声背后的一个个平凡、真实又感动人心的故事。那时，那人，那天籁般的歌喉……

This week on Sinica, Jeremy and David welcome back Kaiser to remember the life and lessons of his father, Jenkai Kuo (Guo Jingkai) (郭倞闓). He was an upstanding man who spent much of his life dedicated to his passions, none more important than his family. From the beginning, he formed a strong self-identity as Chinese and, after raising his family in America, dedicated himself to building bridges to China. Trained as a Mechanical Engineer at National Taiwan University, Ohio State University and the University of California, Berkeley, Jenkai was known for his intellectual prowess and steadfastly worked on his inventions until his passing. Coming to see himself as living in two worlds, Jenkai reconciled this with integrity and ferocious logic, two traits which stood out to those who met him. His profound love for his family and country(ies) can be seen through his evolving views on justice as well as his lasting legacy of Sino-US identity. The spirit and quality of a man of Jenkai’s ilk is rare, and on what would have been his 82nd birthday, we are proud to hear some of his life as chronicled by his son, Kaiser. Enjoy Sinica? If you'd like to download the show without playing it through our on-site player, please feel free to grab the standalone mp3 file. You can also use any RSS feed reader to subscribe to this podcast and get updates automatically: just use our dedicated feed which can be found on http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica here at Popup Chinese.

Xiao Wang strained to tighten the security strap around her luggage, pressing her knee against the bulging fabric to muscle the suitcase closed. She was not sure when or how packing had become this problematic. For while she had long ago become accustomed to the need for travelling light, it nonetheless seemed that there was somehow more and more to pack for each trip.