Popup Chinese

"I can't believe you still haven't covered Sweden!" Living on the front lines of our ongoing battle to disregard user feedback, and particularly feedback that requires expending effort, Gail was upset about our prolonged disregard of the requests of not just one but two of her more Nordic students. But while the wheel of podcast production may grind slowly, it grinds very fine indeed. So here you go Sweden. And here you go Ikea. And here you go Fridtjof and Ragnvald.... And how about you? Do you have any ideas for a topic we haven't covered yet? While we don't suggest getting your hopes up in the short-term, let this episode stand as testament that not only will we do our best to eventually and somewhat laggardly produce stuff that people keep harassing us about, but that we will also somewhat concomitantly find world experts on the topic to help make the materials stick. So don't be afraid to email us, or - better yet - praise us online somewhere in an authentic but perhaps marginally spammy way, mentioning almost in passing that if only (if only!) we also had a lesson on __________ then there wouldn't be any reason for any sane person not to listen.

A casual survey suggests that 98 percent of Sinica listeners have at some point joined Chinese friends or family in watching the annual television spectacular known as the Spring Festival Gala. Sadly, whether from excessive pork consumption or the mildly sedative effects of baijiu, the same percentage report occasional difficulties making it through the entire show.... That's excuse enough for Sinica to take a look back this week, asking not only whether this year's show was any good, but how we think the show will last and what its change in direction this year under filmmaker Feng Xiaogang tells us about the priorities of the new administration. Joining Kaiser for this discussion is Alice Xin Liu from the Chinese translation magazine Pathlight as well as David Moser, who shares insider knowledge of how the gala works gleaned from a previous appearance on the show. 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 Ming would always remember her first day at Lincoln High, if only because the Chinese student's shock at the reality of an inner-city American school almost drove her to tears. Little did she know that she would be a celebrity within the year. But even when her peers started giving her high-fives walking down the hallway, Xiao Ming didn't let the attention go to her head. Because none of this was about her: it was about the dance team, and about saving their school. Learning Chinese? This intermediate show has two separate dialogues that tell the story of Lincoln High, and what Xiao Ming did there. In addition to some new vocabulary and a few interesting patterns, this lesson also features a common northern expression we encourage you to drop into conversation with your friends, especially if you are nowhere near Heilongjiang and feel like pulling one up on the locals....

Every other industrial operation in China may have shutdown now that it's Chinese New Years, but fortunately we've managed to keep our lesson-producing slavemill podcast studio open during the break, all the better to continue delivering the sort of fresh and interesting Chinese learning shows that will help you join our ranks as oppressors of the working classes and partisans strictly opposed to things like compulsory holidays. On a pedagogical note, our recent lessons at this level have climbed up the difficulty gradient to the point they're almost intermediate-level shows. If you've found them a bit challenging don't worry -- in this show, Brendan and Echo take a step back from the brink, with a simpler dialogue that reveals a charming technique you can use to imply that you're stating the obvious, or what should be the obvious at least.

When the doctor entered the room, the boy was sitting motionless on the floor where he had been several minutes before, still staring intently at a crack in the nearby wall, as if there was some secret in the darkness beyond which promised some profound revelation. Yet the doctor's attention was not on his young patient, but rather the father who stood anxiously several feet away. For how could he break the news? In this intermediate lesson, we cover two relatively advanced ways of making comparisons. First with a structure that is used to compare things which are quite alike, and then with a more tricky pattern that can be used to make percentage comparisons. This is a tricky point, wrapped in a very colloquial lesson, so if you're working towards fluency, give us a listen and see what you think. Feedback and thoughts welcome below as always!

This week on Sinica, Kaiser Kuo is joined by David Moser and Paul Mozur for an in-depth discussion about everyone's favorite renegade province. This is a lively conversation that stretches from questions of personal identity in Taiwan to the island's media sensationalism, close ties with the United States, and obviously political relations with the mainland as well. Enjoy Sinica? As always, before you listen let us remind you that suggestions, questions and comments are always welcome in our comments section below. We also welcome correspondence by email at sinica@popupchinese.com. So enjoy the show, and let us know what you think. (Note: standalone mp3 download)

William had been home a mere two hours before his father sequestered him in the living room with a suggestion they sit down and insinuation of a serious conversation to come. This was followed at first by a general humming and hawing, and a few pregnant pauses, and William began to wonder what could be of such obvious concern? What had happened while he was away at university? Learning Chinese? Our intermediate lesson for today is at the more difficult end of the difficulty spectrum at the Elementary level. But we still felt it was worth publishing, for it focuses on a rarely-taught but incredibly useful expression for telling other people that something isn't a big deal. If this is too difficult for you don't worry though, most of the material at this level is a bit easier to understand, so just check our archives for a show that's closer to your level.

We don't really know what it is about China and stamp collecting. In most countries the activity exists as a sort of underground movement, and no-one admits lightly to philately. But here in China things are different. Very different.

This week Sinica responds to the fevered requests of the Azure-Winged Magpie society with a show all about birding in Beijing. And why not? Because despite the air pollution that wracks our fair city, Beijing remains one of the best places in the world for serious bird-watching. Join us as we explain the why and how of this ornithological mystery, before moving on to complaining about the various other things that are in the air.... Joining Jeremy Goldkorn for this discussion are two guests we are delighted to feature on the show: avid birder Terry Townshend from the blog Birding Beijing, as well as Jonathan Kaimen, a journalist for The Guardian in Beijing who has covered China's environmental problems and reported most recently on the country's estimated 176 billion USD bill for cleaning up its air pollution issues. Enjoy Sinica? Even if birding isn't your thing, the lesson to take away from this show is that we do requests. So if there's a topic you'd like to hear us cover, send us an email at sinica@popupchinese.com and let us know. And please also feel welcome to download this show as a standalone mp3 file, or subscribe to our list of shows using our custom RSS feed.

As much as expats in China like to complain about the state of Chinese film and television, this week Kaiser and Jeremy remind of that there is a lot of great art out there too, in a show that asks the critical question of what is worth our collective time? Joining to give their takes on this question are guests Raymond Zhou, film reviewer for China's biggest film magazine and columnist for the China Daily, as well as the ever-brilliant David Moser, director of the CET immersion program in Beijing. Like Sinica? Remember that if you find listening to the show through our online flash player discomfiting, you are always welcome to download this show and all of our others as a standalone mp3 file. Alternately, you can subscribe to all of our shows by RSS using our public feed at http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica or send feedback or suggestions for future show topics to us by email at sinica@popupchinese.com.

Save for his passing look of furtive intelligence, the police would hardly had given the beggar a second glance, for even if loitering on public property was technically a crime, it hardly served anyone's interests to harass those without even the limited means of paying the necessary fines to secure due process. And so the truly poor and desperate were permitted to exist on the margins of society, secure in their poverty from unreasonable search and seizure.

Living in a community of China watchers, we are unceasingly assaulted by words and phrases for which definitions are unclear, or ambiguous, or over which there is controversy or disagreement. And so bearing Confucius' admonition that the most important thing for understanding China is "to call things by their right names," Kaiser and Jeremy set out this week to do exactly that with a show all about rectifying names in Chinese. With this aim in mind, we solicited a list of words and phrases needing such rectification (everything from "50 center" to "middle class"), and found two great guests at whom we could throw the pressing questions of what on earth do these words actually mean? Putting themselves in the difficult position of answering are thus Rogier Creemers, creator of the China Copyright and Media blog, and David Moser, who is not only director of the CET immersion program in Beijing but also a mean jazz pianist to boot. Like Sinica? If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to give us your take on things in the comment section below, or by writing us at sinica@popupchinese.com. And remember that you can also subscribe to the Sinica show through RSS. To do so just open up iTunes, click on the "File" menu and select the option "Subscribe to Podcast" and copy the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica into the box when prompted. Those of you who'd like to download this mp3 directly from our site can also grab it as a standalone mp3 file. Enjoy!

Stephen hit the refresh button without much expectation, his mind preoccupied with the question of whether now might afford a good opportunity for another visit to Starbucks. After all, no serious market analyst could be expected to write a report like his without the most up-to-date sales data from finance, and who could fault him for being securely caffeinated when those all-important documents finally did arrive? Learning Chinese? Or just a slacker seeking that ever-elusive job that combines maximum pay with minimum expectations? Whatever the reason you've come to Popup Chinese, join Brendan and Echo in our studio today as we talk about how to use directional verb complements to send email to colleagues and resuscitate the near-dead.

In the late 1990s, the visual arts in China operated on the fringes of society, and those who dared to flirt with public prominence risked finding themselves on the disapproving end of a government clampdown. And yet how different things seem today, with tens of thousands of artists struggling on the fringes while a small minority enjoy what can seem to be fairly stable and even politically protected positions within the arts establishment... provided that they keep a healthy sense of their own career trajectory. In this episode of Sinica, Jeremy Goldkorn is delighted to welcome two Beijing-based artists and critics to our studio for a discussion of the arts scene in China. In particular, we are delighted to be joined by Matthew Niederhauser, the artist and photojournalist responsible for the wonderful exhibit Counterfeit Paradises, as well as Philip Tinari, Director of the Ullen Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing and founding editor of the Leap bilingual magazine about contemporary art in China. Enjoy Sinica? If you'd like to keep abreast of new shows as soon as they are released, be sure to subscribe to our free RSS feed. And please also feel welcome to download this show as a standalone mp3 file and write us at sinica@popupchinese.com with suggestions on shows and guests you'd like to see in conversation on our show.

On the weekend of November 23, Beijing announced the establishment of a new Air Defense Identification Zone. Covering a large swath of the East China Sea, the move was intended to assert China's control over disputed islands in the region, and predictably antagonized Beijing's relations with Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. The move also prompted escalated tensions with the United States, which sent an unannounced flight of B-52 bombers through the airspace on Monday. Coming immediately before a lengthy visit to Beijing by US Vice President Joe Biden, the fracas has raised tensions between China and the United States, while prompting questions over what could possibly come from Biden's trip to China, where the American politician spent at least 5 hours in conversation with Xi Jinping and apparently did not ask China to nullify or retract its claim for air-sovereignty. Joining Kaiser to talk about these issues and more are two excellent Beijing-based China watchers: Jane Perlez, Chief diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, as well as Peter Ford, Bureau Chief of the Christian Science Monitor. We are delighted to have both of them on the show and hope you enjoy listening to their thoughts and more. Also, if you'd like to download a standalone copy of this podcast, please feel free to do so and share it around.