Chinese Characters Podcast
Series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.
Episodes to download
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Deng Xiaoping: Black Cat, Yellow Cat
Fri 4 May 2018
The paramount leader who enabled China's economic miracle.
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Bruce Lee: Screen Warrior
Thu 3 May 2018
The fastest pair of fists in East Asia and the first global Chinese film star.
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Mao Zedong: The Man Who Made Modern China
Wed 2 May 2018
The Communist leader who changed his country forever.
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Factory Girls: Modern Girls, Modern Dreams
Tue 1 May 2018
The hard-working, hard-living factory girls behind China's industrial revolution.
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Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan: The Duellists
Fri 27 Apr 2018
The rebel leader of the Taiping and his nemesis.
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Wang Jingwei: Revolutionary Renegade
Thu 26 Apr 2018
The man who saw himself as a patriot, but is remembered as one of China's worst traitors.
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Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic
Wed 25 Apr 2018
A writer still read by every Chinese pupil and considered China's greatest modern author.
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Robert Hart: Chinese Customs
Tue 24 Apr 2018
The influential Ulsterman who became a servant of the Chinese emperors.
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Zheng He: The Admiral Goes to Africa
Mon 23 Apr 2018
The Muslim sailor whose epic maritime voyages created new routes for trade and influence.
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River Elegy: River and Ocean
Fri 20 Apr 2018
River Elegy was a pioneering TV documentary series, one of the most watched in history.
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Li Qingzhao: Patriotic Poet
Thu 19 Apr 2018
The woman remembered today as one of the great poets of Chinese history.
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Confucius: Becoming the Sage
Wed 18 Apr 2018
The smiling philosopher who is perhaps the most famous Chinese person in history.
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Kublai Khan: Cosmopolitan Conqueror
Tue 17 Apr 2018
The Mongol head of a dynasty that both occupied China and connected it to a wider world.
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Sima Qian: Grand Historian
Mon 16 Apr 2018
The historian who spoke the truth to the emperor and suffered for it.
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Ding Ling: Sophie, Sensation and Sex
Fri 13 Apr 2018
Rana Mitter on the life of one of China's most important feminist authors.
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Matteo Ricci: Jesuit and Geometrist
Thu 12 Apr 2018
The Jesuit who brought together Renaissance Europe and Ming China through geometry.
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Kumarajiva: Translator Monk
Wed 11 Apr 2018
The translator and Buddhist monk whose words are chanted daily by millions of Chinese.
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Chiang Kai-Shek and Soong Meiling: Asian Power Couple
Tue 10 Apr 2018
The power couple who reunited China and nearly lost it to Japan.
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Wu Zetian: The Female Emperor
Mon 9 Apr 2018
Rana Mitter tells the story of China's first and only female emperor.
