"China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read" by Scholar and Podcaster Lee Moore – S5-E51

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files · Feb 26, 2026 · 36m

John talks to Lee Moore about his 2025 book China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read, which focuses on four important China-related stories that often make headlines: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong. In this conversation, Lee and John focus on Taiwan before 1800. Who were the earliest Chinese arrivals in Taiwan? Which ruler’s fondness for older women would impact the island’s future? And were there Indigenous cowboys (as in horses and lassos)? Lee takes an unusual "pop-scholarship" approach to history in this book. For example, he uses colloquial…