Shows / Barbarians at the Gate
Barbarians at the Gate
A semi-serious deep dive into Chinese history and culture broadcast from Beijing and hosted by Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser.
Episodes
Barbarians at the GateChina Tech Beyond Shenzhen: Robots, Solopreneurs and Going Global
In Shenzhen, a robotics expo is just another Tuesday. But China’s tech story doesn’t stop at Shenzhen’s city limits. Jeremiah is joined by tech strategist…
Barbarians at the GateShen Fu and Six Records of a Floating Life: Love, grief, and lying flat in Qing China
What can a grief memoir about a beloved wife tell us about love, life, and society in 18th-century China? Shen Fu’s Six Records of a Life Adrift (浮生六記 /…
Barbarians at the GateYou Must Remember This: Studying in China yesterday, today, and...tomorrow?
David and Jeremiah are back together again in Beijing. Recording from Palace Moser, the two get weirdly nostalgic and compare notes on what has changed in the…
Barbarians at the GateChairmen, China, and the Tricky Translations of Political Terms in the PRC
Two older gentlemen with expanding waistlines, staggering daddy issues, and a shared love of firing military brass meet in DC this week. And right on cue, the…
Barbarians at the GateMao More Than Ever
Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976. Fifty years later, Jeremiah and David compare notes on a mostly quiet anniversary. Jeremiah reports that there were…
Barbarians at the GateThe Last Emperor of China with author Paul French
China’s last emperor (Puyi), his empress (Wanrong), and concubine (Wenxiu) spent two years sequestered in the Forbidden City before their expulsion in 1924…
Barbarians at the GateSomerset Maugham's On a Chinese Screen: Missionaries, Taipans, and Expats Who Never Leave (but probably should)
In this Barbarians at the Gate x China Books Review crossover, Jeremiah Jenne is joined by CBR Associate Editor Alexander Boyd to discuss the latest addition…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarian Remix: The Secrets and History behind Beijing's Forbidden City
It’s the summer travel season, and one of the most popular sites here in Beijing is the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City. To talk about China’s most famous…
Barbarians at the GateNeysun Mahboubi on the past, present, and future of US-China Academic Exchanges
We are honored to have Professor Neysun Mahboubi, Director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations, a program that provides a platform for…
Barbarians at the GateAI Slop, AI Detectors, and Authentic Voice: A China-Tech Insider on Writing and Working With AI
Should we view today’s powerful AI language tools as intellectual crutches or as incredibly useful assets? Can they be safely integrated into our existing…
Barbarians at the GateChina Books Review x Barbarians at the Gate: The Private Life of Chairman Mao
The Politburo had given Mao Zedong’s personal physician Li Zhisui a direct order: prepare the Chairman’s body so that he can be on permanent display. Li was…
Barbarians at the GateThis Was Funnier in China: Jesse Appell's Cross-Cultural Comedy Journey
On this episode, we sit down with the one and only Jesse Appell—Chinese TV stand-up comedian, blogger, lecturer, tea entrepreneur, and passionate…
Barbarians at the GateThe Business of Burgers in Beijing: What Fast Food Festivals Reveal About China's Economy
Mike Wester launched the first Burger Fest in Beijing 13 years ago as a scrappy response to the collapse of print ad revenue. Today, burger festivals run in…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians Remix: Do you really need to learn to write characters to study Chinese?
Warning: GEEKY CONTENT Hosting solo in this week’s episode, David takes a geeky deep dive into the digital revolution in Chinese language learning in…
Barbarians at the GateThe Many Lives of Da Shan: Mark Rowswell on Chinese Poetry, Performing Live, and Staging Shawshank in Mandarin
In this episode, we reconnect with an old friend of the podcast, Canadian performer Mark Rowswell—better known in China as Dashan, or “Big Mountain.” Mark…
Barbarians at the GateLee Moore's China Backstory: Why Saying "History Proves" Actually Means "I Haven't Done the Reading"
Lee Moore's new book challenges both Chinese state propaganda and Western pundits on Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong with 1400 endnotes…
Barbarians at the GateDécadence Mandchoue: The wild (and almost certainly fictional) affair between Sir Edmund Backhouse and Empress Dowager Cixi
It’s another Barbarians at the Gate crossover with China Books Review. This month’s China Archives column covers Decadence Mandchoue by Edmund Backhouse…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians at the Gate x By Their Own Compass: Emily Hahn's Shanghai
Welcome to a special episode of Barbarians at the Gate. David and Jeremiah are off this week preparing for Chinese New Year, but as a special gift to our…
Barbarians at the GateLost in Thailand: The New Chinese Diaspora from Bangkok to Addis Ababa
It’s high season in Thailand. The weather is perfect. But look around the hotel lobbies and the night markets, and you’ll notice something missing: the tour…
Barbarians at the GatePerilous Prognostications for China in 2026 with Yajun Zhang
Following a tumultuous 2025, we gallop into the Year of the Horse. Tradition says it should be a year of dynamism and progress, but which way is the stampede…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians Remix: Horse Racing, History, and the Final Champion's Day in Old Shanghai
Champions Day in the city of Shanghai, November 1941. The world was at war, but the clubhouse at the Shanghai Race Club (now People's Park) was packed with…
Barbarians at the GateThe Dowager and the Dynasty: How did Empress Dowager Cixi rule China and should we blame her for bringing down an empire?
How does a teenage girl from Beijing’s hutongs end up ruling the world’s largest empire—without ever technically sitting on the throne? In this episode…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians at the Gate x China Books Review: From Heaven Lake
In 1981, the Indian writer and poet Vikram Seth traveled from Nanjing, where he was studying literature, to his hometown of Delhi. Moving by train across China…
Barbarians at the GateThe Destruction of the Old Summer Palace (Remix)
Yuanmingyuan, the "Garden of Perfect Brightness," commonly referred to as the Old Summer Palace, was a Qing Dynasty imperial residence comprised of hundreds of…
Barbarians at the GateThe Voyages of Zheng He
It’s just two guys talking China's naval history. In this episode, David and Jeremiah dig into the story of Zheng He, the 15th-century admiral who took China's…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians at the Gate x China Books Review: The Records of the Grand Historian
Picture this: You’re 45 years old, halfway through writing the definitive history of your civilization. Writing this history is the family business, and you’ve…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians Remix: Seeking News, Making China
In this encore episode of Barbarians at the Gate, first broadcast in March 2024, John Alekna talks about his fascinating new book Seeking News, Making China…
Barbarians at the GateAI-Laoshi Will See You Now: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Chinese Language Learning
Teachers are an excitable lot prone to excessive consumption of caffeine and loudly proclaiming that [Insert New Technology Here] will doom a generation to…
Barbarians at the GateCalling all China Nerds
Where are our nerds at? David Moser is on summer holiday, and stepping into David's seat for this episode is literary translator Brendan O'Kane. It takes about…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians Remix: The Year of the Boxers with historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Jeremiah and David are joined by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, historian of modern China and a longtime interpreter of the country’s shifting place in the world…
Barbarians at the GateIs America Beginning to Look More Like China?
In this episode we chat with Shanghai-based author and editor Jacob Dreyer, a China watcher who writes with great insight and nuance about the shifting…
Barbarians at the GateRaiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires
This week on the podcast, we explore the role of the horse in Chinese culture with author David Chaffetz, whose new book Raiders, Rulers, and Traders traces…
Barbarians at the GateBarbarians Remix: Mandarin Mayhem I
In this classic episode from 2020, we look at Putonghua, the spoken language most people refer to as Mandarin. David wrote a book in 2016 on the evolution of…
Barbarians at the GateEmergency Pod: The Trump Administration restricts Harvard International Enrollment as State Department Reviews Chinese Student Visas
In this special episode, we examine the Trump administration's ongoing attacks on higher education in America and their implications for the future of US-China…
Barbarians at the GateThe Six: Recovering the Lost Story of the Titanic's Chinese Survivors
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser interview Steven Schwankert about his groundbreaking research into the…
Barbarians at the GateDealing with Culture Shock when Studying and Living in China
In this episode, Jeremiah and David explore a topic drawn from their many years of experience with American study abroad programs: culture shock.
Barbarians at the GateLet Only Red Flowers Bloom with NPR Correspondent Emily Feng
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, we talk with Emily Feng about her new book Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China…
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Curating Chinese Internet Culture for Global Audiences with What's on Weibo founder Manya Koetse
This week, we catch up with Dutch sinologist Manya Koetse, the creator of "What's on Weibo," a platform offering in-depth insights into trends, events, memes…
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Is this America's Cultural Revolution Moment? with Chris Stewart of the History of China Podcast
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, host Jeremiah Jenne speaks with Chris Stewart, the creator of the History of China podcast. They discuss Chris's…
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Experiencing the World of Jazz in China
This week, we explore a topic close to our hearts: the world of jazz in China. Both Jeremiah and David bring their musical expertise to the table—Jeremiah as a…
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The Challenges of Foreign Reporting in China: An In-Depth Discussion with Jane Perlez
In this episode, Jeremiah and David welcome Jane Perlez, former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times (2012-2019), to discuss the evolving challenges of…
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From the Archives: Xi Built This City
Happy Year of the Snake! In this archive episode from January 2024, we chat with Andrew Stokols, who is researching varieties of digital urbanism globally…
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Shalama: An Epic Story of Family, Community, and Survival in Republican-era China
In this episode, we are thrilled to welcome Jean Hoffman Lewanda back to the podcast to discuss her new book, Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China, published by…
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Where have all the American China Experts Gone?
In this episode, we invite Rory Truex, an associate professor at Princeton University, to discuss a recurring issue on the podcast: the plight of the US-China…
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Laws of the Land: Feng Shui in Chinese History
MIT professor Tristan Brown discusses his award-winning book on how Feng Shui shaped law and society in imperial China. From environmental regulation to social…
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What can the end of the Ming Dynasty tell us about the election of Donald Trump and what comes next
Last week’s election of Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. President disappointed half of the American electorate and much of the world (outside the…
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Historical Battles: Rewriting China's Past to Shape the Future
"We can overestimate and underestimate how much things changed when Xi Jinping took power, but the intensity of concern over historical narratives has…
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Back to School 2: The View from the EU
In this episode of Barbarian at the Gate, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser are joined by special guest Karlis Rokpelnis, China country representative for…
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Back to School?
As David at least gets set for another semester, he and Jeremiah reconnect to catch up on a mix of timely topics from China and the US. They explore the…
Barbarians at the GateEdge of Empire with author and journalist Edward Wong
In this episode, Edward Wong, diplomatic correspondent and former Beijing Bureau Chief for the New York Times, joins us to discuss his new book, Edge of…
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There and Back Again: Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour and the Legacy of Reform and Opening in China
In this episode, we welcome back a friend of the podcast, Jonathan Chatwin, to discuss his new book, The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's…
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From Firefly to Fox News: The Evolution of "Chimerican" Media
This episode features a lively conversation with Fan Yang, Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, about…
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What happens after a Barbarian walks away from the Gate?
This episode represents a new direction for the podcast, recorded on the eve of Jeremiah’s move to a new home base in Geneva. We start with a retrospective…
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Seeking News, Making China
In this episode, John Alekna talks about his fascinating new book Seeking News, Making China: Information Technology and the Emergence of Mass Society. In…
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The Mountains Are High with author Alec Ash
In this episode, we welcome back to the podcast our good friend, Alec Ash, who has written a fascinating book recounting a year spent in the city of Dali…
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Exile from Expat-ville
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, our guest is Michael Wester, founder and publisher of True Run Media and The Beijinger. Mike is a long-time resident…
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Xi Built This City
In this episode, we chat with Andrew Stokols, who is currently a Ph.D. candidate at MIT researching varieties of digital urbanism globally, with an emphasis on…
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No Laughing Matters: The State of Stand-up in China Today
Has the Chinese government killed stand-up comedy in China? In May of 2023, a popular standup comedian made an innocuous joke in which he mentioned a phrase…
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Art with Altitude
On this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, I talk to Kristel Ouwehand, also known by her Tibetan language name, Tenzin Dolma, the founder of Snowland Academy…
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History Wars: The PRC pushes back against unsanctioned views of the past
Jeremiah kicks off the podcast with news that the decades-long Qing History Projectn being carried out by, among other institutions, Renmin University and the…