Chinese Prestige: From May Fourth to Mao w/ Yidi Wu

American Prestige

Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

History, Politics, News

4.8 • 705 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In lieu of a typical Tuesday episode this week, we are releasing the first episode of our new miniseries Chinese Prestige. Annual subscribers already have access, while everyone else can get the 8 episodes for a whopping $5 for two weeks only. Enjoy! In this first episode of Chinese Prestige, Yidi, Danny, and Derek trace the origins of the Chinese Communist Party from the May Fourth Movement to the civil war with the Nationalists. They explore the party’s strategic shift from cities to the countryside, the role of land reform and mass mobilization, the impact of the Japanese invasion and World War II, and the rise of Mao Zedong. The episode follows the party through its victory in 1949, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, early state-building, and China’s entry into the Korean War. The group concludes in 1953 with the launch of the first five-year plan and its push for rapid industrial development. Theme music by Jake Aron, based on the song “The East is Red.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to American Prestige. To listen ad-free, you can subscribe at Americanprostagepod.com.
0:08.3	Find the link in our show notes. Hey, prestige heads, Danny here. You're about to listen to an episode from our new miniseries Chinese prestige, which is over eight glorious hours of Yidi Wu talking us through the history
0:21.8	of the People's Republic of China.
0:24.2	All of our paying subscribers, both annual and monthly, should have received an email about
0:28.5	this series.
0:29.9	Annual subscribers have been given a link to access the series for free.
0:34.2	Monthly subscribers have a link with the opportunity to upgrade to annual. The email is from American Prestige via supportingcast.fm, so please check your spam filters.
0:43.3	Otherwise, if you enjoy this episode, simply go to Chinese prestige pod.com to purchase this series.
0:49.3	For two weeks only, it's $5, so take advantage of this deal now.
0:55.4	It's perfect for your holiday commute,
0:57.5	giving you plenty of material to counter all the cable news talking points about China
1:01.4	that your relatives might throw at you this weekend.
1:04.0	Of course, if you have any questions, please email us or supporting cast.
1:08.4	And as always, keep on rocking in the free world.
1:11.4	Bye. Hello, Prestige Heads and welcome to American Prestige. I'm Danny Bessner, here as always with my friend
1:44.7	and comrade, Derek Davison. And we're really very excited to welcome to the podcast today. A long
1:50.6	overdue guest, that is Dr. Yidi Wu. Yidi is a historian and assistant professor in the history
1:57.3	of China at Aylon University. And we've invited her to do a little bit of a history on modern China.
2:04.3	So Yidi, thank you so much for joining us.
2:06.5	Thank you for having me.
2:07.6	It's my honor to be invited.
2:09.4	We really, really appreciate your coming.
	...

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