Criticism and Conscience: A Conversation with David Moser

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2024

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with my dear friend David Moser, a longtime resident of Beijing, formerly an occasional co-host of Sinica and associate professor at Beijing Capital Normal University. We have a long history of exploring the underlying issues in our approach to China, and this week, we unpack some of those, focusing on the role of outsiders in Chinese society and their role in "changing China," drawing on David's response to an essay I recently published.

3:46 —David’s thoughts on Kaiser’s essay (“Priority Pluralism: Rethinking Universal Values in U.S.-China Relations”)

5:18 —How David thinks about going on state media and the reasons he does so

10:37 —How David’s engagement with state media has changed over time

15:04 —Conscience, moral intuition, drawing lines, and whataboutism

26:35 —The outsider urge to change China: the differences between the U.S. and Chinese governments and COVID as a test of the two systems; the role of American policy in working toward positive change and the importance of continuing engagement; and so-called Enlightenment values and priority pluralism

50:46 —The debate over cultural differences

57:09 —China’s notion of whole-process democracy versus American democracy

1:05:55 — “Give them time:” Anticipating when we will see big changes in China’s political culture

Recommendations:

David: Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought; and his own article, “A Fearful Asymmetry: COVID-19 and America’s Information Deficit with China”

Kaiser: The “Open Database for China Studies Resource Guide” published by ACLS

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, the weekly discussion of current affairs in China.
0:13.4	In this program, we'll look at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends
0:18.5	that can help us better understand what's happening in China's politics, foreign relations, economics, and society.
0:25.6	Join me each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to how
0:30.6	we think and talk about China.
0:33.5	I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
0:37.3	Cynica is supported this year by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
0:43.3	a National Resource Center for the Study of East Asia.
0:46.9	The Cynica podcast will remain free, but if you work for an organization that believes in what I'm doing with the podcast,
0:53.6	please consider lending your
0:55.0	support. You can get me at CinecaPod at gmail.com. And listeners, please support my work at
1:02.4	www.com.com. Become a subscriber and enjoy, in addition to the podcast, the complete transcript
1:10.4	of the show, a weekly essay
1:12.2	from me, and writings and podcasts from some of your favorite China-focused columnists and commentators,
1:17.7	people like James Carter with his This Week in China's History column, Paul French with the Ultimate
1:22.5	China Bookshelf, Andrew Methven with Seneca Frease of the Week, and of course, Eric
1:27.0	Olander and Kobus von Staten at the China Global South Project.
1:31.5	I am joined today by my dear friend David Moser. You all remember David. Of course, he used to co-host the show from time to time,
1:38.3	actually pretty frequently when Jeremy or I weren't available, and he's been on in the capacity of guest
1:43.6	on many, many an occasion, including
1:45.9	one very memorable and fairly recent show about the COVID lockdown protest of November
1:50.4	2022 in Beijing at Liang Ma Chao. David also co-hosts the excellent Barbarians at the Gate
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.