Hey, cynical listeners.

This week, something very special for you, a grudge match to settle once and for all that old question.

Which was better?

The Ming or the Qing?

This debate of dueling dynasties is brought to you by the RAS, the Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing,

and was recorded at the Bookworm on the evening of November 10th in one of the

last live events held there. As many of you know, the storied bookworm has closed its doors,

at least for now, though we're all hoping it will be reborn in a different location.

Thank you very much to Emily Fung of NPR for grabbing this recording and Alicash and the Good People at the LA Review of Books, China Channel, which will also be distributing this recording.

You'll hear first from Alan Babington Smith, Vice President of RAS Beijing, and from David Cantalupa, who's been Beijing forever and manages the bookworm.

Then we'll hear from the four debate participants, Mike Aldrich, historian, lawyer, and a chronicler of vanishing Beijing.

Jeremiah Jenny, an educator and guide to Beijing, who was a fixture on Cynica in our early years.

Ian Johnson, journalist and author of the Souls of Beijing, who's also been on

Cynica many times, and Francesco Sisi, an ex-diplomat and journalist, and an excellent guy.

Enjoy this break from Current Affairs, and we'll be back next week.

Good evening, everybody. Thanks very much for coming.

David, please stay here a moment.

Before we start, I have to say to you confess to you that a lot of you are here under slightly false pretenses.

Because this was to be the last night of the bookworm.

But I'm thrilled to be able to tell you the bookworm has at least one week's reprieve,

and we have lots of ideas cooking up for continuing.

So before we start, let's have a huge applause to David.

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