Ed Lanfranco: from Hoarder to Historian

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

🗓️ 23 May 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser is joined by old friend Ed Lanfranco, who lived in Beijing from 1988 to 2009. An inveterate packrat, Ed managed to accumulate an incredible trove of documents, maps, photos, and ephemera from his years there and from the decades and even centuries before his arrival. Ed talks about his collection, and invites scholars interested in his material to get in touch!

2:46 – Ed’s time in China and saving ephemera

11:47 – Ed’s favorite old Chinese brands

14:41 – Ed’s map collection

19:34 – The Tiananmen incident of 1976, Ed’s collection of unpublished photographs from the Panjiayuan Antique Market, and a leaflet from April 7th, 1976

30:40 – Ed’s patriotic music record collection

33:28 – Ed’s U.S.-China collection

38:00 – The story behind Ed’s U.S.-China panda button from 2002

43:18 – Ed’s Tiananmen ’89 story and collection of leaflets and files

50:56 – The Underground City of Beijing tour

53:50 – Ed’s SARS 2003 epidemic experience and artifacts

Recommendations:

Ed: Roger Garside’s Coming Alive: China After Mao; Lin Yutang’s works, especially My Country and My People and The Importance of Living

Kaiser: The Rochester-based progressive metal trio Haishen’s new album, Awaken the Endless Deep

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, the weekly discussion of current affairs in China.
0:13.6	In this program, we'll look at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural
0:19.1	trends that can help us better understand what's
0:21.7	happening in China's politics, foreign relations, economics, and society.
0:27.0	Join me each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to
0:32.0	how we think and talk about China.
0:34.8	I'm Kaiser Guo, coming to you from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
0:38.7	Cynica is supported this year by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University
0:42.4	of Wisconsin-Madison, a national resource center for the study of East Asia.
0:47.5	The Cynica podcast will remain free, but if you work for an organization that believes in
0:52.4	what I'm doing with the podcast, please consider lending your support.
0:56.1	You can get me at Cinecapod at gmail.com.
0:59.5	And listeners, please support my work on Substack at cincicca.substack.com.
1:05.2	There you will find, in addition to the podcast, the complete transcript of the show, a weekly
1:10.2	essay from me, and now a wide
1:12.1	range of offerings from some of your favorite China-focused columnists and commentators.
1:16.9	This week, something very different.
1:19.3	I am joined today by Ed L'Anfranco, someone I've known for a very long time since, I think,
1:23.5	1988, I think, when we were both studying at what was then called Beijing Language
1:28.2	Institute.
1:29.0	To me, he was always one of those lifers who nobody ever thought was ever going to leave Beijing.
1:33.7	Even while we were still living there, Ed had a well-earned reputation as a kind of unofficial
	...

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