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Sinica Podcast

Gillian Wong and Josh Chin on journalism careers in China

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

4.8676 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2017

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gillian Wong has been reporting from China since 2008 and is now the news director for Greater China at the Associated Press. High-profile stories Gillian has covered include the 2012 Tibetan self-immolations and the downfall of Bo Xilai 薄熙来. Her husband, Josh Chin, works as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, where he has covered China since 2007. Prior to the Journal, Josh was a research fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, where he helped produce the China Boom Project. Between the two of them, Gillian and Josh have covered a host of China-related topics, ranging from cybersecurity to Xinjiang. They talk to Kaiser and Jeremy about their paths to becoming journalists, their experience of the changing working conditions for journalists in China, and their efforts to create diverse and representative narratives — complicated, and sometimes aided, by the fact that they are both at least part ethnically Chinese. Recommendations: Jeremy: Memphis, Tennessee, an American cultural destination and the musical hometown of B.B. King and Elvis Presley. Kaiser: Matt Sheehan’s piece on California’s transformation into an epicenter for U.S.-China relations, “Welcome to Chinafornia: The Future of U.S.-China Relations.” As a second recommendation, The Polish Officer, by Alan Furst, which does an incredible job of re-creating an old-world style of language and immersing the reader in its respective time and space. Gillian: The audiobook reading by Tom Perkins of John Pomfret’s The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom. (Listen to John Pomfret discuss his book on Sinica.) Josh: The Paulson Institute’s MacroPolo initiative, which uses the latest research to decode China’s economy, urbanization, and development. A lot of great data all in one accessible, punny place. Also check out Gillian and Josh’s coauthored front-page piece, “China’s new tool for social control: A credit rating for everything.”   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the cynical podcast.

0:10.8

The weekly discussion of current affairs in China produced in partnership with SUPChina.

0:14.8

SubChina is the best way to keep on top of the most important news from China in just a few minutes a day

0:19.5

with a terrific email newsletter

0:21.5

curated in season by chef Jeremy Goldcorn, plus a handy smartphone app and, of course, our website

0:27.0

at supChina.com.

0:28.7

It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation that is reshaping the world.

0:34.2

Make sure you also check out the Tsayin-Sinica business brief, which which we produce in cooperation with Saishin, China's Authority for Business and Financial News. It's a weekly

0:42.8

half-hour show that comes out on Mondays in the U.S. and offers a roundup of top business

0:47.1

stories, interviews with some of the editors and reporters at Saishin, and gives a selection

0:51.7

of full stories read in the dulcet voice of Miss Ada Shen

0:55.6

and the decidedly undulcet tones of me.

0:59.5

So I am Kaiser Guo and I am at my mom's house in Xi Si Si on Mutton Alley, Yangro Houtong

1:05.0

in western Beijing.

1:06.4

I am joined from Nashville Tennessee by Jeremy Goldhorn, former frontman for the hardcore outfit

1:11.3

Zinumi and the hostile foreign forces wants the staple of Beijing's underground rock scene. Jeremy,

1:15.4

how are you, man? Hey, Kaiser, I am doing very well. I'm not actually in Nashville. I am in the

1:20.7

lovely city of Memphis, musical hometown of Elvis Presley. My wife is playing a concert at a huge new art center here in Memphis.

1:30.8

It reminds me a bit of China. They've converted a massive Sears Roebuck warehouse.

1:35.2

It's basically the Amazon.com of its day where people would order mail, order goods.

1:40.3

And this was one of the warehouses where they'd be posted out from.

1:48.0

And they've turned into an art center and a school and stuff, but it's just open, so it's completely empty, so it reminds me a lot of China.

...

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