Jonathan Chatwin on Deng Xiaoping's 1992 Southern Tour

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

🗓️ 30 May 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Jonathan Chatwin, author of a new book about Deng Xiaoping's "Southern Tour" of early 1992 — a pivotal event that renewed a commitment to economic reforms after they'd stalled following 1989, and seized the initiative from conservatives in the Chinese leadership. The book is called The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future.

2:10 – Why Jonathan focused on the Southern Tour, and the narratives surrounding it in China

7:19 – How the events of ’89 influenced Deng’s thinking

11:08 – How the political fates of Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang affected Deng’s planning

14:31 – The reformers’ path to victory from the second half of ’89 to January of ’92

20:32 – Deng’s vision of opportunity in the face of communism’s apparent global retreat

24:53 – How Deng’s personal experiences shaped his policy decisions

27:07 – The strategic signaling and risky timing of the Southern Tour

34:07 – The influence of the Chinese horoscope, and “The Story of Spring”

37:33 – Shenzhen speed

40:57 – What Jonathan learned about Deng Xiaoping

45:00 – Jonathan’s recommendations for learning more about Deng Xiaoping and the post-Mao era

46:18 – Xi Jinping, the “end” [not sure how to phrase] of Deng’s reform and opening era, and the [parallels with the?] Chinese economic situation today

Recommendations

Jonathan: China’s Hidden Century, edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell, produced to accompany the British Museum’s exhibition by that name; and the app Voice Dream, a text-to-speech reader

Kaiser: Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, a book about the group of German Romantics gathered in Jena, Germany

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a 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 that can help us better understand what's happening
0:21.2	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
0:31.1	we think and talk about China. I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
0:37.6	Cynica is supported this year by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
0:43.0	a National Resource Center for the Study of East Asia.
0:46.4	The Cynica podcast will remain free, but if you work for an organization that believes in what I'm doing with the podcast, please consider lending your support.
0:54.0	You can get me at Cinecapod at gmail.com. that believes in what I'm doing with the podcast, please consider lending your support.
0:58.0	You can get me at Cinecapod at gmail.com.
1:04.1	And listeners, please support my work on Substack at cina.substack.com.
1:08.7	There you will find, in addition to the podcast, the complete transcript of the show,
1:21.7	a weekly essay from me, and now a wide range of offerings from some of your favorite China-focused columnists and commentators like James Carter, Paul French, Andrew Mephvin, and, of course, the guys at the China Global South Project.
1:27.7	Today on Cineca I am delighted to welcome Jonathan Chatwin, a journalist and author whose work has appeared in many publications, none of course as significant as the late Great China Project, where he was a wonderful
1:32.9	contributor.
1:33.9	He is the author of Long Peace Street, a book that used the device of an end-to-end stroll
1:39.5	down Beijing's central artery Chang'anzia to talk about that city where I lived for 20 years.
1:44.7	He has just published a great new book examining a pivotal event in China's recent history,
1:49.9	Deng Xiaoping's well-known Nanshin or Southern Tour, which took place in early 1992.
1:55.7	The book is called The Southern Tour, Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future.
2:00.6	It just came out on May 16th and it's already gotten deservedly terrific reviews.
2:05.0	Jonathan Chatwin, congratulations on the book, and welcome to Siniga.
	...

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