3.4K
Downloads
66
Episodes
This podcast tells the story of a year of an English teacher in China, working in an international school in Changshu, Jiangsu. It‘s also full of history and culture. We‘ll go back to the imperial days, the revolutionary days, the days of triumph and the days of humiliation. Mostly though, it‘s modern China that I‘ll focus on, as it is the most relevant to understanding China now. China is super fascinating, and it‘s also probably the most important country in the world to understand right now, so this is my contribution to that. It‘s not a chronological history; instead, it kind of matches up to the things that were occuring in my roller-coaster of a year living in Changshu. I‘ve changed the names of the people I that I met when I was in China, except Jess of course. You‘ll meet Jess later. She‘s awesome. Blog: SMKYpodcast.blogspot.com
Episodes
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
In the past few episodes we've been attempting to get our heads around Chinese culture and the pitfalls that foreigners often find themselves in when they go there to teach English. Unlike me, in relatively well-developed Changshu, Tom was teaching way out in the sticks, in a place that he describes as "the real China."
Twitter: @SMKYpodcast
Thursday Nov 10, 2022
Thursday Nov 10, 2022
On the past few episodes of SMKY, we covered some of the challenges in modern China with regard to the competition, guanxi and ruthlessness which infuse the culture. China is indeed a competitive society where relationships matter more than anything, and one-upmanship is the name of the game. But, despite Xi Jinping’s cult of personality, the situation now is nothing when compared to the headiest days of the Mao years, when even for the number 2, Premier Zhou Enlai, things were touch n go.
Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com
Thursday Nov 24, 2022
Thursday Nov 24, 2022
Does Maoism really deserve all the criticism that it gets? Er, yes. Yes it does.
For some it was a fad, but for others it became a way of life which endures to this day. Over the next two episodes, we’re going to have a look at Maoism, from the bad to the very bad.
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @SMKYPodcast
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
To conclude this two-parter exploring how Mao's ideas manifested outside China, we look to the world of the hippies and stoners and idealists. Why did this strand of Marxist thinking, with its emphasis on the peasantry and anti-imperialism, appeal to the relatively comfy students, activists and thinkers of the developed West?
Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @SMKYPodcast
Sunday Jan 01, 2023
Sunday Jan 01, 2023
It's time to go back to the school, where the dawning of a new year gives this troubled teacher a chance to reset the clock, and begin afresh with a new positive spirit. Or something.
Meanwhile, one teacher makes an untimely departure, and the prospect of romance is in the air.
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: SMKYPodcast
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
As events in the school take a curious turn, we turn to the topic of love, sex and marriage in China. How have the ruptures of the modern age changed this part of life?
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @AdamSMKY
Sunday Jan 22, 2023
Sunday Jan 22, 2023
Today we go back in time to find out about "China's most respectable prostitute", and the winners and losers in the concubine system.
Also, the dramatic end of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing!
And #MeToo in China, or #RiceBunny...
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @SMKYpodcast
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
As Winter Break approaches, I take a trip to the biology department.
And a new guy starts at the school...
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @SMKYpodcast
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
It's time to recall the Opium Wars that began China's Century of Humiliation. After the lofty heights of the Ming expeditions with Zheng He's epic fleet, the Chinese lost their ability to rule the waves. This episode details the prelude to the first Opium War, how the British set up their drug trade and why they did it. Next episode, battle commences.
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @SMKYpodcast
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
Picking up at the end of the last episode, today Grade 7 teacher Penny and I travel to the epic Yangtze River, and we get stuck in to the Opium Wars. Not Britain's finest moment, that.
And we discover why Penny left a note under my door while I was sick....
Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com
Twitter: @AdamSMKY