Wo Men Podcast

 The latest mass outbreak of COVID-19 in China has impacted people's lives, with over 5000 new cases reported each day this week. While the numbers are small compared with what other countries have experienced during the pandemic, the most recent outbreak is the largest in China since 2020. Many residents in major cities like Shanghai and the tech hub of Shenzhen have been told to remain in their homes, and officials in several jurisdictions have given orders for full or partial lockdowns. After feeling safe and protected for the past two years by China's Zero Covid Policy, Chinese people have, for the first time, started to question whether this policy is effectively dealing with the new omicron variant. Our Co-Host Yajun is now on her 16th day of being forced to stay inside her apartment complex due to a case of COVID being reported in the same compound. Co-Host Karoline was just released from mandatory quarantine after returning to China from a trip overseas. In this episode, Yajun and Karoline shared their personal experiences and observations of how public opinion has started to shift regarding China's  Zero COVID strategy. 

When people feel confused or uncertain about their lives, some turn to fortune-tellers or psychics for guidance and advice. China has a long tradition of fortune-telling, soothsaying, and even exorcisms and shamanism. Those living in the Northeastern part of the country consult people known as Daxian (大仙), which can be translated as “spirit mediums” or “spirit possessors”). Daxian are the representatives of a local religion, combining shamanism and animal worship (including weasels, foxes, mice, snakes, and hedgehogs). According to legend, once these animal spirits possess their bodies, the daxian can cure disease or predict the future.   We talk to Vicky, a native of Northeastern China. She describes her personal experiences of consulting a daxian for help when she had difficulties maintaining a long-term relationship. She also shares her recent discovery about the extent her family was involved with this local religion.  

It's an annual tradition. Yajun, Jingjing, and Karoline, the three cohosts of the Wo Men Podcast, got together virtually to discuss their experiences in 2021 and share their memories of the year that was. They also talked about what they were looking forward to most in 2022. Spoiler Alert: They would like to see each other and are hopeful that China will open its borders soon so that family and friends can finally be reunited. Fingers crossed!

In China, there have been generations that “stood up” (站起来 zhànqǐlai) and generations that “jumped into the sea” (下海 xiàhǎi), but many young people in China today are choosing instead to just “lie down and chill.” The term “Lying Flat” (躺平 tǎngpíng) became popular following a blog post entitled “Lying Flat is Justice” (躺平即是正义 tǎngpíng jíshì zhèngyì) went viral earlier this year. This call to inaction inspired many to choose a lifestyle that rejected the social pressure to work hard and conform. Why bother striving if the “Chinese Dream” of a high-paying job, buying a house, and checking all the boxes for success seem impossible? Many young people are also turning their backs on the corporate grind and risky start-up jobs to find a stable gig with China's biggest employer: the government. Why are young people lining up for “less competitive” jobs in the civil service? After 30 years of standing up and another 30 years of jumping in the sea of entrepreneurship, why are so many young people choosing a life of less struggle? To answer these questions, we talked with Kailai, a student at one of China's top universities, who explains to us why the growing gap between expectations and reality is causing young people to question assumptions about what is the meaning of a successful life and why when the going gets tough, sometimes the best thing you can do is take a step back, lie down, and chill.

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks carried out by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda against targets in the United States. Over 3000 people died as a result, and the world was forever changed. Since then, the United States has faced many challenges, including a long-running military occupation of Afghanistan, which ended only this year. The past two decades have also seen a steadily rising China seeking to challenge US hegemony and disrupt the existing international order. What did 9/11 mean for China and the US-China relationship? How did people in China understand and react to the news that the United States had been attacked? In this episode, Karoline and Yajun share their personal stories of hearing about 9/11 and how those experiences have affected their later careers as cultural intermediaries between the world and China. They also reflect on how their careers have been affected by the complicated US-China relationship and consider how they can contribute to improving mutual understanding between the world's two largest economies.

When most people think about China in the 21st century, they picture the big coastal megacities like Beijing or Shanghai. But that's only a small part of the picture. For this episode, we traveled out west to Qinghai Province, which has an area the size of France but a population of just six million people. The region where Qinghai and southern Gansu Province meet has long been a frontier zone, a point of contact for many different ethnic groups, including people who still live a nomadic lifestyle. Today it is one of the poorest regions in China and has been the focus of intensive development even as many people who live there try and preserve their traditional lifestyle and distinctive culture. We talk to Gombo, who was raised in a Mongolian nomadic family and went on to be the first in his area to graduate from college. Gombo describes his life growing up in a nomad camp, how Tibetan Buddhism continues to be a significant part of his life, and how he pursued his education and career in modern China. Today, Gombo works in the travel industry with the company Elevated Trips based out of Xining. Gombo is also a very talented musician and he shared with us some of his songs which you can hear as part of the episode.

Are you tired of big city life? Ever think of escaping the noise, dust, and exhausting pace of life for a slice of the country? For many young people in China, work means 12-hour days, six days a week, with a long and crowded commute to and from work. No wonder so many people are considering trading urban living for a rural lifestyle. In recent years, Dali has become a magnet for writers, musicians, artists, painters, and people looking to simplify their lives. In this episode, Karoline Kan talks to Feather, who moved to Dali from Beijing, about her lifestyle change.

The Medical Aesthetics industry (what your grandmother calls “plastic surgery”) is booming in China. According to Deloitte, China's aesthetic medicine market grew from 65 billion yuan (US$10 billion) in 2015 to 175 billion yuan in 2019. That’s three times faster than the global industry average. Why are Chinese women -- and men -- so crazy about beauty treatments? Don’t they worry about the risks and possible side effects? Today we talked to Guli Ai, a consumer with ten years of experience using aesthetics treatment. Guli explains her journey in pursuit of beauty and why she’s not afraid to take advantage of the benefits of medical science in her quest for perfection.

While many companies have felt the impact of Covid-19, some courageous entrepreneurs in China are still willing to take risks and launch new ventures in this time of global economic fluctuations. Our guest today, Lysa Wei, is one of them. In 2020, Lysa started her own company bringing hard seltzer to the China market. Low-calories and sugar-free, hard seltzers have become one of the world’s hottest (or coldest, depending on how you like drinks served) alcoholic beverages in the world. In this episode, Lysa explains the opportunities and the challenges of starting a company in the Covid era. She also shares how to introduce a new alcoholic beverage to Chinese millennials who like to get their buzz differently from their parents or older siblings.

The LGBTQ+ community in China is largely out of sight, and awareness of ideas relating to sexual equality is still very low. Ying, who calls herself Iron, is a feminist, activist, and director of the Beijing LGBT Center. She is one of the most prominent activists promoting LGBT rights in China and has played a vital role in arranging mental health services for the LGBTQ community. For the first time, a national survey has been conducted to look at the lives of the LGBTQ community in China. Ying joins our show today to discuss her personal experience as a member of this community and how she developed her passion into a career. She also shares with us her views on the progress – and remaining challenges – for activists promoting LGBTQ rights in the PRC.

Many people have thought about quitting their 9-to-5 job to travel around the world, but few people carry out their plan. One couple made it happen and found a new career inspiration and life direction along the way. Faye and Celyn live in Beijing. Faye worked at a Chinese agricultural company. Celyn (celynbricker.com) was an artist who had always been interested in using art as a lens to look at social issues. They quit their jobs, left Beijing with just two backpacks, and arrived in Africa as the first stop. They planned to travel along the human migration route and record the highlights of their journey as a documentary. They didn’t have a clear agenda in terms of what stories they were going to collect, but it did not take them long before they found that climate change was a term that frequently appeared in conversations with local communities. Climate change interrupted people’s agricultural routines, caused conflicts between different groups of people, and threatened local religions' survival. It even contributed to the rise of the HIV infection rate in certain areas as climate change affected the kinds of economic opportunities that had previously been empowering women. Along the way, they also learned the wisdom to live harmoniously with nature. After returning to China, the couple decided to focus on climate-related art projects and founded Celu Studio to provide a public platform to learn more and take positive action. In this episode, Karoline Kan sits down with Faye and Celyn to learn more about their journey and their new platform for tackling one of the world’s most important and pressing issues.

How do you do it? Where do you find the time? Women in leadership positions are frequently asked how they balance family life and their career. Which makes us wonder: why don’t we ask the same questions of male executives? Is it less of an issue for men, or are they just more reluctant to talk about work-life balance, fearing that it might not conform to the expectations of a strong boss focused on his work and leading his team? Perhaps what is needed is a safe space for male leaders to challenge these stereotypes and talk about their challenges juggling family, marriage, and a successful career. You wouldn’t think that the high-wattage conclave of World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos would provide that kind of cozy safe space, but that’s exactly where a group of “Davos Dads” gathers to share their family struggles and swap parenting tips. In this episode, we talked to David Aikman. David is the Chief Representative Officer of Greater China for WEF. This year, the annual meeting is hosted virtually, but David talks about organizing the “Dads group” at past meetings. David also shares with us his views on leadership and the experiences he has learned from nearly two decades working with some of the world’s top leaders.

Schools all over China have signs and banners exhorting students to hao hao xuexi, tiantian shang shang ("Study hard and make progress every day"). Being a kid -- or a parent! -- in China means a lot of pressure to compete and succeed and the educational system is built around the college entrance exams. Students sacrifice their childhood and freedom for hours and hours of homework and after-school programs to “win the game at the starting point” and secure a promising future. But are exams and homework the purpose of education? Quite a few people in China have been exploring alternative solutions and approaches. In this episode, we talked to Chen Zishu, a Harvard-educated student who brought her ideas and actions back to China. She tells us about her academic and professional journey and shares her observations about China’s education-industrial complex.

It seems like every email we have received recently begins with “In this challenging year…” Well 2020, your time is almost up. You only have a few days left before we turn the page to 2021. Every year at this time, we look back on the year that was and talk about our plans for the future. In this episode, Yajun, Jingjing, and Karoline discuss surviving a global pandemic, their thoughts on a new global order while also talking about their personal highlights (and low-lights) of 2020, including new babies, family health emergencies, lockdown blues, and the challenge of staying motivated while the world seems to be falling apart. Finally, the ladies share their new year resolutions because 2021 has got to be an improvement over 2020, right? Right!?!?!?

Over the past few weeks, the US election has dominated the news worldwide, even in China. Chinese people have been fascinated to watch an odd political soap opera unfold in the United States beginning with the election of Donald Trump back in 2016. Four years later, despite harsh rhetoric and aggressive policies directed at China, Trump still has supporters here. Today we ask the question: Why is Donald Trump still so popular in China? Joining us for this episode is Patricia, a Chinese lawyer who works in a multinational tech company. She Chinese. She is a woman. And she is a Trump supporter. If you’re wondering why, well…so are we. So we invited Patricia on our show to tell us her views about how she came to support Donald Trump and why she is still a fan.

China’s economy is getting back to normal. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 still changed many people’s lives forever. Some of them were fired while others spent months job hunting, and many more used the crisis to re-value the things they used to take for granted. Life almost one year after the first case of coronavirus is permanently different for many people. How has this changed their view of the world and their future? Karoline Kan speaks with Song, a 29-year-old man who used to work at some top international financial consulting firms and never met a challenge in his career. Song quit his job a few years ago to enroll in an international MBA program, hoping that experience would help him further develop his career. He was always confident in his educational background and working experience. Song never imagined an unprecedented public crisis would change his career path and how he feels about so many things in life and career. What to do now? Join a multi-national company or China’s state-owned system? Should he prioritize ambition or stability? In this episode, we look at the fragility of life for China’s middle class. How has the Covid-19 crisis changed people's hopes, fears, ambitions, and worries?

For many people worldwide, the protests in Hong Kong have been a news story in a year full of news. But the demonstrations and political crisis have deeply affected Hong Kongers dividing the city and even families. Michelle is from Hong Kong but living in Japan and has been arguing with her girlfriend – who is from mainland China – about the protests. What happens when different backgrounds, viewpoints, and media consumption starts to come between a couple? In our latest episode, Michelle explains to us why the Hong Kong issue is so complicated. Even in her own family, her parents, brothers, and Michelle all have different takes on the situation. Meanwhile, Michelle and her girlfriend try to communicate their different beliefs with patience, open minds, and open hearts. Michelle also shares the challenges a same-sex couple faces in Hong Kong and on the mainland and how she and her girlfriend have used persistence and wisdom to navigate a range of family obstacles as they build a future together.

2020 has been a challenging year. Many families experienced an incredible sense of loss, sadness, and desperation as they lost family members to Covid-19. Meanwhile, other families welcomed new life who brought love and hope during a difficult time. Our co-host, Jingjing, and our close friend, Annie, each gave birth this year and it was not easy. They suffered from both physical and psychological challenges that a new mother would not face in a typical year, including labor without an epidural due to a shortage of maternity staff in the hospital and risking exposure to the COVID-19 virus. They worried about how to ensure the safety of their new babies during a global pandemic. In this episode, Annie and Jingjing share their personal experience of giving birth in the year of COVID-19.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has affected many people’s lives and had a detrimental impact on businesses around the world. But some industries have inadvertently benefited from the outbreak — such as pornography. Even though porn is legally prohibited in China, such restrictions don’t stop many people from looking for adult content, most of the time by using a VPN to bypass the country’s internet censorship. For this episode, we talked to Annie Huang, who shares why she uses pornography as a healthy entertainment option to help relieve stress. She also explains why women should consider their sexual desires as normal needs, rather than something to be ashamed of.

In a recent podcast episode, we discussed how Covid-19 changed the outlook when it came to China’s consumption boom. As a part of the generation that had taken supercharged economic development for granted and had never worried about financial stability, the potential impact of Covid-19 on the economy also requires us to rethink our finances. In this episode, we have invited Jackie You — a former investment banker who previously joined us to discuss following your heart — to share her insights and experiences with us. Jackie shares how people in China are adapting to a new economic reality, as well as some lessons that can be applied universally.

To many readers of English-language media, “news assistant” is an unfamiliar term. Yet the people operating in this role are often integral to many overseas outlets’ coverage of China. Also sometimes referred to as “news researchers,” they are Chinese citizens working as journalists for foreign media who often do far more than mere research and yet are rarely credited for their work. News assistants’ responsibilities can include research, looking for interviewees, arranging interviews, translating, and some “researchers” even interview and write the stories independently — but with no byline. The Chinese government has rules prohibiting Chinese nationals from being full-time journalists for foreign media publications, but over the past few decades, many Chinese writers and reporters have managed to take advantage of a loosening system or regulatory oversights to grow into experienced journalists and hugely talented — and hugely important — storytellers.

As China continues to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, some experts expected to see a strong consumption rebound in recent weeks. However, it didn’t happen. Instead, the amount of saving in the first quarter of 2020 surged in China. Many Chinese, including the post-’90 and post-’00 generations who are used to living paycheck to paycheck, have started to save money. Seemingly, the global pandemic has changed many families’ and individuals’ consumption habits and lifestyles — at least in the short term. For this episode of the Wǒ Men Podcast, our three co-hosts share their different views on consumption and money-saving and how Covid-19 has changed their outlook when it comes to personal finances.

While the world is suffering from the global pandemic of novel coronavirus Covid-19, Jingjing talks to Donna, a Chinese student studying in the UK. In this episode, Donna shares her perspectives on life under lockdown overseas, including how she ended up getting military food and her experience with racism in the UK.  

When her hometown went into lockdown, Yuli Wang decided to help send messages of hope and support from around the world to Wuhan citizens. Yuli Yang, a journalist born and raised in Wuhan, shared with us her #GoWuhan social media campaign launched right after the Covid-19 outbreak began making international headlines. She and a group of volunteers translated kind and encouraging Twitter and Facebook messages sent from all over the world to the people of Wuhan and published them on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. This campaign aimed to boost the spirits of the people living in the epicenter of the disease and has received more than 3.3 million views on Weibo. She also shared her views on why she feels that Chinese people are much more tolerant and comply with extreme measures employed by the Chinese government compared with other countries. This interview was conducted one week before the podcast was released. Just this past week, many things have changed. The number of infections from the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has significantly increased in Europe and in North America, and many countries have started to employ lockdown measures as well.

As China continues to deal with novel coronavirus Covid-19, it’s clear that this crisis wasn’t only a test of China’s governance and public health system. It was also a challenge to the resilience of many businesses in the country, particularly small and medium enterprises. What are the biggest challenges they are facing and what kind of measures can be taken to keep them in business? For this episode, we talked to Benjamin Devos, the owner and CEO of the first French bakery in Beijing, Comptoirs de France Bakery. He shared with us the perilous challenges his business is now facing and some of the tough decisions he has had to make after 15 years of running a business in China. A small community in Beijing has launched a crowdsourcing campaign to support the Comptoirs de France Bakery and the local business it represents. If you want to contribute, please hit that link for more details.

The novel coronavirus Covid-19 has taken hundreds of lives and caused disruption and psychological damage throughout China and — increasingly — across the world. With millions still under lockdown and self-imposed quarantine within China, and many Chinese unable to return home at an important time of year due to travel restrictions, Wǒ Men hosts Jingjing, Yajun, and Karoline discuss their personal experiences and perspectives of life during the virus.

Last week, before the break out of the coronavirus, much of the world’s attention focused on Davos, a little European ski resort town in Switzerland where this year the World Economic Forum celebrated its 50 year anniversary and welcomed more than 3,000 political, business and other leaders. Jingjing and Yajun, the two co-hosts of Wǒ Men Podcast, met up there and shared their experiences and highlights at the summit from both a participant and organizer’s perspective, respectively.

Podcast hosts Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang come together at the start of 2020 to discuss their hopes, aspirations, and resolutions for the New Year.

This year more than 220,000 Chinese people sent online endorsements of gay marriage to China’s top legislative body, arguing for a same-sex marriage amendment to be made to China’s marriage laws. For the system to change in China, the LGBTQ+ community needs allies. Olivia Wang explains to us how she takes action to support the LGBTQ community by attempting to influence both China’s legal system and the people around her.

China dominates global headlines right now — and few of those headlines are positive. But is fear of the country justified? How to separate the people, the government, and the Party? And what impact is the breakdown in dialogue between China and the English-speaking world having on Chinese living and travelling abroad? Hosts Jingjing, Karoline, and Yajun share their perspectives from around the world.

Have you done lots of shopping on Double 11? The reason we ask is that 11/11, also known as Singles Day, has become China’s biggest online shopping holiday and become the Chinese retailer equivalent of Black Friday in the west. Is Singles Day still a culture phenomenon in China where if you have not participated, you feel you would be left out?  I have heard some people have started to lose interest this year as they feel the shopping rules have become quite complicated.  Do you feel the same? Do you use shopping as your retail therapy?  This is an encore episode in which Yajun and Jingjing discuss the "buy buy buy" culture in China.

This week, we have a special guest — who for the purposes of the recording we’re calling “C” — who bravely came forward to share her deeply sad personal experience of being a victim of sexual assault when she was just 4 years old. Through discussing this horrendous experience, this episode looks at the underlying problems in some rural and undereducated areas in China, where gender inequality is a manifest of some purportedly “patriotic” values. It also examines how some criminals can take advantage of the concept of “面子 mianzi” (face) and a pervasive family shaming culture to cover up their actions.

Life is not always fair, particularly in a dramatically changing society such as China. While many children from one child families in China enjoy the undivided attention of their parents, others need to fight for themselves to achieve a better future. Cai, our anonymous guest for this episode, was given a faulty vaccine shot as a small child in rural China that caused her to contract polio. For a while she was in critical condition and half of her body was paralyzed. Her illness led to her being almost abandoned by her family. As the eldest of four, in the eyes of the family Cai’s debilitating disease meant she could no longer bring them any value. Even as she began to recover, she was constantly reminded that she owed the family due to the costs involved with her treatment.All of this could easily have become yet another tragic tale of an unwanted girl in China. However, Cai was determined to forge a different narrative. She moved to Beijing and supported herself by working various jobs without seeking any support from her family. At the same time, she pursued a course of self-study, sitting a series of exams over the course of ten years. She built a successful language education career and landed a job in the Danish Embassy. Today, she works as a project manager in a technology mobility company. Her story is inspirational, but also sheds some light on the struggles that many young women face in rural China.

Have you ever thought about the true price of your morning cappuccino? It’s more than the five dollars you pay at the cafe on the street corner. The global coffee industry is worth 100 billion USD and rising. But the huge industry profits from the second-most traded commodity in the world are not trickling down to the people who grow the beans. Coffee is extremely sensitive to weather conditions and this year’s drought in the Mekong region — worsened by climate change — has hit the area’s plantations badly. This has combined with intensive coffee farming practices to lead to environmental problems such as soil depletion, deforestation and biodiversity loss.   What are the social and environmental costs of coffee plantations in the world? How is climate change effecting coffee growing in the Mekong region? What does coffee mean to ethnic minority people in area? And what can we do to make the coffee industry greener and farmers more resistant to environmental risks? Karoline Kan shares her experiences reporting in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and China’s Yunnan province, where some harbor ambitions of the area becoming Asia’s coffee production capital yet numerous coffee farmers are struggling to make ends meet. 6.2.6

This is an encore episode originally released November 2, 2018 Annie recently changed her Chinese given name from Yating (雅婷) to Yiling (奕绫) based on the instruction of a part-time fortune telling master (who incidentally holds a full-time job as a private equity investor). Even though Annie has a well paid and highly regarded job and is in a loving marriage, she was bothered that this may not be what she wants and felt confused as to where her life was going. A new name, the theory goes, could potentially free her mind and soul and allow her to be a “free horse” (she is born in the year of the horse) to pursue what she wants. She is not alone. Many Chinese seek comfort and assurance from fortune-telling masters, who don’t only serve as a kind of prophet, but also to some extent play the role of psychologist. Amid the myriad pressures of modern life, many Chinese are turning back to traditional superstitions and beliefs, and fortune-telling and fengshui businesses have boomed over the past decade. In today’s episode, Annie talks about her name changing experience and how it has fed into a process of self-discovery.

On the latest Wǒ Men Podcast, we are joined by feminist activist Zhang Leilei, who has played an important role in numerous feminist campaigns in China, including raising awareness around sexual harassment and gender equality. Zhang’s journey as an activist began when she was in university. Now aged 26, she has been a prominent figure in China’s rising feminist movement. One of the most influential campaigns she led was using her body as a moving advertisement on metro trains in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, after her requests for public educational posters on public transport were repeatedly rejected by the authorities. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Zhang Leilei and share her stories with all of you.

Jocelyn Ford, a reporter, filmmaker, and educator, has dedicated her life to covering rarely-covered female-centric stories. She pushed the Japanese Prime Minister’s press office to build the first lady’s room in the building in the 1990s. She was one of the first reporters in Japan to cover the topic of WWII comfort women and forced the Japanese government and the public to face up to this issue. She was the first bureau chief of Marketplace in China and has shed light on rarely-discussed Tibetan gender issues by producing the documentary Nowhere to Call Home. For this episode of Wǒ Men, we talked to Jocelyn Ford about her work and her views on how women can break the social norm of male dominance and make a difference. “Choose the battle and win it!” as she puts it.

The teaser trailer for Disney’s live-action movie Mulan has sparked a lot of discussion on Chinese social media since it was released in early July. The one-and-a-half minute teaser drew hundreds of thousands of comments on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. Many netizens say they are “satisfied” with the appearance of the first Chinese Disney princess, as well as the settings, costumes, and make-up from the teaser, while others are not so happy with the rewriting of the story and the loss of some characters from the 1998 animated movie such as the little dragon Mushu.   So what do Chinese audiences care about most when it comes to a Hollywood-produced China story? Why are people especially sensitive over the appearance of the actors who play the leading Chinese characters in overseas films? And what skills could China’s film industry learn from Hollywood to attract young audiences to traditional stories?

This is a recording Jingjing made when she attended an event in Los Angeles in October 2018 called SlutWalk. Slut Walk is a movement calling for an end to rape culture, including victim blaming and slut shaming of sexual assault victims. She interviewed a sex worker who attends SlutWalk every year calling on people to respect women for who they are, not their profession or how they dress. Slut-shaming is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. When China’s #MeToo movement was at its peak last year, there were several high-profile cases (including one involving an influential author, Zhang Wen) that forced everyone to take a long, hard look at the culture of shaming women. Today, with Chinese women, and men, becoming increasingly woke on the issue of gender quality, this is a conversation worth continuing to have.

Would you be able to ride a bicycle for eight months along the ancient Silk Road through 13 countries, while interviewing tech companies and hosting workshops along the way? Eva Yoo, an international cyclist and writer, just accomplished exactly this feat — and she’s the subject of our latest podcast episode. Born in Korea, Eva has worked in five countries and speaks four languages. Rather than enjoying a nice job in Shanghai, she decided to challenge herself by taking a bike trip from Shanghai to London. In this episode, she shares the danger and joy that she experienced during the trip and what she learned about China’s ever-expanding Belt and Road initiative along the way.

The Wǒ Men Podcast is a discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang, Jingjing Zhang and Karoline Kan. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men Podcast can be found here, and you can subscribe to Wǒ Men on iTunes here. Against the backdrop of the China-US trade war, the recent “debate” between two presenters from opposing sides of the argument — Trish Regan from the Trump-supporting Fox network and Liu Xin from State-owned Chinese media platform CGTN — attracted a lot of eyeballs. What materialized was ultimately more of a conversation than a debate, yet it was refreshing to see China’s State media engaging in a direct conversation with an international audience and attempting to share its perspective directly into the homes of audiences in the US. Related: But what’s at the root of the perception that China is afraid engaging of in difficult conversations? What’s going wrong with China’s so-called soft power project? And is there a better way to tell a good China story? In the latest Wǒ Men Podcast, Jingjing and Karoline share their own experiences and observations regarding China’s attempts at storytelling and soft power and how these have evolved in recent years.

Living in an economic and sustainable way is not new in China. Actually, most of our parents and grandparents are still enjoying this kind of lifestyle. They use the same basin of water to wash vegetables, and then to water the plants. They take all their leftover food from the restaurant home. They wear the same clothes for years. They don’t waste anything. However, the younger Chinese generation is totally brainwashed by consumerism and lured by the convenience of easy access to food and services. They buy piles of useless stuff during Single’s Day sales and rely on food delivery services for their three meals a day which generates a huge amount of plastic packaging. The earth cannot bear the burden of a big country like China consuming and generating waste at the speed in which we do today. Are we doomed? Carrie Yu, the co-founder of The Bulk House, has a solution: living a zero waste life. Carrie dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and came to Beijing by herself. When she was then kicked out of her rental house, it made her rethink her whole lifestyle. Buying lots of cheap stuff and generating a lot of waste didn’t make her happy, so she changed. She is now not only living a zero waste life in Beijing, but she has also started her own company to promote a sustainable lifestyle. Today, she shares her life experience with us.

In late March, the Chinese tech world was rocked by protests from workers against startups’ “996” work culture (the idea that employees should work from 9am-9pm 6 days a week). Although the initial wave of interest in a protest page set up on GitHub has subsided somewhat, the controversy over tech companies’ employment practices has continued in China. Discussions on the topic have examined it from an array of angles, from its legal and ethical status to the mentality and reality of “working hard to gain a better life”. In this Wǒ Men Podcast episode, we take a different approach to discussing 996 by inviting Cynthia He, a senior executive of a number of US-listed technology companies, to look at the underlying societal rationale behind this working culture.

The international community in China is changing. Chinese still stereotype expatriates as hanging out in bar districts, commute on an old fashioned bicycle and live in a traditional neighborhood such as Beijing’s hutong alleyways. But how do the younger generation of overseas students and expats live in China and immerse themselves in Chinese culture? In the latest Wo Men Podcast, Jingjing and Yajun sit down with Katharina Kempf to learn about her amazing journey in China. She talks about how she became fluent in the Chinese language in just three years, her passion for Chinese pop stars, and how she brings Chinese culture back to her home country.

After nearly two years producing the Wo Men Podcast, Yajun and Jingjing are excited to announce that author and former New York Times researcher and writer Karoline Kan has joined the Wo Men podcast team. Karoline was the guest on our previous episode discussing her debut work of non-fiction, Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China. Karoline was born in Tianjin in 1989 and studied at Beijing International Studies University. After graduating she worked for three years at That’s Beijing, writing long-form features in English about Chinese people’s lives in a society shaped by a changing culture, economy and politics. She then worked at Radio France International, focusing more on hard news, which helped her develop a better understanding of China from different angles. From summer 2016 to the end of 2018, she worked for The New York Times in Beijing and is now an editor at China Dialogue. Karoline has also contributed to various other publications including Foreign Policy, Roads and Kingdoms, The World Policy and The Anthill, writing from her perspective about Chinese politics, history, ethnic policies and other social issues. With Karoline, we are expanding our coverage and our ability to present a China to the world from the perspective of Chinese women. Each of us was born and grew up in China, but we all bring our own perspectives and ideas. Karoline is one of the very few Chinese millennial women writing in the English language and she’s looking forward to sharing stories of China’s younger generation.  The Wo Men podcast is looking forward to bringing more new stories from a changing China to you. If you enjoy what you here, join the conversation! Send us your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas to us via twitter @women_podcast or by email at womenpodcast@outlook.com. 

Karoline Kan is a second child born among the one-child generation in 1989. In order to give birth to her, her mother hid from local officials for almost ten months. But the challenges didn’t end there — to her paternal grandparents, she was an unwanted girl, an idea that shadowed her whole childhood. Yet she was also a lucky girl with a strong mother who pushed the family out of a remote Chinese village and completely changed Karoline’s life by providing her with the best education she could. In her late twenties, Karoline, a girl with a humble background, became an author and international journalist for The New York Times. Recently, she published Under Red Skies, widely touted as the first English-language memoir written by a Chinese millennial. We were honored to interview her this past weekend at the Yenching Global Symposium hosted by the Yenching Academy of Peking University. On this live episode, Karoline talks about the millennial generation in China and foreign media’s coverage of this group. She also talks about how numerous historical incidents have impacted her and her generation and shaped who they are today.

Originally broadcast February 2018 China has transformed greatly over the last few decades, and Chinese New Year has also come to mean very different things from generation to generation. When our parents were children in the 1960s, their pleasure at this time of year was being able to finally enjoy vegetable balls fried with the oil that the whole family had been saving for the entire year. By contrast, when we were kids in the 1980s, meat dishes, sweets, new clothes and endless playtime with our cousins made the Chinese New Year the happiest time of the whole year. Today, we can purchase imported food and new clothes on e-commerce platforms every day. Material pleasure doesn’t thrill us anymore. Instead, the New Year has become an obligatory time to face relatives’ constant questions about why we don’t have boyfriends/girlfriends, or if we do, why we don’t have babies yet. Times have changed. On this episode of the podcast, we recall our memories and discuss all of the interesting and weird (and superstitious) customs and traditions that surround Chinese New Year in our own families, particularly in the old days. Do you know when is the proper time to eat dumplings on New Year’s Eve? Do you know why you are supposed to wear red during the New Year? Do you know what tricks there are to make sure you’ll stay out of trouble in the coming year (at least, the ones that Yajun’s grandma believed in)? You can answer all of the above questions in this episode. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here. Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at womenpodcast@outlook.com.

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland is one of the most prominent meetings of world leaders, business executives and scholars to discuss pressing international topics and issues. Many of us hear about it from afar, either from media coverage or our Twitter/WeChat feeds. But what does Davos really look like? How is the conference put together? And with the US-China relationship currently in a somewhat tense place, what do people talk about at Davos? As a member of the Global Programming team of the World Economic Forum, Wǒ Men Podcast host Yajun helped to design and select the speakers for some of the 300 public sessions, particularly on the topics related to China. For this episode, she takes us inside Davos, shares her observations and interviews some of her colleagues who try to move the needle in a positive direction on major international topics. She also shares her view on perceptions of China at the conference and how China can better engage on the international stage. Please do listen to the end of the episode and imagine Yajun walking on the street covered in snow wearing heavy snow boots in the dark and worrying about falling on the street. (Actually, she did fall and bruised herself, but compared with four other colleagues who fell and broke their arms and legs, she was quite lucky.)

(Note: This special encore episode was originally released on December 17, 2017) Along our career paths, we face so many challenges and choices. How can I make the best decisions for myself? This is a question that bothers us for the majority of our youth. Growing up in the ’70s, ’80s or even ’90s, we don’t have role models for career development. Looking back, our parents’ generation — who received professional training under China’s planned economy — was very much used to the idea of going to work from 8 am to 5 pm, and believed in doing the assigned job diligently. They were not aware of the difference between a job and a career. In addition to that, working overtime was an alien idea to them: why should one work so hard for their employers, as it is the employer who benefits, not each individual? Our generation grew up in a reformed China, where more job opportunities had been created, new industries were developing, and Western values like “career development” had flooded in. However, we are pretty much on our own to navigate these changes, and learn how to build our careers. Jackie You Without realizing it, we’ve stepped on a career development treadmill, where we believe the only direction to go is forward. As we march ahead and grow older, we accumulate more and more baggage — families, mortgages, and children’s tuition all become factors dominating our career choices. Is that the only path we’re destined to take? Is there another option? Jackie You’s response to these questions is clear and sound: No, don’t let these factors affect your choices. You should follow your heart! Jackie is an ex-investment banker, former CFO of a US publicly listed company, and an entrepreneur. On our latest episode, Jackie uses her personal experience to explain why your heart knows better than your mind when it comes to certain life choices — according to her, when your heart points you in one direction, you should just go with it. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here. Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at womenpodcast@outlook.com.

Before we even realized, 2018 has reached its end. It is the time to take a break and look at what we have accomplished or missed in the last year and make a resolution for the new year. In 2018, both Jingjing and Yajun have experienced some ups and downs. We are using this episode to reflect on our lives and to share our thoughts with you. Hopefully, it can provide some perspective for our audience who may have similar experiences.     Last but not least, we want to thank all our listeners for your support in 2018 and wish everyone a very happy 2019! See you in the new year!

Debate is a historical form of discussion which was one of the earliest methods for decision making and even law and legislative making. Six years ago, after witnessing a woman in an English debate by chance, Lysa Wei became deeply fascinated by the nature of debating – logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeals to win the audience’s hearts and minds. She became determined to be a debater. At that time she could barely present an argument in English. Today, she is the holder of numerous debate championship titles including Grand-finalist of the China National Debating Championship (FLTRP Cup) 2014, and Grand-finalist and 5th Best Speaker of Singapore Debate Camp 2014. Lysa is not only one of the most prestigious debaters in China she has also co-founded China’s first women debate network and started to nurture the next generation of women debaters. Today, we have Lysa Wei joining the show to share her extraordinary experience of English debating and how debate has widened her horizon in life and opened doors in her professional life.