Podcasts about Great Leap Forward

From the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, to the Chinese Revolution and Civil War, through the Long March and the rise of Mao Zedong, to the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, all the way to Deng's Reform and China today, Professor of East Asian and Global History Dr. Ken Hammond walk us through 200 years of Chinese history to highlight in detail how modern China was forged through centuries of class struggle, resistance, rebellion, and revolution.  After listening to this mega-episode you will have a profound, and deeply inspired, understanding of the rich modern history of China, and be much better able to understand its present and future.   This series originally aired on Guerrilla History in the Spring of 2024 Support Guerrilla History HERE Learn More, Follow, and Support Rev Left Radio HERE

PREVIEW: Author Joseph Torigian, "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun" comments on how Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, came to admire Mao before the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward mass death by famine. More later and next week. 1949 XI ZHONGXUN

Xi Van Fleet, author of "Mao's America," discusses the Cultural Revolution's impact on education and society. She explains how Mao targeted intellectuals and teachers, using youth indoctrinated in government schools to destroy old institutions. Van Fleet compares this strategy to modern movements like Black Lives Matter and Antifa, noting the use of divisive language and the empowerment of youth. She warns of the dangers of importing proletarians to create a larger underclass and divide American society. Van Fleet emphasizes the importance of understanding historical parallels to counter current political strategies aimed at consolidating power.0:00:00 - Intro0:00:20 - Cultural Revolution & It's Impact on Education 0:03:00 - Role of Intellectuals & The Great Leap Forward 0:06:32 - The Red Guards & Giving Young People Power 0:13:20 - Terminology & Counter-Revolutionaries 0:14:25 - Division By Class: Peasants, Elites & False Promises 0:20:45 - Advice to Americans, Red Flags & Communists USA0:26:05 - Division By Oppression & Rich Hypocrisy 0:28:37 - Immigration, Recruiting Revolutionaries & Promises0:33:16 - What Happens to Rich Liberals with Communism 0:37:15 - Dealing with Homeless & Drug Addicts & Power 0:40:35 - Labor Camps, Removing Threats & Power Struggles0:46:13 - Puppet Masters, Globalists & Excuses to Take Power 0:48:53 - Education & Youth in China Vs America 0:53:50 - Outro Xi Van Fleet X account:https://x.com/XVanFleetXi Van Fleet book "Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning" on Amazon:https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1546006311?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_mwn_dp_3HC7306SB91XQ027VJ67&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_mwn_dp_3HC7306SB91XQ027VJ67&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_mwn_dp_3HC7306SB91XQ027VJ67&bestFormat=trueChuck Shute link tree:https://linktr.ee/chuck_shuteSupport the showThanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

A Year Just Happened in a WeekOverviewThis newsletter issue captures an extraordinary acceleration in technological innovation within an especially intense week, focusing on the broad and deep impact of AI across industries and devices. Listeners get a front-row seat to seismic shifts at major AI players—Google, Anthropic, OpenAI—and how their breakthroughs and strategic maneuvers are reshaping software, hardware, venture capital, productivity, and ethics.What makes this collection compelling is its exploration of AI's layered disruption—from Google's AI-powered reimagining of search and productivity tools, Anthropic's record-breaking AI assistant capable of deep autonomous work, to OpenAI's audacious entry into consumer hardware design with Apple's design luminary Jony Ive. The newsletter also provides reflections on startup funding trends, evolving AI workplace mandates, and foundational debates over AI's ethical architecture and future ecosystem. Together, these pieces sketch a vivid snapshot of an inflection point in AI where technology, business models, and societal stakes intertwine.Key TrendsKey Trend 1: The AI Technology Leap — From Advanced Models to New Product ParadigmsAI development is surging at unprecedented pace, not just in capability but in practical integration across applications and devices. The focus is shifting from conceptual AI to usable, extended-duration, agentic assistants deeply embedded in daily workflows and consumer products.Significance: This trend reflects AI moving beyond isolated bursts of insight or simple chat interfaces to sustained, autonomous collaboration with users, spanning complex reasoning, coding, multi-modal inputs, and tool integrations. This lays the foundation for redefining productivity, creativity, and user experience in the AI era.Key Trend 2: Strategic Hardware Plays and the Battle Beyond SoftwareOpenAI's multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Jony Ive's startup signals a strategic pivot into hardware—building new AI companion devices designed to transcend conventional screens and possibly displace smartphones. At the same time, Google pushes integrated AI experiences centered on search and productivity on existing platforms.Significance: This trend shifts AI competition into physical devices and operating environments, creating new battlegrounds involving design innovation and consumer ownership models, with potentially profound effects on user habits and ecosystem dynamics.Key Trend 3: Venture Capital Evolution in the AI and Tech LandscapeFunding trends reveal concentrated capital flows into AI, with Series B rounds showing volatility but an overarching pivot toward efficiency, profitability, and selective aggressive capital deployment. Seed investing scales with new playbooks supporting early founder engagement and dynamic portfolio strategies.Significance: This trend highlights the ongoing maturation and transformation of venture capital amid AI's rise, balancing risk, returns, and market realities, while exploring creative financing strategies crossing over traditional VC and private equity models.Key Trend 4: Workplace Transformation and AI-Driven ExpectationsLeading companies mandate widespread AI adoption to boost productivity, heighten efficiency, and reshape employee roles. Executives issue candid warnings on AI's impact on jobs while simultaneously emphasizing the opportunity to master AI tools or face obsolescence.Significance: This trend underscores the sociological and managerial upheaval driven by AI in the workforce, where adoption is non-negotiable and where AI influences morale, workflows, and corporate culture at a fundamental level.Key Trend 5: Calls for an Open, Protocol-Based AI Ecosystem vs. Concentration of PowerThere is growing advocacy for “an architecture of participation”—a decentralized, interoperable AI ecosystem fueled by open protocols and multi-agent cooperation—to avoid premature monopolization by dominant platforms. Yet, industry maneuvers reveal increasingly concentrated power among a few mega players.Significance: This sets the stage for an ideological and practical contest over the future of AI infrastructure: will it foster broad innovation and cooperation or become locked under monopolistic control? The ultimate shape of AI's ecosystem has huge technological, economic, and ethical implications.Talking Points for Each TrendTrend 1: The AI Technology LeapTalking Point 1: Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 demonstrated sustained 7-hour autonomous coding and set new benchmarks (72.5% on SWE-Bench), reflecting AI's step from quick interactions to deep, continuous collaboration.> “Anthropic is reshaping the landscape... pushing the boundaries of what machines can achieve in creative and technical collaboration over sustained periods.” (VentureBeat)Talking Point 2: Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro introduces ‘Deep Think' mode for complex multi-hypothesis reasoning, advancing AI's understanding and problem-solving in dynamic environments.> “Gemini 2.5 Pro... features an enhanced reasoning mode called 'Deep Think', evaluating multiple possible answers before responding.” (VentureBeat)Trend 2: Strategic Hardware PlaysTalking Point 1: OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's startup io ($6.5B) marks their largest deal, signaling a major move into “physical AI embodiments” with devices aiming to reduce screen dependence and potentially challenge Apple's dominance.> “They are working on a new device... fully aware of a user's surroundings... designed as a third core device alongside MacBook and iPhone.” (Reuters)Talking Point 2: Google, while heavily AI-centric, remains focused on embedding AI in software and services (Search, NotebookLM mobile, AI Overviews), reinforcing software ecosystems but facing competition on the device front.> “Google launched AI Mode... a 'total reimagining of search'... while rolling out NotebookLM mobile for on-the-go AI productivity.” (FT.com)Trend 3: Venture Capital EvolutionTalking Point 1: AI has grabbed roughly one-third of global venture capital ($100B+ in 2024), showing AI's outsized role in funding flows amid overall tightening of Series B round sizes.> “AI sector dominated global venture funding, doubling from $55.6 billion to over $100 billion in 2024.” (vccafe.com)Talking Point 2: Seed-stage investing is scaling with firms like BoxGroup emphasizing early believer status and collaborative partnerships to back startups through various growth phases.> “BoxGroup makes 40 seed investments annually... focuses on supporting founders without dominating ownership or boards.” (TwentyMinuteVC)Trend 4: Workplace TransformationTalking Point 1: Shopify's CEO Tobi Lutke mandates AI proficiency, linking job security to AI adoption and productivity boosts, signaling new workplace norms amid AI anxiety.> “Before asking more headcount... teams must demonstrate why tasks can't be done via AI.” (NYMag)Talking Point 2: Fiverr's CEO issued stark warnings about AI threat to jobs, urging employees to master AI tools or risk professional irrelevance.> “AI is coming for your jobs... You are expected to do more, faster, and better. If you don't, your value will decrease.” (NYMag)Trend 5: Open Ecosystem vs Concentration of PowerTalking Point 1: Tim O'Reilly and others advocate for protocol-based AI ecosystems (Anthropic's MCP, Google's A2A, Microsoft's NLWeb) fostering interoperability and distributed innovation, echoing open Internet ideals.> “Participatory markets are innovative markets... solutions can come from everywhere, not just from a dominant monopolist.” (O'Reilly)Talking Point 2: Despite open ideals, dominant players like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are actively building controlling ecosystems and platforms—OpenAI's language of “operating system” and multi-billion-dollar acquisitions hint at winner-takes-most dynamics.> “It's hard not to feel we are witnessing aggressive maneuvers... pursuing a winner-takes-most opportunity.” (Newsletter Editorial)Discussion QuestionsHow will the shift from AI as a tool to AI as an autonomous collaborator change the nature of work and productivity across sectors?What are the implications of OpenAI entering the hardware space with design leadership from Jony Ive? Can this challenge entrenched tech giants like Apple and Google?Considering venture capital trends, how might the concentration of funding in AI affect startup diversity and innovation outside the AI sector?Are the workplace mandates for AI adoption sustainable, or do they risk damaging employee morale and creativity? How should companies balance AI integration with human factors?What are the pros and cons of pursuing an open AI ecosystem based on cooperative protocols versus the reality of platform dominance by a few major players?To what extent could OpenAI's and Google's competition reflect the longstanding tech ecosystem rivalry between integrated and modular approaches, and what does that mean for consumers?With OpenAI aggressively building an ecosystem and platform, how might regulators or policymakers respond to ensure competitive, ethical AI development?Closing SegmentThis week crystallized a pivotal inflection point—a "Great Leap Forward" in AI's maturity and reach. We've seen models like Claude Opus 4 and Google's Gemini 2.5 evolve into sophisticated, sustained collaborators capable of seamlessly integrating into human workflows and devices. At the same time, strategic moves—especially OpenAI's multi-billion-dollar hardware acquisition—signal a new battleground beyond software into hardware innovation and consumer experience design.The venture capital landscape is adapting rapidly with concentrated AI funding and evolving seed strategies spotlighting early founder support, all while workplace cultures grapple with AI-driven mandates that challenge traditional roles and morale.Beneath these shifts lies an ideological tug-of-war over AI's future architecture—whether it will be governed as an open, participatory ecosystem enabling broad innovation or solidify under winner-takes-all platforms controlled by a few giants.As hosts close this broadcast, invite listeners to ponder: Are we witnessing the dawn of truly universal AI assistants integrated into our lives, or the birth of new digital gatekeepers? And how will individuals and organizations navigate this rapid transition to stay ahead in an AI-powered future?What's clear is this: the year truly just happened, compressed within a single week, and AI stands at the stage center, shaping what comes next.Relevant Links and Sources (for producer reference)Anthropic Claude 4 & Opus 4 Coding MilestoneGoogle Gemini 2.5 Pro and AI Mode DetailsOpenAI Acquisition of Jony Ive's ioOpenAI's Leadership and Profitability FocusVenture Capital and AI Investment TrendsAI Workplace Mandates at Shopify and FiverrTim O'Reilly on Architecture of ParticipationGoogle I/O 2025 Summary and AI Product StrategyEnd of Show Notes This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thatwastheweek.com/subscribe

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 116 "To rebel is justified," Mao told his young Red Guard, loosing them on China at the beginning of the brutal Cultural Revolution. He wanted them to expose the "capitalist roaders" who had ruined everything in the Great Leap Forward and afterwards, as he led them to believe. "Smash the Four Olds!" he commanded, and his young, thoughtless followers did, breaking every taboo of Chinese culture to vent their frustrations with a situation they were led to believe was intolerable because of their class enemies and wrong thinking. Today, it's not Mao; it's MAGA influencers. It's not capitalist roaders being hunted; it's "neocons," whatever they mean by that. It's not the Four Olds that must be smashed; it's "Boomer mentality." In this long episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay sends a chilling and important message to young conservatives in America and beyond, warning them of how they might be being used, only to be ruined and discarded later. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2025 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #maga

Preview: Colleague Charles Ortel explains that the banks were busy selling the China miracle to spoil the mood with warnings of a property bubble. More later. 1959 GREAT LEAP FORWARD

The last time an autocratic government made policy decisions based on pseudoscience, millions of people died. America is on the precipice of doing the same. Policy must be based on science. -o-Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingispublichealth  Bluesky Social: @everythingisPHMastodon: @everythingispublichealth Email: EverythingIsPublicHealth@gmail.com   Audio Credit: Capybaralol69, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia CommonsSpeech by Joseph Stalin, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSovietball, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSupport the show

This week, I bring you the first in a series of podcasts in conjunction with the China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The series, titled "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Rediscovering a Lost Art," ran from September to November 2021, and featured four eminent "Pekingologists," or specialists in Chinese elite politics: Joseph Fewsmith, Thomas Fingar, Alice Miller, and Fred Teiwes. The talks were later published in a volume you can download here. The series is introduced by Andrew Mertha, George and Sadie Hyman, Professor of China Studies and director of the SAIS China Research Center, and each lecture includes a moderated discussion with Andy. After this series, I'll also be sharing with you a second series of lectures titled "Studying China from Elsewhere," which will include talks by Maria Repnikova, Mike Lampton, William Hurst, and Maggie Lewis — many of whom Sinica listeners will know from the show.This week's talk is from FrederickTeiwes, truly a legend in the field. The American-born Australian sinologist is best known for his analysis of Chinese Communist Party elite politics. He served as a professor emeritus in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney until his retirement in 2006. Teiwes has frequently collaborated with Warren Sun, producing seminal works such as The Tragedy of Lin Biao (1996) and China's Road to Disaster: Mao, Central Politicians and Provincial Leaders in the Great Leap Forward, 1955-59 (1999). In this talk, he focuses on forthcoming work on the transition following Mao Zedong's death in 1976.Great thanks to Andy and to Hasta Colman, who first suggested this collaboration when we met in Shanghai recently.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era (Duke University Press, 2020) Jie Li traces the creation, preservation, and elision of memories about China's Mao era by envisioning a virtual museum that reckons with both its utopian yearnings and its cataclysmic reverberations.  Li proposes a critical framework for understanding the documentation and transmission of the socialist past that mediates between nostalgia and trauma, anticipation and retrospection, propaganda and testimony. Assembling each chapter like a memorial exhibit, Li explores how corporeal traces, archival documents, camera images, and material relics serve as commemorative media. Prison writings and police files reveal the infrastructure of state surveillance and testify to revolutionary ideals and violence, victimhood and complicity.  Photojournalism from the Great Leap Forward and documentaries from the Cultural Revolution promoted faith in communist miracles while excluding darker realities, whereas Mao memorabilia collections, factory ruins, and memorials at trauma sites remind audiences of the Chinese Revolution's unrealized dreams and staggering losses. Suvi Rautio is a part-time Course Lecturer at the Social & Cultural Anthropology discipline at University of Helsinki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era (Duke University Press, 2020) Jie Li traces the creation, preservation, and elision of memories about China's Mao era by envisioning a virtual museum that reckons with both its utopian yearnings and its cataclysmic reverberations.  Li proposes a critical framework for understanding the documentation and transmission of the socialist past that mediates between nostalgia and trauma, anticipation and retrospection, propaganda and testimony. Assembling each chapter like a memorial exhibit, Li explores how corporeal traces, archival documents, camera images, and material relics serve as commemorative media. Prison writings and police files reveal the infrastructure of state surveillance and testify to revolutionary ideals and violence, victimhood and complicity.  Photojournalism from the Great Leap Forward and documentaries from the Cultural Revolution promoted faith in communist miracles while excluding darker realities, whereas Mao memorabilia collections, factory ruins, and memorials at trauma sites remind audiences of the Chinese Revolution's unrealized dreams and staggering losses. Suvi Rautio is a part-time Course Lecturer at the Social & Cultural Anthropology discipline at University of Helsinki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era (Duke University Press, 2020) Jie Li traces the creation, preservation, and elision of memories about China's Mao era by envisioning a virtual museum that reckons with both its utopian yearnings and its cataclysmic reverberations.  Li proposes a critical framework for understanding the documentation and transmission of the socialist past that mediates between nostalgia and trauma, anticipation and retrospection, propaganda and testimony. Assembling each chapter like a memorial exhibit, Li explores how corporeal traces, archival documents, camera images, and material relics serve as commemorative media. Prison writings and police files reveal the infrastructure of state surveillance and testify to revolutionary ideals and violence, victimhood and complicity.  Photojournalism from the Great Leap Forward and documentaries from the Cultural Revolution promoted faith in communist miracles while excluding darker realities, whereas Mao memorabilia collections, factory ruins, and memorials at trauma sites remind audiences of the Chinese Revolution's unrealized dreams and staggering losses. Suvi Rautio is a part-time Course Lecturer at the Social & Cultural Anthropology discipline at University of Helsinki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Join us for Sunday service, Lighthouse Family! #LighthouseOnline

In 1959 as the process of communalising agriculture and the forced industrialisation of the Great Leap Forward led to catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, Mao was challenged at the Lushan Conference by Peng Duhai, who denounced him in ways the few party members had ever dared. Mao was temporarily marginalised from leadership of the state but not the party and Deng Xiaoping and Lui Shaoqi were the beneficiaries. These events set up Mao's political comeback in the mid 1960s and his vengeance on the party with the Cultural Revolution.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whether you believe that humans and other species have evolved or you believe in a creator of living things, this episode is going to excite you or challenge you to think outside the box. Both scenarios are worthwhile, as Tom is joined by the world renowned evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins. Trying to fully grasp how the human mind works and what role evolution plays with our emotions, thought processes and sexual selection can be overwhelming. Tom highlights the inspiring works from Richard and discusses some complex ideas from his latest book, Books Do Furnish A Life. This is a deep dive into what evolution is, and raises the question of whether or not science, technology, and the human search for meaning and exploration has surpassed our basic evolutionary need for survival. Where does that leave humanity and what options are potential solutions worth exploring? Order Richard Dawkins new book, Books Do Furnish A Life: https://amzn.to/39fEeSU [Original air date: 9-21-21]. SHOW NOTES: 0:00 | Introduction Richard Dawkins 1:34 | How The Mind Works 7:28 | Nature of Thought & Emotion 14:01 | Emergent Properties Beyond Survival 21:13 | Lack Of Evolving Creativity 29:30 | The Great Leap Forward 30:46 | Evolution of Sexual Selection 41:25 | The Handicap Principle 45:17 | Human Sexual Selection 57:13 | Genetic Variance 1:04:07 | Finding Origin of Life 1:10:55 | Natural Selection & DNA 1:27:29 | Writing Sci-Fi & Morality 1:37:58 | Hard Problem of Consciousness 1:41:32 | Memes + Hyper Connectivity CHECK OUT OUR SPONSORS Range Rover: Explore the Range Rover Sport at  https://landroverUSA.com Miro: Bring your teams to Miro's revolutionary Innovation Workspace and be faster from idea to outcome at https://miro.com. ButcherBox: Get your choice of a free protein in every box for a year, plus that $20 off your first order with code IMPACT at https://butcherbox.com/impact. What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here: If you want my help... STARTING a business: join me here at ZERO TO FOUNDER SCALING a business: see if you qualify here. Get my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox: sign up here. If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast, Tom Bilyeu's Mindset Playbook —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you. Join me live on my Twitch stream. I'm live daily from 6:30 to 8:30 am PT at www.twitch.tv/tombilyeu LISTEN TO IMPACT THEORY AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS: apple.co/impacttheory FOLLOW TOM: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeu YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China's recent tumultuous history. Drawing on ethnographic and life-history research, the book takes readers deep into a village in a mountainous region of central-eastern China known as Eyuwan. In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, villagers in this region experienced terrible trauma and far-reaching socio‑economic and political change. In the civil war (1927–1949), they were slaughtered in fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), they suffered appalling famine. Since the 1990s, mass labor outmigration has lifted local villagers out of poverty and fueled major transformations in their circumstances and practices, social and family relationships, and values and aspirations. At the heart of this book are eight tales that recreate Ginkgo Village life and the interactions between villagers and the researchers who visit them. These tales use storytelling to engender an empathetic understanding of Ginkgo Villagers' often traumatic life experiences; to present concrete details about transformations in everyday village life in an engaging manner; and to explore the challenges and rewards of fieldwork research that attempts empathetic understanding across cultures. Tamara Jacka is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. A feminist social anthropologist, her main research interests are in gender, rural-to-urban migration and social change in contemporary China. She is the author of Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (2006), which won the Francis L.K. Hsu prize for best book in East Asian Anthropology. Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China's recent tumultuous history. Drawing on ethnographic and life-history research, the book takes readers deep into a village in a mountainous region of central-eastern China known as Eyuwan. In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, villagers in this region experienced terrible trauma and far-reaching socio‑economic and political change. In the civil war (1927–1949), they were slaughtered in fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), they suffered appalling famine. Since the 1990s, mass labor outmigration has lifted local villagers out of poverty and fueled major transformations in their circumstances and practices, social and family relationships, and values and aspirations. At the heart of this book are eight tales that recreate Ginkgo Village life and the interactions between villagers and the researchers who visit them. These tales use storytelling to engender an empathetic understanding of Ginkgo Villagers' often traumatic life experiences; to present concrete details about transformations in everyday village life in an engaging manner; and to explore the challenges and rewards of fieldwork research that attempts empathetic understanding across cultures. Tamara Jacka is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. A feminist social anthropologist, her main research interests are in gender, rural-to-urban migration and social change in contemporary China. She is the author of Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (2006), which won the Francis L.K. Hsu prize for best book in East Asian Anthropology. Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China's recent tumultuous history. Drawing on ethnographic and life-history research, the book takes readers deep into a village in a mountainous region of central-eastern China known as Eyuwan. In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, villagers in this region experienced terrible trauma and far-reaching socio‑economic and political change. In the civil war (1927–1949), they were slaughtered in fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), they suffered appalling famine. Since the 1990s, mass labor outmigration has lifted local villagers out of poverty and fueled major transformations in their circumstances and practices, social and family relationships, and values and aspirations. At the heart of this book are eight tales that recreate Ginkgo Village life and the interactions between villagers and the researchers who visit them. These tales use storytelling to engender an empathetic understanding of Ginkgo Villagers' often traumatic life experiences; to present concrete details about transformations in everyday village life in an engaging manner; and to explore the challenges and rewards of fieldwork research that attempts empathetic understanding across cultures. Tamara Jacka is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. A feminist social anthropologist, her main research interests are in gender, rural-to-urban migration and social change in contemporary China. She is the author of Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (2006), which won the Francis L.K. Hsu prize for best book in East Asian Anthropology. Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China's recent tumultuous history. Drawing on ethnographic and life-history research, the book takes readers deep into a village in a mountainous region of central-eastern China known as Eyuwan. In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, villagers in this region experienced terrible trauma and far-reaching socio‑economic and political change. In the civil war (1927–1949), they were slaughtered in fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), they suffered appalling famine. Since the 1990s, mass labor outmigration has lifted local villagers out of poverty and fueled major transformations in their circumstances and practices, social and family relationships, and values and aspirations. At the heart of this book are eight tales that recreate Ginkgo Village life and the interactions between villagers and the researchers who visit them. These tales use storytelling to engender an empathetic understanding of Ginkgo Villagers' often traumatic life experiences; to present concrete details about transformations in everyday village life in an engaging manner; and to explore the challenges and rewards of fieldwork research that attempts empathetic understanding across cultures. Tamara Jacka is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. A feminist social anthropologist, her main research interests are in gender, rural-to-urban migration and social change in contemporary China. She is the author of Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (2006), which won the Francis L.K. Hsu prize for best book in East Asian Anthropology. Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

Ginkgo Village: Trauma and Transformation in Rural China (Anu Press, 2023) provides an original and powerfully intimate bottom-up perspective on China's recent tumultuous history. Drawing on ethnographic and life-history research, the book takes readers deep into a village in a mountainous region of central-eastern China known as Eyuwan. In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, villagers in this region experienced terrible trauma and far-reaching socio‑economic and political change. In the civil war (1927–1949), they were slaughtered in fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces. During the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), they suffered appalling famine. Since the 1990s, mass labor outmigration has lifted local villagers out of poverty and fueled major transformations in their circumstances and practices, social and family relationships, and values and aspirations. At the heart of this book are eight tales that recreate Ginkgo Village life and the interactions between villagers and the researchers who visit them. These tales use storytelling to engender an empathetic understanding of Ginkgo Villagers' often traumatic life experiences; to present concrete details about transformations in everyday village life in an engaging manner; and to explore the challenges and rewards of fieldwork research that attempts empathetic understanding across cultures. Tamara Jacka is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. A feminist social anthropologist, her main research interests are in gender, rural-to-urban migration and social change in contemporary China. She is the author of Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (2006), which won the Francis L.K. Hsu prize for best book in East Asian Anthropology. Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that 1949 was actually the beginning, not the end, of the Chinese revolution." Building from this premise, Andrew G. Walder's new book looks at the ways that China was transformed in the 1950s in order to understand why and how Mao's decisions and initiatives - among those of other leaders - had the effects that they did. Written for a broad reading audience, China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed (Harvard University Press, 2015)focuses on a core theme: the results of Mao's initiatives were often "unintended, unanticipated, and unwanted," by Mao himself, the party leadership, and the broader population. To help readers understand why this is important and how it happened, the first part of Walder's book offers a detailed and compelling account of the Communist Party's road to power and the legacy of this struggle for what happened after, including a military mobilization that formed the bureaucratic foundation for the new Chinese state, an organization oriented toward discipline and unity, and a flawed economic system imported from the Soviet Union. (Walder pays special attention to the differences in party tactics for mobilizing the cities and countryside.) The later chapters explore the transformations in the party in the 1950s and after, including a significant change in the meaning and motives for party membership that spurred Mao to enact measures with consequences ranging from counterproductive to devastating. China Under Mao analyzes these consequences, including the political and organizational causes of the massive failure of the Great Leap Forward and its aftermath. The book ends with a call to rethink Mao's legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this gripping episode of On the Wrong Side of History, host Danny takes you on a journey through five catastrophic moments that shaped our world: the Bay of Pigs invasion, McCarthyism, the Partition of India, the Rwanda Genocide, and the Great Leap Forward. Discover how fear, overconfidence, and misjudgments led to disasters that still echo in today's geopolitical landscape. Through educational storytelling, we explore the factors behind these failures, the human cost, and the lessons they teach us about power, ambition, and responsibility. To unlock the full episode and gain access to our extensive back catalogue, consider becoming a premium subscriber on Apple Podcasts or Patreon. And don't forget to visit englishpluspodcast.com for even more content, including articles, in-depth studies, and our brand-new audio series now available in our English Plus Podcast's shop!

Vejas Liulevicius is a historian specializing in Germany and Eastern Europe, who has lectured extensively on Marxism and the rise, the reign, and the fall of Communism. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep444-sc See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: Vejas's Courses: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/vejas-gabriel-liulevicius Vejas's Books: https://amzn.to/4e3R1rz Vejas's Audible: https://adbl.co/4esRrHt SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drinks. Go to https://drinkag1.com/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex Notion: Note-taking and team collaboration. Go to https://notion.com/lex LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex Eight Sleep: Temp-controlled smart mattress. Go to https://eightsleep.com/lex OUTLINE: (00:00) - Introduction (08:48) - Marxism (36:33) - Anarchism (51:30) - The Communist Manifesto (1:00:29) - Communism in the Soviet Union (1:20:23) - Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin (1:30:11) - Stalin (1:37:26) - Holodomor (1:51:16) - The Great Terror (2:04:17) - Totalitarianism (2:15:19) - Response to Darryl Cooper (2:30:27) - Nazis vs Communists in Germany (2:36:50) - Mao (2:41:57) - Great Leap Forward (2:48:58) - China after Mao (2:54:30) - North Korea (2:58:34) - Communism in US (3:06:04) - Russia after Soviet Union (3:17:35) - Advice for Lex (3:25:17) - Book recommendations (3:28:16) - Advice for young people (3:35:08) - Hope PODCAST LINKS: - Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips SOCIAL LINKS: - X: https://x.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://instagram.com/lexfridman - TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://facebook.com/lexfridman - Patreon: https://patreon.com/lexfridman - Telegram: https://t.me/lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman

GET YOUR PAMPHLET TODAY: https://www.jdfmccann.com/pamphletGSTK out now on YoutuBe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XivuZOzcUUsJoin the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jdfmccannBuy the books: https://www.jdfmccann.com/books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for part 2! This time, we talk about what Mao decides to do after a successful revolution. Ambitious projects are launched like The Great Leap Forward. The Great Chinese Famine ensues. 
Sources: Baum, Richard. The Fall and Rise of China. The Teaching Company, 2010. Chang, Jung, and Jon Halliday. Mao: The Unknown Story. Random House, 2012. Han, Dongping. The Unknown Cultural Revolution. Monthly Review Press, 2008. Meisner, Maurice J. Mao's China and after: A History of the People's Republic. Free Press, 1999. Underground Theory. Stichting InterArt, 2021. Walder, Andrew G. Agents of Disorder: Inside China's Cultural Revolution. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.


Every cultural revolution needs its symbols: In Governor Tim Walz' Minnesota, the agenda of burn it down to build back better started with riots in the streets but it continued with a literal rebranding of the state. Does America's Great Leap Forward sound Minnesota Nice?Discover more at Enjoyer.com/PodcastFollow James on X: @downi75 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michiganenjoyer.substack.com

Rerun: Chairman Mao Zedong swam in the Yangtze River on 25th July, 1966. Despite being in his Seventies, the leader was said by party propagandists (and hence every newspaper in China) to have set a world-record pace of nearly 15 km in 65 min.  This piece of political theatre showed the world that the public face of the Chinese Communist party was in robust physical shape (despite reports in the West to the contrary), and reset Mao's image in China after his disastrous ‘Great Leap Forward' had claimed the lives of millions of people. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly unpick the symbolism of this iconic event; explain how Mao leveraged the publicity to reconsolidate his power; and reveal what Mao got VERY wrong about sparrows…  Further Reading: • ‘The Chairman's Historic Swim' (TIME, 1999): http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054250,00.html • ‘Power of symbolism: The swim that changed Chinese history' (SupChina, 2021): https://supchina.com/2021/07/14/power-of-symbolism-the-swim-that-changed-chinese-history/ • ‘This photo triggered China's Cultural Revolution' (Vox, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXByOrRrO7c&feature=emb_ti ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?' Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday…  … But

Chinese hackers are stepping up their game, according to Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for Britain's MI6. In an encore episode of Mic Drop, he says Chinese hackers are taking on a new swagger in cyberspace and borrowing things from a familiar playbook: a Russian one.

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we get into part 3 of our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with an amazing discussion of The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution!  If you haven't already listened to part 1 of the series, on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, or part 2 on The Chinese Revolution & Civil War, be sure to go back and check those out because we pick up right where we left off last time.  With these final two episodes in the series, we enter the period where various ideological traditions diverge in their analysis of the events, but regardless of what ideological background you come from, we encourage you to listen to these and engage with the information, as we believe the information will help you deepen your own analysis regardless of your ideological position.   Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future. ----------------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left Radio

Last time we spoke about the first Guangdong-Guangxi War. The First Anhui-Zhili War not only affected northern China, it also put into motion many events in the south. Viceroy Lu Rongting, working for Duan Qirui and his Anhui Clique was sent south to take over the position as governor of Guangdong. But those already in the Guangdong Clique wanted nothing to do with the north, nor with Lu Rongting and this led to conflict. A bitter struggle emerged between the southern cliques, all seeking to influence the Guangzhou southern government. Forces from Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan invaded Guangdong and it looked like they would have their way, until Chen Jiongming entered the scene. Chen Jiongming led the Guangdong Clique beside the common people of the province to rid themselves of the invaders resulting in the first Guangdong-Guangxi war. This resulted in the near annihilation of the Old Guangxi Clique and the return of Dr Sun Yat-Sen to Guangzhou.   #100 The Spirit Soldier Rebellions   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Hey before we jump into it, just wanted to acknowledge this is episode 100 for the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, sheesh. Thank you all for surviving this far into the wild story of China's Century of Humiliation, you are all awesome. Perhaps if you got a moment, could you do me a huge favor? Unlike Youtube with a built in comment section, its hard to get feedback for audio podcasts. If you get a second could you toss feedback, what you like, what you don't like, suggestions going forward anything. You can toss it to the Pacific War Channel Discord server or literally just comment any video over at the Pacific War Channel. Would mean a lot to me, lets get on with the show! As one can imagine, China's warlord era was not something one would refer to as stable. After the absolute mess Yuan Shikai made before his death he basically provided the perfect environment for any wannabe strongman to compete for their place amongst the warlords. The warlords fleeced their respective regions of control to pay for their private armies. They would overly tax, steal away funds and get involved in just about any means to acquire more money to pay their soldiers. Even after fleecing the population, these warlords would then allow their troops to plunder, rape and enslave. Combine this with the incredible amount of regionals wars, plus natural disasters, famine and an insane rise in banditry, it was not a great time to live in China to say the least. Some regions suffered more than others. The less developed provinces, the more remote areas of China, typically in the center, south and west were hit the worst. Here the common people were poor, more isolated and when major crises occurred, they were far less likely to see any outside assistance. The warlord armies in these regions were less equipped, less fed, less disciplined compared to their Northern or coastal counterparts. The troops of these warlords treated the citizenry especially bad. As a result of the unrelenting hardship, the peasants of these parts of China perceived the warlord soldiers, tax collectors and foreign state agents as literal parasites, hell wouldn't you? In a rather vain attempt to rid themselves of these parasites, the peasants launched a large number of uprisings, riots and protests. Some were tiny villages squabbles, others could bring down warlords. They often came directly after a bad harvest season. Some but not all saw peasants join secret societies, acting as self defense forces….yes it sounds exactly like the Yihetuan all over again. Yet in most cases these peasant groups were not coordinated enough to really make a dent, more often than naught, warlords crushed them. Now after the National Protection War against Yuan Shikai, the provinces of Hubei and Sichuan fell into miserable chaos. As we have talked about in the previous episode where I introduced the Southern Warlords, Sichuan province literally was cut up into pieces and dominated by a large number of what I would call Petty Warlords. Some of these Petty Warlords had little more than a few villages under their thumb, others led armies in the several tens of thousands. The situation in Hubei was not as bad, but comparable, seeing numerous warlords battle each other, resulting in hundreds of thousands of soldiers, militiamen and bandits roaming both provinces. To complicate things, these Petty Warlords in a means to try and bolster themselves often flirted with the Beiyang government. They did so similar to how the last episode saw figures trying to negotiate north-south resolutions, basically they would acknowledge the authority of the Beiyang government. The two provinces were also affected by socio-ethnic divisions. Within the valley and plains of Sichuan and Hubei were mostly Han Chinese, but in the highlands there were many non Han such as Miao and Tujia. For those interested, the Miao people speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong-Mien languages. Something notable about the Miao is how their women historically exercised more independence, especially in terms of socio-political mobility. Unlike the majority of asian cultures at the time, Miao women had the freedom to choose the men they marry. The Tujia people speak Tujia, a Sino-Tibetan language, they were at the zenith of their power under the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu basically adopted a carrot and stick approach to the Tujia, by gifting compliant chieftains and hindered non compliant ones. The Tujia resented any central body trying to exert control over them and during the Taiping Rebellion many flocked to the Taiping. These non han groups felt oppressed and historically had always resisted Han immigration into their lands. The highlanders were much more versed in organized self defense forces and thus prone more so to uprising.  The environments these people lived in were the type to foster ancestor worship and belief in magic, spiritualism, possession and such. Within the context of these people struggling for further autonomy this led to the development of “spirit soldiers”. Similar to the Yihetuan, this was the belief people could summon divine beings that would fight alongside or possess them, granting them power. These beliefs were also part of messianic and apocalyptic movements, think of the White Lotus apocalypse. There were many who believed the spirit soldiers would help establish a new and fair rule on earth. In 1920 there was a large power vacuum that hit western Hubei province. A 30,000 strong army commanded by the Warlords Li Tiancai, Bao Wenwei, Lan Tianwei and Wang Tianzong came into the area. The reason for this was because Wang Zhanyuan the governor of Hubei had evicted them from the Enshi-Hefeng area. Having suffered so greatly, the peasants of Hubei and Sichuan became increasingly discontent and in 1920, major conflicts emerged. A group of Taoist priests began a spiritual movement with a militant wing behind it. They were fighting against over taxation in Lichuan of Hubei province and the abuses upon them by warlord troops. In the beginning they were no more than 100 people chanting the slogan "Kill the Warlords and Out with Rotten Officials and Loafers". Their slogans were very appealing and as more people joined up the priests began to tell them they could bless them to become spirit soldiers through magical rituals. Again similar to the Yihetuan, these rituals consisted of acts like drinking special potions or consuming ashes of various things like burned amulets. Supposedly this would make the spirit soldiers invulnerable to gunfire and raise their bravery, so yeah it really does feel like the Boxer Movement 2.0. Of course these young males were emboldened and felt they could mount a serious rebellion against the warlord troops, who were vastly better armed. The spirit soldiers typically were armed with melee weapons such as spears or a dao. They quickly overran Lichuan county and killed the local magistrate there. Upon that success further uprisings sprang up like wildfire.  After the taking of Lichuan it is estimated the spirit soldiers numbered over 10,000 and they would only continue to grow. Given their numbers, they were gradually beginning to organize themselves seriously, though they would still operate in numerous cells, they never unified. Three main spirit armies emerged alongside countless militias. They rarely coordinated, lacked real military training, had very few firearms, no uniforms, but nonetheless tried to act like real armies. They implemented military ranks and identified as such with yellow bands around their left hands middle finger, the color yellow being their official movement color. Similar to the Taiping Rebellion, which they definitely took inspiration from. Major spirit soldier armies and militias wore distinct colors based on their region. For example in western Hubei, they wore red turbans and sashes, many also carried red flags with their leaders' names inscribed upon them or with slogans. Some of these slogans were about “heavenly kingdoms being established on earth” yes Hong Xiuquan would approve.  These spirit soldier groups did not want to seize power, nor did they have any real revolutionary ideologies. Even from a class point of view, they were not exactly championing the impoverished or anything, when they took over counties they did not change the counties social order. Typically they stormed a county, killed or replaced the magistrate with someone they deemed to be a fair person. Ironically this often led to an even more corrupt person taking the magistrate position, making the lives of people worse. But you know what, when these spirit soldiers showed up to your county, as a regular peasant you were probably pretty happy about it, because anything was better than being ruled by a warlord. The great thing about the Spirit armies was when they came to your town they fought the tax and rent collectors off alongside warlord troops and bandits. It was said, under spirit rule, the people could finally travel unarmed without fear. Now soldiers no matter what god or spirit resides within them need to eat, thus money was required. To make ends meet the Spirit armies fought bandits and warlords and seized control over salt and opium trade routes running from Sichuan and Guizhou through western Hubei. Just like the Yihetuan, the Spirit soldiers also persecuted christians and foreigners. Most of them were under the belief western modernization efforts and christianity were the reason for all of china's troubles.  Once the Spirit soldier rebellion began to see tens of thousands enlist, they gradually advanced west into Sichuan province. There lies a regional trade hub, the city of Wanzhou, lying on the upper reaches of the 3 gorges of the Yangtze River. In the late part of 1920, a spirit army from Lichuan approached Wanzhou, spreading slogans of their movement, such as "Stand Against Rents and Taxes, Kill the Grey Dogs". Gray dogs refers to warlord troops. Now they did not attack Wanzhou, instead they allowed members to infiltrate the city and the local towns to mass recruit. After a few months they managed to nearly gain 5000 new spirit soldiers. They also set up a military HQ at a local temple dedicated to Yama. For those unaware Yama is a deity shared by Hindus and Buddhists. This temple was dedicated to the Buddhist variety of Yama. Yama here is regarded as one of the 20-24 Devas, a group of protective Dharmapalas. If you were a spirit soldier, it would be an ideal location to set up shop, +20 to spirituality and such. They were armed mostly with bamboo spears when they assaulted Wanzhou on March 5th of 1921. The assault was performed in two waves of roughly 2000 spirit soldiers each. Despite being armed with firearms, the local warlord troops were terrified by the tenacity of the spirit soldiers who very much performed like Boxers. They fought bare chested, unafraid of bullets, some performed martial arts and incantations. Just like what happened to Qing militia's and green standard troops in 1900, the warlord troops were terrified the spirit soldiers might actually be wielding magic, and soon routed fleeing Wanzhou's outskirts to hide behind fortified walls in the inner city.  The Spirit troops stormed through Wanzhou quickly seizing most of the city, however unlike a warlord army who would have plundered and left or heavily fortified the city, well the spirit army was simply not that kind of army. As soon as they took footholds within, they began performing public incantations and rituals. Basically they were doing exactly what the Boxers had done, however the Boxers had been facing governmental forces who were not really keen on fighting back. For the spirit soldiers their enemy were warlords who relied on fleecing the population and Wanzhou was a major trade center, prime real estate. The warlord forces fortified parts of the inner city, hiding behind walls where the Spirit troops simply could not breach, nor did they try to do so. After 3 days, the Warlord leaders slapped their troops around, telling them not to be afraid of magic and they launched a counter attack on the 8th. That day saw brutal street to street fighting, which did benefit the melee wielding spirit warriors, but guns certainly would win the day. After an entire day of battle, the spirit forces were pushed out of the city. Nearly 500 were killed during the battle, the majority being spirit soldiers. On the 12th, the Warlord Chou Fu-yu after receiving distressed requests for help arrived in Wanzhou with reinforcements. Once he figured out they were holding up at the Yama temple he organized an offensive against their HQ. Chou Fu-yu's forces stormed the temple massacring over 1000 of them. Chou Fu-yu's men specifically hunted down their leadership, executing them publicly to send a message. After seeing the carnage the spirit army collapsed and fled the Wanzhou area swiftly, most would return to civilian life, though others would fight for another day. Those who chose to keep championing the cause formed small militia groups that honestly were more akin to Honghuzi. Local officials in Hubei and Sichuan would refer to them as such "the whole country districts [were] laid waste, by these rebels who plundered wherever they went". The spirit milita's did not attempt to seize any significant towns or cities, they simply stormed them hunting for christians and foreigners, before moving to the next. They would do this for years in the Hubei-Sichuan region with power bases located along their border. Now despite the major setback at Wanzhou, the spirit armies would continue to expand, but instead of heading westwards into Sichuan, they turned back to Hubei. This had a large effect on Hubei based warlords who sometimes were pushed out of their spheres of influence. Spirit armies seized Yichang, Badong, Xuan'en, Enshi and countless other counties. One Spirit leader, a farmers' work hand named Yuan declared himself the new Jade Emperor and attempted to seize most of western Hubei. From around 1920-1922, acting as an emperor he issued numerous edicts. For the most part he led a campaign against pretty much every class imaginable: students, farmers, business owners, land owners, merchants, the military, workers, missionaries, and more. He called for killing christians, placing blame upon them for all of China's problems, promising his followers once the Christians were all gone, China would be at peace. There were those amongst his flock and others who were Ming loyalists, the age old secret society types trying to restore the Ming Dynasty. Similar to the wannabe Jade Emperors belief that getting rid of Christianity would save China from her plight, the Ming loyalists saw the Ming Dynasty as a golden age that needed to be re-ushered in.  The Spirit armies were largely successful because of the fighting amongst the warlords of Hubei and to a lesser extent Sichuan. Western Hubei in particular was ripe with chaos, for there was not only Spirit armies and warlord armies, there were large groups of Honghuzi roaming the region. Now I could cut this story about the spirit soldiers here, but instead I will try to not allude to things in the future too much. But around 1921, armies of the Zhili Clique began to invade Hubei and Sichuan from their power base in Hunan province. The Zhili armies soon fought battles against both Hubei and Sichuan warlord armies and were gradually forced back north. In the process some Sichuan warlords seized Badong, Zigui and Xingshan, fleecing the populations for all they were worth before departing. The Sichuan warlord, Yang Sen, notably seized Lichuan and Jianshi in October of 1921 and would hold them until February of 1923. Yang Sen was a Taoist master and an avid polygamist. He met the Taoist Master Li Ching-yuen, who claimed he had lived to be 250 years old. He was quite famous, hell Wu Peifu while leading the Zhili clique would take Li Ching-yuen into his home trying to discover his secret method of living for so long. Li Ching-yuen died in 1933, but claimed he produced over 200 descendants and had 24 wives over the course of his very long life. Yang Sen wrote a famous book after his death titled “A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man” Within the book he described Li Ching-yuen "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion." Allegedly, Li was born in Qijiang county of Sichuan province back in 1677. At the age of 13 he embarked on a life of gathering herbs in the mountains amongst 3 elders of his village. At 51 years of age he served as a topography advisor in the army of General Yue Zhongqi. At 78 he retired from military service after fighting in a battle at the Golden River, whence he returned to a life of gathering herbs on Snow Mountain of Sichuan province. Due to his military service under Yue Zongqi, the government sent him a document congratulating him on his 100th birthday and this was done on his 150th and 200th. In 1908 Li co-wrote a book a disciple of his, Yang Hexuan called “the secrets of Li Qingyuns immortality”. In 1920 General Xiong Yanghe interviewed Li and published an article about him at the Nanjing university. In 1926 Wu Peifu took him under his home and Li took up a job teaching at Beijing university's Meditation Society branch. In 1927 General Yang Sen invited Li to Wanxian where the first known photograph of the man was taken, if you google him you can see it. After hearing about the famous 200+ year old man, General Chiang Kai-Shek requested he visit him in Nanjing, however when Yang Sen sent envoys to find Li at his hometown of Chenjiachang, his current wife and disciplines broke the news, he had died, the year was 1928. You might be raising an eyebrow, yes, after his supposed death, newspapers began writing pieces claiming he died in 1929, 1930, then the last report was in 1933, no one has ever verified how he died, they all just list natural cases. Now about this fascinating case of his age, Li Ching-yuen claimed he had been born in 1736, it was a professor at Chengdu University, Wu CHung-Chieh who asserted he was born in 1677. According to an article by the New York Times in 1930, Wu discovered imperial records from 1827 congratulating Li on his 150th birthday, then another one for his 200th birthday in 1877. In another New York Times article from 1928, correspondence wrote that many old men of Li's village asserted that their grandfathers all knew him as young boys and that he had been a grown man at the time. Now many researchers have pointed out his claim to be 256 years of age was a multiple of 8, considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. Many researchers also point out the prevalence of such myths as extreme old age to be very common in China and the far east. They believed he was just telling a tall tale like countless others before him. One of Li's disciplines, Master Da Liu said of his master, when Li was 130 years old he encountered an older hermit in the mountains claiming to be 500 years old. This old hermit taught him Baguazhang, that is a style of martial arts and Qigong, these are breathing, meditation and posturing exercises. Alongside dietary habits all combined was what gave the hermit his longevity. Du Liu would say “his master said that his longevity is due to the fact that he performed the exercises every day – regularly, correctly, and with sincerity – for 120 years." Sorry for the extreme side story, but I just found it fascinating haha.  So General Yang Sen had seized Lichuan and Jianshi and would be involved in numerous wars in Sichuan. He often fought the Governor of Sichuan, Xiong Kewu who was gradually defeated by 1923, where upon he took his armies into western Hubei. Yang Sen amongst other warlords exploited the absence of Xiong Kewu and invaded Sichuan. The departure of Xiong Kewu from Sichuan also allowed Petty warlord Kong Gen to seize territory and for a large Honghuzi army led by Lao Yangren to invade Yunxian. Things got so bad for Xiong Kewu, he turned to a very unlikely group to form an alliance, the Spirit Soldiers. Xiong Kewu allied the Spirit armies encamped at Enshi and Hefeng. In 1924 a large part of Xiong Kewu's army were advancing through the Wu Valley, trying to link up with him. The Wu valley was a strategic stronghold for the Spirit armies, thus in order to gain free passage he joined up with them. Chaos would reign supreme in both Hubei and Sichuan for many years, not aided much when General Yang Sen took the governorship over Sichuan. Once governor there he provoked several of his loose allies who all formed a coalition to oust him from his position by early 1925. Like Xiong Kewu, now it was Yang Sen retreating west into Hubei, eventually forming a base at Badong. One of his opponents, the Petty warlord Yuan Zuming, a member of the Guizhou clique invaded the region and seized Lichuan and Shinan, before setting his eyes on Hefeng. Meanwhile the Spirit Armies, bolstered by Xiong Kewu spread again into Sichuan where they offered protection to locals from warlord troops and Honghuzi. They fought a large battle around Wangying that allegedly turned the local river crimson red with blood. By early 1926 the Spirit movement had surged past 100,000 troops and dominated over 40 counties in Hubei. Yet they never fully centralized their organization, rarely coordinated between armies and differing groups and were not heavily armed with firearms. Honestly by becoming a larger force and by becoming more sedentary, it actually spelt their doom. While they were smaller and more mobile, they were harder to catch and less appetizing to warlord armies, now they were fully on the menu. In 1926 three divisions of warlord troops were sent against them. The Spirit armies were absolutely crushed in waves of one sided battles. Their leaders were hunted down and executed, that is if they did not die on the battlefield or simply off themselves prior to being caught. Yet 1926 would bring an entirely new element at play, it was when the Northern Expedition began and such a colossal event would save the Spirit soldiers from complete annihilation.  Don't want to give anything away, but the Northern Expedition would affect both Yang Sen and Xiong Kewu and by proxy the areas they controlled. This would cause further chaos in Hubei and Sichuan which in turn would be exploited by countless figures. For example a large Honghuzi army of Lao Yangren, perhaps 20,000 men strong or more ran rampant in both provinces. Honghuzi loved to follow behind warlord armies, exploiting areas they passed through since the rival warlords would have been kicked out. With the Northern Expedition brushing aside countless warlords in the area, both Honghuzi and Spirit soldiers expanded. Some Spirit Soldiers even decided to join up with a new group hitting the scene, Red Armies. The CCP were falling into a war with the KMT and they began to latch onto anyone who would join forces with them. Two prominent CCP figures, Xu Xiangqian and He Long worked with Spirit Soldiers. He Long came to view them as nothing more than another version of Honghuzi, but acknowledged they wanted to protect the local people which was admirable. Their quasi alliance allowed the Spirit Soldiers to expand into northern and central Sichuan, western Henan and eastern Guizhou well into the 1930s. Despite the incredible amount of wars that would occur over the decades, the last known Spirit Army rebellion would take place in February of 1959.  As you can imagine it was an anti-communist uprising, that occurred in Sizhuang county of Henan province. This was directly a result of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward enacted the year prior. For those who don't know, the Great Leap Forward encompassed a change of pretty much all aspects of Chinese society and it was disastrous to say the least. Mao sought to reconstruct the entire nation from an agrarian economy into a real industrialized society, but on fast forward mode. He did so via peoples communes, while decreeing every possible effort to increase grain yield must be done so they could bring industry to rural China. This resulted in one of the worst man made famines in history. Alongside this came an economic disaster, unbelievable governmental abuses upon the people. An estimated 15-55 million would die. Many resisted the government's actions, but the government had decreed no one could leave their village or farms, thus it made it extremely difficult to coordinate a resistance movement. Desperate peasants tried to resist, alongside countless secret societies. Numerous rebellions broke out, but they were quite small in scale. Armed resistance broke out in Henan in 1959, where large bandit groups began to steal weapons from armories and attacked major roadways. A secret society known as the “shenbingtuan / regiment of spirit soldiers” gathered 1200 fighters from hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi and began to attack government officers in Sizhuang county. It took the red army roughly 20 days to quell the uprising. Thus ended the Spirit Soldier movement. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Spirit Soldier Movement was a drop in the bucket for China's Warlord Era. They were a group amongst many others who tried to navigate a very cruel world. As comedic as they may come off, they were brave people who were trying to protect the population from what they deemed to be villains, many became twisted as a result.

Show Notes and Transcript Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution, joins Hearts of Oak to share her harrowing experiences in China and discusses her book "Mao's America," which draws parallels between the Cultural Revolution and the current woke movement in America.  Fresh from a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, which has amassed a whopping 5M+ views on X/Twitter, Xi recounts to us the chaos and fear of the Cultural Revolution, comparing the Red Guards in China to modern movements like BLM and Antifa, exposing the manipulation of youth for political gain.  She warns against the destructive nature of cancel culture and emphasizes the importance of preserving American values.  Xi reflects on her journey to America and addresses the impact of communist regimes on families and personal freedoms and stresses the need to resist authoritarian control for the sake of freedom and democracy. Xi Van Fleet describes herself as “Chinese by birth; American by choice, survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution, defender of liberty.” She was born in China, lived through the Cultural Revolution, and was sent to work in the countryside at the age of 16. After Mao's death she was able to go to college to study English and has lived in the United States since 1986. In 2021, she delivered a school board speech in Loudoun County, Virginia against Critical Race Theory that went viral and ignited national conservative media attention. She now devotes her time and energies full time to warning about the parallels between Mao's Cultural Revolution in China and what's unfolding in America today.  Connect with Xi... X/Twitter            x.com/XVanFleet *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin    (Hearts of Oak) And I'm delighted to have Xi Van Fleet with us today. Xi, thank you so much for joining us today. (Xi van Fleet) Well, thank you so much for finding me all the way from the UK. This is amazing. I will thank Karen Siegemund. I know you were speaking at an AFA conference recently, and Karen was singing your praises. And when we talked last week or a week before, she had mentioned you. So, it's wonderful to have you. I've been having the pleasure of listening to your book. But obviously, before we get into that, people can find you at your Twitter handle, @XVanFleet. And that is what they will find if they head over. Your book is Mao's America. It is available everywhere in the UK. I know I listened to it as a audio book. You can get as a hardback also. Childhood in China And I found it fascinating and riveting. But maybe we can jump in. It's you describe it as a an aspiring survivor of Mao's cultural revolution in china, and you do in it make a a passionate case that history is repeating itself as the woke revolution spreads across America and you lived through the cultural revolution; you fled, you left China and you've spent many, many years in America. I think in Virginia where I've been many times in the last two years actually all over Virginia. I know Virginia more than any other state in the US but, maybe I can ask you first; tell us about growing up in China. Our audience, 50% U.S., 50% U.K. Few of them will have any idea of what that was like. But maybe what are some of your childhood memories of growing up in China? Well, the first thing I can say is that before the Cultural Revolution, my memory was – I just don't have much memory because one thing, it was not –, not a lot going on. So, in a way, I call it eventless, but it's not. It's not eventless. But for a child like me, it's relatively calm. So to me, my memory kind of started in the cultural revolution. And to me, it's overnight. And I was not even seven. And people question, how can you remember? Yes, you remember when your whole world was turned upside down. And it's just almost overnight and class was canceled. One day I went to the classroom and I saw the writing on the blackboard by the teacher that there's no class for three days. And that three days lasted for two years and for some others, as long as four years. And it's absolute chaos. Why school was closed? Because no one was running the school. All the teachers and administrators were ousted by who? By the kids. Kids. So, for me, it's elementary school. And I witnessed some violence, but it's not lethal, of course. But that's not the case in middle school and in universities. And we heard stories, even though I was too little to go to those places and witness the violence. But many, many people died. The teachers, professors, and school administrators in the hands of the Red Guards. And as I mentioned in my book, the first killing happened in the middle school for girls in Beijing. Just girls, young girls, 12 to 16, somehow was able to just turn around and regard their principals as enemies. And they would hate their principal so much that they want to kill her, and they did. And meanwhile, it's chaos. It's absolute chaos everywhere. So since there's no class, so we just went to the street. And every day we witnessed some kind of a struggle session. I think this term has come into the English vocabulary, struggle session. It's public trial of the presumed enemy of the state. And it can be anyone. So, one day, and I was with my friend looking at all this parade of the enemies and found out, and I noticed that's her father, our neighbour. And that really brought close to me that anyone, anyone can be the enemy. And I was just really praying my father wouldn't make any mistakes so that he would be paraded like that. And then destruction, destruction everywhere. everywhere, and that lasted. That's pretty much my memory of the 10 years of Cultural Revolution, and because it lasted until Mao's death in 1976. I graduated from high school in 1975, and what to do after you graduate? Everyone had to go to the countryside because the Cultural revolution has destroyed all the economy; everything. There's no job. And for the young people, there's only one way out, go to the countryside, and of course, Mao said, "you go to the countryside and get re-educated by the peasants to be a better communist." And again, the word re-education now made into the English vocabulary. Tell us about that. That term re-education is a term that in the West we don't really understand, but is a powerful concept, I guess, by the government. Tell us what re-education meant in China, as you saw it. Actually, this word, they have a different, but there are different words for the same concept. It started with thought reform. Thought reform is something that everyone, everyone had to go through after the communists took over China. So, because we all had bad thoughts, bad education, bad ideas put in our head, and that's not good. It's not allowed. So, we all have to go through this process called thought reform. Or you can say indoctrination, brainwash, whatever. And so during the Cultural Revolution, they had a new term for it. It's re-education. Sounds better. And so what you do? You get your re-education through physical labor. Go to the countryside. And the culture revolution, that was 66 to 76, 1966 to 1976. So, that was your whole time in high school growing up. That's all. But then before, it wasn't that this suddenly comes in and everything changes. The Great Leap Forward was before that. And the amount of people that died, tens of millions, that's a number so difficult for anyone who's never experienced that to understand. But I've seen figures of 40, 50 million. It's huge. It's huge. Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned it. Why Mao want to launch this cultural revolution? I did not know. Many people did not know. We just went through it. We suffered. And we did not know why. I had no idea until way after I came here, when I was able to read different sources of materials. And then I said, my God. It took, you know, I went through this whole disaster, this catastrophe, and suffered so much, everyone, and now I know why. Let me go back to the Great Leap Forward that you mentioned, and that was in the late 50s and early 60s that Mao launched this movement called Great Leap Forward. What he wanted to do, he wanted to modernize China. And, okay, modernize not to raise the living standard for the people. No, he wanted to do one thing, one thing only. He wanted to produce steel. And he wanted to produce steel so that, and the plan was that in 15 years, in 10 years, we'll surpass the production in the UK, and 15 years, surpass the United States. Why steal? Why not something else? Of course, steel is going to be useful for his weapon, for whatever, for his power. So, everyone has to do that. Everyone, school kids, urban dwellers, peasants, everyone has to do one thing. The whole country mobilized to do one thing, to make steel. And how do you make steel? Yo u make a homemade furnace, backyard, and you get doorknobs and kitchen utensils, whatever, and throw it into the furnace and come out junk, of course. So, that lasted like two years and a total failure. Not just that, all the crops failed because no one was working in the fields. So up to 50, we don't know the number. We would never know the number because the numbers will never be released unless, you know, CCP is out of power. Up to 50 million people starved to death. So, for a dictatorship, that's still a big deal. It is a big deal. You know, so Mao was forced to take a back seat. And so let someone else, which was the president of China, Liu Shaoqi, took over and to recover from that disaster, focused on economy. That was 1962. And as a dictator, Mao was not going to take it. He wanted his power, not just power. He still had power. He wanted absolute power. And that was his reason to launch the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was for one reason alone, get power back from his political, he considered them political enemy. So it's all about power. And that is exactly what happened in the West, of course, including UK. Some people want power. They want not just power, but absolute and permanent power. And that's why it's so similar. And what do they do? You know, they use the young people. They use the youth, the indoctrinated youth. And in China, it's Red Guards. In the West, it's BLMers, Antifa, Social Justice Warriors. I don't know. Okay, you may have some other names. It's all the same, all the same. Now, they are pro-Hamas activists. They're all the same. They're just like the Red Guards. They came from the same source, government schools, from the same indoctrination, Marxist-Communist indoctrination. You mentioned the Red Guards, and if people have read the book and understand, I think your book is a great eye-opener into the background of Communist China that most people have no idea about. But you have a whole chapter talking about the Red Guards and the rallies you went to, and that was the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Were the Red Guards, I know you're very young at this stage, but were they part of the Great Leap Forward, what had happened before, or did they just come around the Cultural Revolution and were Mao's kind of personal guards or personal army? Yeah, no, they were too young for the, most of them were too young for the Great Leap Forward. And maybe some college students still participated as a little kid. But, those are the kids that went through t he indoctrination. By then, in 1966, Mao had control of the education system for 17 years. That's enough to produce a whole generation of brainwashed, indoctrinated youth who knew nothing, nothing, but Mao was their great leader. Not only great leader, Mao was their real father, Mao was their god and their only purpose of life is follow Mao's instruction and do whatever Mao asked them to do. And what Mao wanted them to do? Mao wants them to take the power off the hands of those CCP bureaucrats. That's what it is. So, And as young people, as students, whenever you think people in power, you think about your teacher first, because the teacher was the one in the classroom tell you what to do every day. And then the school administrations. So, that's what they started with. They started to take power from those in the universities or schools, and then they go to the larger society and everyone. This is really hard to understand, but that's the fact that the Cultural Revolution was a revolution against the CCP, against the CCP government, against the CCP's institutions, because Mao wanted his power from the hands of those he no longer trusted. And the Red Guards were just used as political pawns. Just like today, those things, students think they are doing something that for some great cause. They don't know history. They have no clue. If they knew anything of the Cultural Revolution, they would say, 'oh, maybe this is history repeating.' It is history repeating for people who know, for people who lived through it. Well, yeah, and another concept used in the book, which people understand today, and you've applied it back then, is cancel culture, and that's in Chapter 7. And you talk about in China, I'll talk about there and then we'll take it up to the present and what we see, but you talk about destroying the four olds. Tell us about that. Yes. And so people think cancel culture is something new. It's not. In China, it has a different name. It's called smashing the four olds. Old ideas, old tradition, old custom, and old habits. It is really the Chinese civilization, Chinese traditional culture. So, everything that is not communist has to be destroyed. Everything. And again, for the kids, what you go first, you go something obvious. You go after the statues. Yeah, what statues? And in China, there are not as many statues in the public places as in the West. They are mostly in temples and churches. They went into the temples and mostly Buddhist temples, Confucian temples with statues destroyed them and church destroyed them. And so when I saw what's going on in the West, I just hope they knew a little bit of history, that this has been done before and then change names. And so, because any traditional names is considered for old then has to be destroyed. And names of streets, institutions, even personal names. I'm sure that happened in UK, Okay, but that happened everywhere in the United States, in Virginia. Because in Virginia, a lot of schools were named after the founding fathers who are Virginians and just have to change them. And we did the same thing in China. The names of streets are changing into anti-imperial street, revolutionary street, whatever. And I saw that, absolutely. And then people really have problem figuring out where to meet because the name keep changing. It's just very, very confusing chaos. And then people also ask me, you know, anyone to stop them? Well...? Defund the police. Here we call it defund the police. There it's called smashing the criminal justice systems. All the law enforcement was dismantled. There's no one to stop the Red Guards. And who can stop it? Because, Mao declared he was the red commander-in-chief for his little red guards. No one dared to stop them. And that's, again, that's what's happening here. Yeah, that's exactly what's happening here. The Democratic Party in the United States, the Democratic Party is behind, behind the BMM, behind the Antifa, they're behind all the student movement. That's why, you know, and then the conservatives, we back the blue. But the blue, it actually will have orders not to do anything, just like China. They I want to pick up on some other concepts of the book, but you start the book talking about that experience of speaking in Loudoun County at those school board meetings. What prompted you to do that? Because to speak publicly is quite a thing for someone who hasn't spoken, and the vast majority of people have not. But, I enjoy doing videos of people. I don't necessarily enjoy speaking publicly. And that is a very different thing. So, what led you and persuaded you that you had to speak publicly? Yeah, thank you. That's a good question. And I now, I speak everywhere and I'm speaking to you now, but I never dreamed that is something I dare to do. I was as quiet as a mouse, like typical Asian immigrant. I just mind my own business. And also when I came here in 1986, I had this idea that I left communism behind me and I come to this greatest country on earth and a country, the freedom will be guaranteed. There's nothing to worry. And I never really pay much attention to politics. Until you start to see science here and there. And then probably my earliest memory would be the, political correctness, that we were told that we have to say certain things, certain ways, and they keep changing the rule. So, and I just feel like that's just kind of like cultural revolution. But still, I did not really lose my sleep over those things, and but it's become more and more and not just you know in the media but my workplace in my child school and in my immediate environment I saw this kind of thing that remind me of cultural revolution still I did not do anything never thought I would do anything until 2020, until 2020. And when I saw the cities being burned and the state of violence, the riots, the absolute slogan that is nothing short of communist slogans. I just could not sit back anymore. And so I, I decided to get involved, but only, you know, small steps. I got involved with local conservative organizations and then went to the school board. And even for the school board, I thought, well, you know, it's local. It's local, you know, it's my county's school board. And I was so thankful I had to have, they required to wear the mask. I said, thank goodness. So no one knew what I really looked like. And it was very nerve-wracking, but i finished that I said okay i did my duty. I have no idea that it went viral. I thought why it went viral, everybody knew everybody knew this is like cultural revolution, well, well, well, well, what a surprise that I found out that people have no idea and most of the people in that room in the school board meeting in Rome, probably the first time they heard about the Cultural Revolution. And then, of course, Fox News called, and then people want to know more, and I still feel like, you know, even though I was invited to talk and an interview here and there, I just don't think it's enough, and I went to one meeting, it's a conservative meeting, and I was talking about the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards, 4-0s, and I noticed people down there, you know, the audience, they look like, what? I said, no, no, no. It is not something that people just can learn in a short meeting here or there, so that's the time I said, I have to do more. And never ever, just like I never dreamed of speak publicly, I never dreamed of writing a book. But I feel like I got to, got to, I have to. And so in 2022, spring of 2022, I quit my job. I just decided this is what I'm called to do. And I spent a whole year and had that book down. And it must, I mean, to go from living in the US for many years, just getting on with your own business, your own life, family, all of that, to speaking at this and then ending up on a show like with Tucker. That is a, probably if you look back, you'd think, would you have made the same decision? Because, we don't know where our actions lead. We don't know. But you end up where you are, and it must be a pleasant surprise, obviously. Well, the only thing I can say is it's God's will. I really, if I were told before I went to the school board that I will be asked to speak on live TV on Fox, I would say, no, no way. I would quit right there. You know, this is not... But this also is a very humbling experience. And I really realized it's just really nothing about me. It is all about the country, not just the United States, about the West. And so... God's will. I have no idea. I have made so many times, oh, I made a flop myself, many, many times. I don't care. I don't care at this point. It's not about me. It's not about me. It's about my message. If I can get the message out, I'll do anything. Can I go in back, because you mentioned You mention in your book, I think, a conversation with your father, and he said something or a discussion that made you realize that he didn't necessarily accept everything. And I'm wondering for you growing up in that environment under Mao, what made you begin to question? What made you begin to ask? Because you're not supposed to ask questions. You're supposed to accept everything. You obviously were someone who may be asked, what was that like and what kind of questions did you have? I did not ask. There are people that are smarter than I am or they're just more politically sensitive than I was. I was just the last one to realize anything. But I did have one experience because people ask me, what did your parents tell you during the Cultural Revolution, with all the chaos going on? Nothing, nothing, because the culture is that anyone can be a snitcher, that it can be your family and it can be your spouse, can be your children, can be your parents, just anyone. And parents, smart parents don't talk to their kids. So, we never talk, discuss anything serious. It's about just daily routine. So I never really know. Even today, my father passed away 20 some years ago. I really wish I had asked him some questions. Never. So, I did not know where he stand. But one day I was doing exactly what I was indoctrinated to do. I was watching everyone else as potential counter revolutionaries. So, in my diary, I recorded there's someone making some remarks, and I think it's anti-party, it's anti-socialism, it's kind of bad. And so my father was a professional writer. He worked in the propaganda department. It's called propaganda department. Yeah, he wrote articles for the party and for speeches, you know, whatever. So, he would encourage me to write diary and he would go over and correct to improve my writing. And then when he saw that, he was kicked out very serious. And he said, do you plan to report this person? I thought he would praise me for doing the right thing to record, you know, someone saying something not politically correct. And that's the only conversation I kind of realized he did not approve what was going on. But, we never had deeper discussion. That is how bad it is. I just feel like there's so much is lost because there's no real communication between my father and the three of us, my siblings. Because it's just not safe. It's not safe to talk about serious stuff with your kids. Chapter 8 talks about family. And I know from talking to my wife, who grew up in Bulgaria, and those who live behind the Iron Curtain, the mistrust, I guess, and they've learned that up to 10% of family members were working for the government. Turning Families Against Each Other You talk about that, about how the Mao regime, I guess, turned families against each other. Were you aware of that? Is that something you look back and understand now? What was that like at the time? Yeah. That's what we were taught all our lives from kindergarten, that we have enemy everywhere. The enemy always will take any opportunity to overthrow our government and take us back to capitalism. And capitalism is where everyone suffers. And so we're trained to look out for signs, for remarks, for behavior, for gestures, and, you know, that we're supposed to report. That includes everybody. That includes your parents, your siblings, your relatives. And, yes, and it's normal. It's normal. It's considered politically correct. So, yes, we look out for anything that is not. Really proved by the party. And that is, I'm just so heartbroken when I see the same thing happening here. At my former workplace, we had this DNI, back then it was called the Diversity and Inclusion Council. And we were told, and I was included, recruited to be a member because I have identity, you know, I am a minority. So, it's say, see something, say something. And see what? See racist comment. So, if you hear any co-workers have racist comment, you're supposed to report to the council. And this is exactly the same thing. I'm sure in your case, it's exactly the same, that you're encouraged and that become a culture. And that's a communist culture. That's Marxist culture because communism, Marxism depend on the mistrust of the people to control them. Absolutely. And yeah, so Bulgaria, yeah. Any communist country. When I post something, I always hear people from all former or still communist country. You know, say, yeah, this happened in Romania. Yes, this happened in Cuba. Yes, it happened in all communist countries. And there's so many parts you talk about. I get the land reform was partially destroying and taking away the right, personal right to own property. You talk about the destruction of the family, and that was supposed to be the Destruction of Culture and Religion community and not the nuclear family. Then you go and talk about destruction of religion. And there are so many parts of kind of what makes a culture, what unites people, makes them a people. And it seems so at every turn that Mao was seeking to remove those building blocks, I guess, of society. Yes. Well, that's not something that they hide. That's what they say in the Communist Manifesto. They want to destroy the private ownership, and then they want to destroy family, and they want to destroy religion. I think it is still there's so many people today in the West believe that Marxist is an economic theory. It's not. It's a religion. It is a religion. Above all, they want to destroy Christianity, the foundation of the Western civilization. And only when they destroy religion can they destroy the rest. And that's what we see today. What was it like coming to America? Because you grew up and you come to America and you see a church on every street corner, I guess, in many cities, in many towns. Obviously, China, very different. That is not accepted. So, what was that like coming over and seeing this kind of something new that Discovering Churches in America you hadn't maybe come across before? Yeah, it was amazing. And I went to the first town I went to is a small town in Kentucky. And it's every block, every other block, there's a church. I was thinking, OK, you know, if you have a church, you have one central church. And then everybody go that. That's my way of thinking, because everything is centralized, everything. Why are there so many? You know, and it's just amazed me. But later, especially during the writing of the book, I realized that was like China before. Every other block, you will have a temple and different kind of temple. You may have a Buddhist temple. You may have a Confucius temple or Taoist temple. And you have a church. That was normal in most societies. And that's what I, when I travel around the world, that's what I saw. So, you know, if I go to a Muslim country, a mosque, I saw, what's it called? In Islam, it's a mosque. Yes, it's a mosque. Yeah, and everywhere. That was China. Every civilization has to build on some kind of faith that people share. And so I missed it because why? They destroyed all of it, absolutely destroyed it. And as in the remaining temples in my city, they were turned into parks. And so I went then and thinking this is just a park. It's for relaxing and it's for, you know, just entertainment. And those statues, they were just superstitions and it's just backward thinking in old days. So, that is how they destroyed the people's faith, not just religion. In the countryside, all those temples are all gone, gone, gone. But it still took me a long time to really, really understand why Christianity is so important to the findings of America. And I have to say, I went through the process that you call a simulation, because I wanted so much, to understand. I wanted so much to be American. So, I took the time and I took the effort to understand it, to read the books. Especially in Virginia, as you said, you love Virginia. I feel so attached to Virginia because the history, America started in Virginia. And I just tried to visit all those places of the founding fathers and understand what makes this country so unique need that. I want to do anything to come here. And that's something that the left has destroyed. They destroyed assimilation and replaced it with multiculturalism. Same in UK. What is multiculturalism? Basically, say every culture is the same. It doesn't matter. And if it's a communist culture, it's just as good as American culture or the Western civilization. And so, I I think that a lot of the newer immigrants were encouraged not to know anything about the American tradition, the American values, and stick to their own, which obviously they choose to abandon to come to this country. I think that they have been very, very successful. Not only the new immigrants know nothing or don't want to know anything about the Western civilization and the young people that born, grew up in the West know nothing about their heritage. And the only thing they know is indoctrination, Marxism, communism. That's why they're so successful. No, exactly. Just a curious question. You came to the States in 86, and you talk in your book about trying to do that and managing, and everyone was so delighted for you because it is the American dream. Wherever you go in the world, America is America. But what led you to actually applying and wanting to come to America? Well, also I described in my book because it is, no matter what kind of indoctrination that CCP put on the Chinese people, once you know a little bit of information from the outside source, you know America is great. Everyone wanted to go to America back then. But before that, I did not know. I thought America was hellish. It is the worst capitalist country in the world where the proletarians all suffer and only few people, rich people, they thrive. The rest all suffer. You would never want to go to America because you go there to suffer. But once we get the information formation. And once the, after the Cultural Revolution, they started to open up, we know it's the best country in the world. So, it's a matter of whether you could go rather than where you choose to go. And I was lucky because I was, I was working in a college teaching English and met some American teachers who came to teach during the summer and made a friend with someone one from Kentucky and that lady helped me to come to America. It's not to choose. It's like you're dying. Yeah. It's only a matter of whether you could or not. So I was just so fortunate. And I just never, now I'm thinking about it, I think this is just God's will that I came all the way here to do what? To fight against communism. 10 years later. Because you speaking out obviously has given confidence to others, individuals always. Whenever they're concerned about something and they see someone stand up and speak truth, that emboldens them, that encourages them. What has been the response to you? America has so many groups speaking up about what is happening in schools. I mean, Mums for Liberty is a phenomenal organization. Many others across the country. And that's exciting to see. But, what was that like for you after you spoke up? You must have got not only the media attention, but the thanks, I guess, from parents thanking you for speaking up. What was that like? It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. I was a little bit concerned about the Chinese community, because a lot of Chinese were still very loyal to, they think, to China, but it's not. China and the CCP are two different things. They think they are loyal to China, but they're really loyal to CCP. But, I got so many great feedbacks and support from the patriotic community in in the Chinese community. So, it's just amazing. And also the same time, because I've been to so many, I was invited by so many organizations and I met so many people and I found that there's so many people just like me, never got involved politically and especially so many parents. And when people ask me, do you think it's too late? Do you think we'll have a hope? I said, we do. The fact that I got involved and that the fact I met so many, so many parents, so many patriots got involved for the first time in their lives is that so many people really are waking up. They understand that their freedom and the future of their country is in peril and they want to do something. And that's the hope. I think it was James Lindsay who wrote the foreword or the intro, and I've had him on many times and met him last year. I love that kind of connection between his fantastic mind in understanding what is happening and you experiencing this in China and that coming together. And to me, I saw that as a perfect mix, a perfect connection complementing each other. I am amazed that I met so many people. I have been following him, listening to him on YouTube, and I met most of the people that I used to just look and admire from afar. And I met them. And James Lindsay I met quite early on and we've become friends. And he is just amazing, amazing. Tell me the just final thing. Chapter 10 was the title making of the new man and in it one little part stuck out with me that you talked about having to write a confessional letter I can't remember if it was you or a family member but I remember I think it was Jordan Peterson talking about having to do that and you realize these concepts that were there in the communist regime. Actually well, Canada is quite communist in many ways under Trudeau, but those same ways of dealing with I guess the public if they fall out of line to get them back into line to correct them that re-education. I guess it's exactly the same ways that are being used in the west and I thought that was a I was able to make that parallel as soon as I read heard that confession there I I thought that's just what Jordan Peterson has had to do. Exactly. That is required of everyone who has to go through the struggle session. And also I mentioned in my book, struggle session was part of our lives and still going on today in China. Struggle sessions have different levels. There are some that are very brutal, like the one that in the Netflix original opening scene, three-body problem, that really shook, shocked a lot of the Americans for the first time. Wow, that is struggle session, yeah. Also, there are milder version of struggle session that everyone have to go through as a kid. I have to do that in the classroom that we have this thing called political study. It's every week we have to sit and read. First of all, we have to read a mouse quotation. And then we will go around and everyone will say, according to that instruction, I did not do it quite well. Well, you know, I had a bad thought the other day, which was not up to the requirement of Mao's instruction, and I did this, and then the other kids say, yes, I saw you did this and that, and you said this and that. So, go around and around. Yes, absolutely. It's confession. Let me just remind the viewers as we finish, Mao's America available everywhere. Make sure and follow Xi Van Fleet on her Twitter page. Thank you so much, Xi, for coming on. It's a privilege talking to you, sharing your background experiences, right up to speaking truth today in America. So, thank you for coming on and sharing those thoughts and giving us those insights from your book. My thoughts are real thoughts. But, in the culture of those are bad thoughts that need to be given rid of. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we get into part 2 of our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with this absolutely terrific discussion on the Chinese Revolution & Civil War!  If you haven't already listened to part 1 of the series, on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, be sure to do so because we pick up right where we left off last time.  The next two installments will cover the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and then the Reform period up to the present day, so be sure to not miss any of those upcoming episodes! Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future.

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we get into part 3 of our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with an amazing discussion of The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution!  If you haven't already listened to part 1 of the series, on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, or part 2 on The Chinese Revolution & Civil War, be sure to go back and check those out because we pick up right where we left off last time.  With these final two episodes in the series, we enter the period where various ideological traditions diverge in their analysis of the events, but regardless of what ideological background you come from, we encourage you to listen to these and engage with the information, as we believe the information will help you deepen your own analysis regardless of your ideological position.  The final installment will drop in two weeks (with another episode in between), and will cover the Reform period, so be sure to subscribe to not miss that episode! Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future. Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory                               

Chinese hackers are stepping up their game, according to Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for Britain's MI6. He says they are taking on a new swagger in cyberspace and borrowing things from a familiar playbook: a Russian one.,

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we get into part 2 of our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with this absolutely terrific discussion on the Chinese Revolution & Civil War!  If you haven't already listened to part 1 of the series, on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, be sure to do so because we pick up right where we left off last time.  The next two installments will drop every other week (with other episodes in between), and will cover the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and the Reform period, so be sure to subscribe to not miss any of those coming episodes! Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future. Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory                               

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we launch our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with this terrific discussion on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions!  Be sure to go back and listen to the previous episode we did with Ken in the fall, which serves as a bit of an introductory work for this miniseries. The other three installments will drop every other week (with other episodes in between), and will cover the Chinese Revolution/Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and the Reform period, so be sure to subscribe to not miss any of those coming episodes! Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future.

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we launch our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with this terrific discussion on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions!  Be sure to go back and listen to the previous episode we did with Ken in the fall, which serves as a bit of an introductory work for this miniseries. The other three installments will drop every other week (with other episodes in between), and will cover the Chinese Revolution/Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and the Reform period, so be sure to subscribe to not miss any of those coming episodes! Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China's Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future. Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory                               

Sean Illing talks with economic historian Brad DeLong about his new book Slouching Towards Utopia. In it, DeLong claims that the "long twentieth century" was the most consequential period in human history, during which the institutions of rapid technological growth and globalization were created, setting humanity on a path towards improving life, defeating scarcity, and enabling real freedom. But... this ran into some problems. Sean and Brad talk about the power of markets, how the New Deal led to something approaching real social democracy, and why the Great Recession of 2008 and its aftermath signified the end of this momentous era. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area Guest: J. Bradford DeLong (@delong), author; professor of economics, U.C. Berkeley References:  Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by J. Bradford DeLong (Basic; 2022) The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek (1944) The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (1944) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter (1942) "A Short History of Enclosure in Britain" by Simon Fairlie (This Land Magazine; 2009) "China's Great Leap Forward" by Clayton D. Brown (Association for Asian Studies; 2012) What Is Property? by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1840) The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gerstle (Oxford University Press; 2022) Apple's "1984" ad (YouTube) The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes (1936) "The spectacular ongoing implosion of crypto's biggest star, explained" by Emily Stewart (Vox; Nov. 18) "Did Greenspan Add to Subprime Woes? Gramlich Says Ex-Colleague Blocked Crackdown" by Greg Ip (Wall Street Journal; June 9, 2007) "Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same," from President Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address (Jan. 27, 2010) "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" by Karl Marx (1852) Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein (Simon & Schuster; 2020) The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion by Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing (U. Chicago; 2022)   Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by:  Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Patrick Boyd Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

 Hour 1—The Daily Big 3—   Live from STUDIO G- in the heart of America- I'm STEVE GRUBER- saying the things you wish you could -every day- Fighting for you from the Foxhole of Freedom and defending this great nation—  This is THE STEVE GRUBER SHOW!   Here are 3 big things you need to know right now—   Number One—    Number Two— The worldwide blowback on the globalists is being led by ordinary farmers—that have stood up all across Europe to rejct the plans that would bankrupt their farms and allow the government takeover of food production—   Number Three— The collectivist mentality is the cancer eating away at freedom in this country and around the world—   The farms are of course one huge example of the globalist cabal trying to convince the gullible that somehow the world will be a more secure and just place if government takes over the means of production—   Bite #2   This requires almost universal ignorance of course of world history and the catastrophic failures in this exact arena many times before—   Vladimir Lenin who was responsible for the starvation of millions of Russians beginning in 1920—and stretching well into the 1950's—by then under the iron fist of Joseph Stalin—and it came about when the Soviet government seized land from farmers—many of whom were either murdered outright or shipped off to hard labor camps where they were literally worked to death—   The numbers are hard to figure but it was certainly in the millions—   Not to be out done—the greatest mass murderer in world history Chinese Communist Party Chair Mao Tse Dong laid claim to all private farmland beginning in about 1957—and by 1959 he began the so-called Great Leap Forward—when crops failed and the move to collectivist farms caused the greatest famine in world history—a man made famine mind you—and an estimated 40 to 50 million Chinese literally starved to death—and were then forgotten by the world—   The socialist apologists have a quaint little saying about you have to break a few eggs to make an omelot—well in Mao's case he killed at least 80 million of his own people in pursuit of the socialist omelot—but it appears he was the only one eating—   And lets also be very very clear about why they are targeting the farms—because it is the very same reason the communists did it beginning in Russia in 1920—its all about power—and no matter what flag you fly it under, including climate change—its about controlling the food—to control the people—   Bite #3   This is all a very important history lesson to take in—as the globalist scumbags like John Kerry keep screeching about climate change and we must shut down farms to save the world—maybe quick survey of the failures of Karl Marx—on pretty much every single thing he ever wrote in his little red book she be reviewed and discussed before the government is ever again given any control of our food supply on such a scale—   The same could be said by the way for the giant factory farms—like Smithfield, which has been owned by China now for 20 years—and is the largest meat processor in America—and Smithfield controls roughly 80 percent of all hogs in The United States—   Shocking when you hear the truth isn't it?   And when you tie that attack on agriculture into the open border policies of these same far-left globalist politicians you have to ask yourself what are they doing?   And lets be perfectly clear about this—an open border IS the policy—that's why its open—and that is why more than 10,000 illegal aliens a day come into your country—and yes it is yours—NOT theirs—and it must raise a lot of questions—   For example—what is this garbage “Bi-partisan” border security package being pushed in the Senate?    It would allow the President to shut down the border if the surge is too big—BUT would still allow 4,000 illegals a day—day after day—every single day—and that is about 1.5 million a year illegally flowing in—give or take—   Does that sound like border security to you?   No, of course not—because it is not—it is just another slap across the face to you, the American people—   Citizenship is meaningless to these people who want to be global citizens—whatever the hell that is—and send you the bill for hundreds of billions of dollars—while fentanyl deaths explode well over 100,000 each year—human trafficking including the sexual exploitation of children explodes and the anger of ordinary Americans explode as well—   We must reject the leftist worldview that has failed 100% of the time ever since the Russian Royal family was brutally murdered in a violent coup in 1917—and no, it was not a revolution—it was a violent coup—its important to understand history—   And when nations are invaded—no matter what its called—when nations are invaded—the outcome is never good if those flooding in have no regard for the nation they are flooding into—   Bite #4   But former President Trump is maligned by the media—and smeared as a racist for putting America First—which of course is not true—   I am an America First guy—and so are more than half of all Americans—so the ones trying to keep this country safe and secure are actually the mainstream folks—and not the other way around—

In the face of government repression and censorship, a number of brave Chinese citizens -- some are activists, others ordinary folks -- are using basic technologies to disseminate the truth about the country's history. Since taking power in 2013, President Xi Jinping outlawed criticism of Mao and rewrote China's modern history to erase the Communist Party's sordid record from the Great Leap Forward to Tiananmen Square and beyond. In this episode, journalist Ian Johnson discusses how the "underground historians" are fighting for China's future by accurately portraying the past.

Controlling history is key to the Chinese Communist Party's control of the country. Whether it's playing up the ‘century of humiliation', or whitewashing past mistakes like the Great Leap Forward or the Tiananmen Protests, the Party expends huge effort and resources on controlling the narrative. That's why it's so important and interesting to look at those Chinese people who are documenting the bits of history that the Party doesn't want you to know about. They interview survivors from Communist labour camps, or keep their own memoirs of the Cultural Revolution, and try to keep the memory of past horrors alive through film, magazines and paintings. A new book called Sparks documents their work. Its author is Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer-Prize winning writer and long time China journalist. Ian calls these people the ‘underground historians'. He joins this episode of Chinese Whispers. Visit https://minjian-danganguan.org/ to see some of their work documented, in an upcoming website founded by Ian and others. Produced by Cindy Yu and Patrick Gibbons.

Controlling history is key to the Chinese Communist Party's control of the country. Whether it's playing up the ‘century of humiliation', or whitewashing past mistakes like the Great Leap Forward or the Tiananmen Protests, the Party expends huge effort and resources on controlling the narrative. That's why it's so important and interesting to look at those Chinese people who are documenting the bits of history that the Party doesn't want you to know about. They interview survivors from Communist labour camps, or keep their own memoirs of the Cultural Revolution, and try to keep the memory of past horrors alive through film, magazines and paintings. A new book called Sparks documents their work. Its author is Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer-Prize winning writer and long time China journalist. Ian calls these people the ‘underground historians'. He joins this episode of Chinese Whispers. Visit https://minjian-danganguan.org/ to see some of their work documented, in an upcoming website founded by Ian and others. Produced by Cindy Yu and Patrick Gibbons.

Answering a listener question on the Great Leap Forward famine.Further reading:Mobo Gao, The Battle for China's PastUnited Nations, “Losing 25,000 to Hunger Every Day”Minhaz Merchant, “Churchill's Bengal Famine”Karl Marx, CapitalMike Davis, Late Victorian HolocaustsFrederick Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in EnglandSupport the show

This week on Sinica, Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Ian Johnson, now a senior China fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Kaiser to discuss his new book, Sparks" China's Underground HIstorians and their Battle for the Future. Profiling both prominent and lesser-known individuals working to expose dark truths about some of the grimmest periods of the PRC's history, including the Great Leap Forward famine and the violence of the Cultural Revolution, Johnson argues that the efforts of China's "counter-historians" have managed to survive the stepped-up efforts of Xi Jinping to control the historical narrative completely.03:27 – Is the obsessive control of historical narratives a particularly Chinese phenomenon?07:19 – The life of Ai Xiaoming and the creation of a collective memory as one of the main themes in the book21:46 – The story of Jiang Xue, citizen journalist25:22 – Journalistic stubbornness of Tan Hecheng28:39 – Cheng Hongguo and the Zhiwuzhi salon30:26 – Common traits shared by many Chinese regime critics37:17 – Is there a link between dissent in China and Christianity?39:53 – Historical nihilism and sensitive topics for the Chinese Communist Party47:08 – Are counter-historians especially noteworthy because they're exceptional, or representative?57:36 – The most important insight the book adds to our understanding of regime critics in ChinaA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Ian: The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal BeckermanUnofficial Chinese Archives Kaiser: Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann, translated by Joachim NeugroschelSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 125 The "Net Zero" and "Sustainability" movements, which no one outside of captured institutions and minds particularly likes or trusts, is advancing to a new initiative, whether we like it or not. That initiative is every bit as bad as it sounds: Degrowth. The idea is that the West has grown too big to be sustainable, so it is time to back off from growth, or to move "beyond growth," to draw another of their brands. This is little more than the controlled demolition of Western Civilization on an economic level, and it is unsurprisingly just the newest branding of Communism. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay walks you through some information to introduce the concept of "degrowth" to you and compare it to other great Communist catastrophes in history, perhaps most obviously Mao Zedong's disastrous "Great Leap Forward," which at least pretended that it was going to make things bigger and better for China instead of smaller and worse. Join him to learn about this unfolding disaster, which we must attack vigorously until they stop trying to force us into it. Get James Lindsay's new book, The Marxification of Education: https://amzn.to/3RYZ0tY Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2023 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #degrowth

The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao seem extremely similar to our current situation. The assassination of John F. Kennedy really set the stage for the Great Reset and our social situation. Is history going to repeat itself? How much truth is there in the battle between Donald Trump and Robert […]

Presented by 3CHI. Large, Vibbs, Anne, and Jack are back to talk Chinese atrocities including: the Childless Hundred Days, The Great Leap Forward, The Four Pests campaign, The Cultural Revolution and Mao, and more!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/twistedhistory

Who's the most vicious type of person on the planet? The liberal white woman. The spies embedded in America's religious institutions. Mao's Great Leap Forward and the struggle sessions. The tragedy of transgender surgery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By the early 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong's campaign to modernise Communist China had ended in disaster. Known as the Great Leap Forward, it resulted in turmoil on such a scale that many had begun to question Mao's authority. In response, he set out to claim absolute political supremacy by launching a grassroots movement called the Cultural Revolution. A decade of terror ensued that would permanently alter the fabric of Chinese society, and result in the deaths of up to 2 million people. But what exactly happened during this decade of madness, and what can we learn from those who lived through it? Dan is joined by Tania Branigan, author of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution, to explore the Cultural Revolution and how it has shaped China today.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!Download the History Hit app from the Google Play store.Download the History Hit app from the Apple Store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sean Illing talks with economic historian Brad DeLong about his new book Slouching Towards Utopia. In it, DeLong claims that the "long twentieth century" was the most consequential period in human history, during which the institutions of rapid technological growth and globalization were created, setting humanity on a path towards improving life, defeating scarcity, and enabling real freedom. But... this ran into some problems. Sean and Brad talk about the power of markets, how the New Deal led to something approaching real social democracy, and why the Great Recession of 2008 and its aftermath signified the end of this momentous era. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area Guest: J. Bradford DeLong (@delong), author; professor of economics, U.C. Berkeley References:  Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by J. Bradford DeLong (Basic; 2022) The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek (1944) The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (1944) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter (1942) "A Short History of Enclosure in Britain" by Simon Fairlie (This Land Magazine; 2009) "China's Great Leap Forward" by Clayton D. Brown (Association for Asian Studies; 2012) What Is Property? by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1840) The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gerstle (Oxford University Press; 2022) Apple's "1984" ad (YouTube) The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes (1936) "The spectacular ongoing implosion of crypto's biggest star, explained" by Emily Stewart (Vox; Nov. 18) "Did Greenspan Add to Subprime Woes? Gramlich Says Ex-Colleague Blocked Crackdown" by Greg Ip (Wall Street Journal; June 9, 2007) "Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same," from President Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address (Jan. 27, 2010) "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" by Karl Marx (1852) Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein (Simon & Schuster; 2020) The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion by Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing (U. Chicago; 2022)   Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by:  Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Patrick Boyd Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices