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When SLAM Skater of the Year Nixen Osborne hit Shanghai, he found a piece of family history: his uncle Lee Ralph's legendary Vision pro deck!Backed by DFAT and the Australia China Foundation, Big hArt brought an Aussie skater crew to Shanghai for two weeks of pure connection. They ripped up street spots, hosted heavy cash jams, ran kid-friendly demos, and bonded deeply with the Chinese skate community.In this episode, Nixen and Ben Currie join us to share their Shanghai adventures and personal skate journeys. Enjoy!
Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Love Blossoms: Bridging Hearts from Shanghai to Paris Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-06-01-22-34-01-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 阳光透过窗帘洒在莲的书桌上,他的公寓位于上海一个繁华的街区。En: Sunlight filtered through the curtains and onto Lian's desk.Zh: 窗外是一片生意盎然的景象,樱花在凉爽的春风中摇曳。En: His apartment was located in a bustling neighborhood in Shanghai.Zh: 莲慢慢放下手机,长长地叹了口气,心中思绪万千。En: Outside the window was a lively scene with cherry blossoms swaying in the cool spring breeze.Zh: 他的心被两座城市分割,一部分留在这里,和明一起。En: Lian slowly put down his phone, let out a long sigh, and his mind was filled with countless thoughts.Zh: 明是他的儿时玩伴,如今正在与慢性病抗争。En: His heart was divided between two cities, with one part staying here, with Ming.Zh: 莲经常去看望他,为他带去食物和希望。En: Ming was his childhood friend and was currently battling a chronic illness.Zh: 另一部分心则飞向遥远的巴黎,那里有他的爱人蕊。En: Lian would often visit him, bringing food and hope.Zh: 距离让他们的爱情如同长江与塞纳河般遥远,但蕊的存在总是在心中给予莲勇气。En: The other part of his heart flew to distant Paris, where his lover Rui was.Zh: 莲望着桌上那封刚收到的邮件,是蕊发来的新画。En: The distance made their love as far apart as the Yangtze River and the Seine River, but Rui's presence always gave Lian courage.Zh: 画上是一个身形模糊的人,站在樱花树下,满天的粉红色花瓣在风中飞舞。En: Lian looked at the email he had just received on the table; it was a new painting sent by Rui.Zh: 画中人低头凝视着地面,嘴角带着微笑,身旁是一个虚幻的影子,象征着未到的爱。En: The painting depicted a blurred figure standing under a cherry blossom tree, with pink petals flying in the wind.Zh: 莲感受到一种深深的理解和支持,从巴黎传来绵长的温暖。En: The figure in the painting was looking down at the ground, a faint smile on their lips, and beside them was an illusory shadow, symbolizing love yet to arrive.Zh: 心中某个角落轻轻一动,莲明白了。En: Lian felt a deep sense of understanding and support, a long-lasting warmth coming from Paris.Zh: 他决不能失去这段感情,也决不能对明掉以轻心。En: A gentle stir in a corner of his heart made Lian realize he could not lose this relationship, nor could he neglect Ming.Zh: 于是他想到了一个办法——将他们的生活连结在一起。En: So he thought of a way—to connect their lives together.Zh: 他与蕊商量,决定邀请明在网上与蕊合作艺术创作。En: He discussed with Rui and decided to invite Ming to collaborate on art projects online.Zh: 这样,蕊就仿佛来到了上海,能为明带来些许快乐。En: In this way, it would be as if Rui had come to Shanghai, bringing some joy to Ming.Zh: 明非常高兴,他在病痛间隙,砚边涂抹,笑意越来越多。En: Ming was very happy and would paint during the moments when he felt less pain, with more and more smiles appearing on his face.Zh: 每一次莲到医院探望明,都会带去他们的新创作。En: Every time Lian visited Ming in the hospital, he would bring their new creations.Zh: 看见明脸上逐渐恢复的神采,莲心中充满了温暖。En: Seeing Ming's gradually recovering spirit filled Lian's heart with warmth.Zh: 尽管他不能在物理上同时分身,但心灵却能跨越万里。En: Although he could not physically be in two places at once, his soul could traverse thousands of miles.Zh: 这个春天,樱花开得特别美。En: This spring, the cherry blossoms bloomed beautifully.Zh: 莲在落地窗前坐下,手中捧着从巴黎寄来的画,感受到这座城市的生命力以及自己内心的宁静。En: Lian sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding a painting sent from Paris, and felt the vitality of the city and the peace within himself.Zh: 他知道,只要心在,距离就不会是阻碍。En: He knew that as long as the heart is present, distance would not be an obstacle.Zh: 从那以后,莲不再感到夹在两者之间的无奈。En: From then on, Lian no longer felt helpless being caught between the two.Zh: 他学会了如何去寻找和谐,明白到有爱就能创造出无数可能,而人的生命也因此更加完整。En: He learned how to find harmony and understood that love could create countless possibilities, making one's life more complete because of it. Vocabulary Words:filtered: 透过curtains: 窗帘bustling: 繁华swaying: 摇曳countless: 思绪万千battling: 抗争chronic: 慢性visit: 看望distant: 遥远depicted: 描绘blurred: 模糊illusory: 虚幻harmony: 和谐collaborate: 合作creations: 创作recovery: 恢复vitality: 生命力obstacle: 阻碍helpless: 无奈possibilities: 可能complete: 完整apartment: 公寓neighborhood: 街区presence: 存在courage: 勇气scene: 景象support: 支持neglect: 掉以轻心intervals: 间隙traverse: 跨越
News and Updates: OS Age Verification Laws: California's Digital Age Assurance Act (2027) requires operating systems to collect and share user age ranges with apps, sparking major privacy concerns nationwide. Vanguard Bricks Cheaters: Riot Games' latest Vanguard anti-cheat update permanently disables DMA cheat firmware on PCs, forcing full OS reinstalls — Riot's response was unapologetic and blunt. Waymo Flooding Woes: Waymo suspended robotaxi operations in Atlanta and San Antonio after vehicles drove into flooded roads, prompting a voluntary recall of nearly 4,000 vehicles for software fixes. China's Underwater Data Center: A $226 million, 24-megawatt subsea facility off Shanghai houses 2,000 servers, using passive ocean cooling and offshore wind power to achieve exceptional energy efficiency. Data Centers in Space: SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Google are pursuing orbital AI data centers powered by massive solar arrays, but engineers warn the economics remain extremely challenging and unproven.
Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Shanghai Nights: Dreams, Dragons, and Unexpected Friendships Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-31-22-34-02-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 在上海的一个温暖的初夏,黄浦江畔的外滩充满了活力和彩灯。En: In the warm early summer of Shanghai, the Huangpu River banks along the Bund were full of energy and colorful lights.Zh: 龙舟节的庆祝活动让这座城市的夜空璀璨,游客和本地人都流连忘返地漫步。En: The Dragon Boat Festival celebrations made the city's night sky sparkle, enchanting both tourists and locals as they strolled along.Zh: 在这样一个夜晚,Jiahao漫步在外滩。En: On such a night, Jiahao wandered along the Bund.Zh: 他刚搬到上海,想拍摄城市生活的美景,但在熙熙攘攘的人群中,他感到一些孤独。En: He had just moved to Shanghai and wanted to capture the beauty of city life, but amidst the bustling crowds, he felt a bit lonely.Zh: 他的相机环绕在脖子上,眼神中充满了追寻梦想的渴望。En: His camera hung around his neck, and his eyes were full of the desire to pursue his dreams.Zh: 这时,他注意到不远处有一个女孩也在拍照。En: At this moment, he noticed a girl not far away also taking photos.Zh: 她是Liling,上海一位有经验的记者。En: She was Liling, an experienced journalist in Shanghai.Zh: Liling在为下一篇文章寻找灵感,想要找到一个独特的角度吸引读者。En: Liling was looking for inspiration for her next article, aiming to find a unique angle to captivate her readers.Zh: 尽管她熟悉这座城市,却渴望新的灵感。En: Although familiar with the city, she still yearned for new inspiration.Zh: 风把Jiahao的帽子吹掉了,他跑去捡帽子,刚好到达Liling的身边。En: A gust of wind blew Jiahao's hat off, and he ran to pick it up, just reaching Liling's side.Zh: Liling看到了他的相机,好奇地问道:“你好,你是在拍什么呢?”En: Liling saw his camera and curiously asked, "Hello, what are you photographing?"Zh: Jiahao被她的笑容吸引,鼓起勇气说道:“我在拍城市的夜景。En: Jiahao, attracted by her smile, summoned the courage to say, "I'm photographing the city's night scene.Zh: 我想拍一张完美的照片,可能会改变我的未来。En: I want to take a perfect picture that might change my future.Zh: 但我经常怀疑自己。”En: But I often doubt myself."Zh: Liling点了点头,理解他的心情。En: Liling nodded, understanding his feelings.Zh: “我也是,En: "I feel the same way.Zh: 我为新闻工作,但压力很大。En: I work in journalism, but it's very stressful.Zh: 我不知道下一篇报道应该写什么。”En: I never quite know what my next report should be about."Zh: 两人决定一起走,分享他们的想法和经验。En: The two decided to walk together, sharing their thoughts and experiences.Zh: 随着节日的灯笼在空中漂浮,他们交流着各自的梦想和挑战。En: As the festival lanterns floated in the air, they discussed their dreams and challenges.Zh: Jiahao向Liling请教摄影技巧,而Liling从Jiahao的视角中获得新的灵感。En: Jiahao sought Liling's advice on photography techniques, while Liling gained new inspiration from Jiahao's perspective.Zh: 就在这时,仪式高潮爆发,一条巨大的龙舟在水面上划过,形成一幅美丽的图画。En: Just then, the ceremony reached its climax, as a giant dragon boat glided across the water, creating a beautiful scene.Zh: Jiahao迅速地按下快门,捕捉到了这意想不到的瞬间。En: Jiahao quickly pressed the shutter, capturing the unexpected moment.Zh: 那一刻让他们都感到震撼,仿佛一个奇迹。En: That moment left them both amazed, as if witnessing a miracle.Zh: 几天后,Jiahao将他的这张照片投稿到了一个本地的比赛中,获得了认可和公众的关注。En: A few days later, Jiahao submitted his photo to a local competition, gaining recognition and public attention.Zh: 与此同时,Liling写了一篇关于她与Jiahao相遇的文章,描述了在上海这个充满创意和连接的城市中邂逅的故事。En: Meanwhile, Liling wrote an article about her encounter with Jiahao, describing the story of meeting in this creative and interconnected city of Shanghai.Zh: 通过这次经历,Jiahao变得更加自信,也更加愿意与别人交朋友。En: Through this experience, Jiahao became more confident and more willing to make friends.Zh: 而Liling重新找回了她对于讲述故事的热情,通过合作发现了新的灵感。En: At the same time, Liling rediscovered her passion for storytelling, finding new inspiration through collaboration.Zh: 在这座繁华的城市中,他们的友情和合作为他们的生活带来了新的亮光,驱散了他们心中的孤独和压力。En: In this bustling city, their friendship and cooperation brought new light to their lives, dispelling the loneliness and stress in their hearts.Zh: 外滩的夜色依旧迷人,Jiahao和Liling都留在了这个梦幻般的故事里。En: The night scenery of the Bund remained enchanting, and both Jiahao and Liling stayed in this dreamlike story. Vocabulary Words:sparkle: 璀璨enchanting: 迷人strolled: 漫步amidst: 在...中bustling: 熙熙攘攘desire: 渴望pursue: 追寻journalist: 记者inspiration: 灵感captivate: 吸引gust: 阵风curious: 好奇summoned: 鼓起pressured: 压力大techniques: 技巧unexpected: 意想不到climax: 高潮glided: 划过miracle: 奇迹recognition: 认可collaboration: 合作dispelling: 驱散loneliness: 孤独perspective: 视角passion: 热情journalism: 新闻工作encounter: 邂逅creative: 创意interconnected: 连接enchanted: 迷人
Amazon Worker Intifada brings ‘sad hour’ drinks to Seattle’s socialists. It’s sad, indeed. Guest: Brady Minneman is a Bothell High School Senior that organized a school walkout and petition to restore their school resource officer program. // Producer Jackson had a horrible flight experience on Alaska over the weekend, but at least it wasn’t as bad as a Delta flight heading to Shanghai. // Rep. Pramila Jayapal is the boss from Hell.
Episode 528 / Marina AdamsMarina Adams is a painter based in New York, NY, Bridgehampton, New York, and Parma, Italy. She earned degrees from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA and Columbia University, New York, NY. Her solo exhibitions include Cosmic Repair at Timothy Taylor, The Art of Living Slowly and Mother Tongue at Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Devals x Salon 94, Paris, France, To a World Full of Others, von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland; Flower Power at Copenhagen and Deep Breathing at S-Chanf, Switzerland, Stephen Friedman Galleryin London, FOCUS: Marina Adams at The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, Anemones and Soft Power at Salon 94 and many others.She is in the public collection of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Longlati Foundation in Shanghai, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. She is a 2016 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and received the 2018 Award of Merit Medal for Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Adams has collaborated with poets Norma Cole, Charles Bernstein, Vincent Katz, Leslie Scalapino and Christian Prigent and has published prints with TwoPalms NY, ULAE, Niels Borch Jensen Copenhagen and VanDeb Editions.
Olá amigos! Desculpem a demora, mas depois de um longo tempo de espera, finalmente temos o relato da viagem do Felipe para a China! Sim, depois de voltar e demorar um tempo pra se reestabelecer ao fuso horário brasileiro, temos aqui a primeira parte do relato desta viagem para as longínquas terras chinesas, onde o […]
Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Love and Lanterns: A Proposal at the Dragon Boat Festival Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-28-22-34-02-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 外滩是一片忙碌的海洋,缤纷的灯笼将街道点缀得如同白昼,空气中飘散着五香粽子的香味。En: The Waitan was a bustling sea of activity, colorful lanterns adorned the streets as if it were broad daylight, and the air was filled with the aroma of five-spice zongzi.Zh: 仲春里,上海的龙舟节充满了生机,一波又一波的人群流动在市场里。En: Mid-spring in Shanghai, the Dragon Boat Festival was full of vitality, with waves of people flowing through the market.Zh: 景观壮观热闹,江水在不远处缓缓流动。En: The scene was grand and lively, and the river water flowed gently nearby.Zh: 金站在一家店铺前,脸上流露着一丝紧张。En: Jin stood in front of a shop, a trace of nervousness on his face.Zh: 他在市场中寻找一个完美的礼物。En: He was searching for the perfect gift in the market.Zh: 连是他的女朋友,而今晚他打算向她求婚。En: Lian was his girlfriend, and that night he planned to propose to her.Zh: 然而,琳琅满目的商店和摊位之间,他仍未找到心仪之物。En: However, among the dazzling shops and stalls, he still hadn't found the right item.Zh: 他望着每一个饰品和礼物,希望能找到能象征他对连的爱和承诺的东西。En: He looked at each piece of jewelry and gift, hoping to find something that symbolized his love and commitment to Lian.Zh: 鸣走到金的身旁,拍拍他的肩膀。En: Ming walked up beside Jin and patted him on the shoulder.Zh: “别担心,”他微笑着说,“只要顺其自然。你会知道什么是对的。”En: "Don't worry," he said with a smile, "Just go with the flow. You'll know what's right."Zh: 金叹了口气,看着四周。En: Jin sighed and looked around.Zh: “我只想找到对的东西,”他说。En: "I just want to find the right thing," he said.Zh: 他们继续在市场里穿行,时间一点一点流逝。En: They continued to wander through the market as time steadily passed.Zh: 金尽力保持冷静,但心里依然有些着急。En: Jin tried to stay calm, but there was still some anxiety in his heart.Zh: 正当他快要放弃时,他的视线被一家小摊上的翡翠吊坠吸引住了。En: Just as he was about to give up, his eyes were drawn to a jade pendant at a small stall.Zh: 那是一个小巧精致的翡翠吊坠,阳光照射下来,翠绿的光芒格外夺目。En: It was a small and exquisite jade pendant, with sunlight casting a particularly dazzling green glow.Zh: 金的心静了下来,他感到一股莫名的喜悦。他知道,这就是他要寻找的。En: Jin felt a inexplicable joy, knowing that this was what he had been searching for.Zh: “就是它,”金坚定而轻声地对鸣说。En: "This is it," Jin said confidently and softly to Ming.Zh: 鸣点点头,支持地看着他。En: Ming nodded, looking at him supportively.Zh: “我相信连会喜欢的。”En: "I believe Lian will love it."Zh: 夜晚降临时,金小心翼翼地将吊坠送给了连。En: As night fell, Jin carefully presented the pendant to Lian.Zh: 他们站在江边,龙舟在水上闪烁,节日的烟火在天空中绽放。En: They stood by the river, dragon boats shimmering on the water, and festival fireworks blossoming in the sky.Zh: 金单膝跪地,将心中的承诺诉诸语言。En: Jin knelt on one knee, expressing the promise in his heart with words.Zh: 连的脸上泛起幸福的笑容,“我愿意。”En: Lian smiled a joyful smile, "I do."Zh: 在龙舟节的欢庆中,金终于学会了相信自己的直觉,也深知真挚的爱不需要华丽的包装。En: Amidst the celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival, Jin finally learned to trust his intuition and realized that true love does not need lavish packaging.Zh: 简单而真诚的表达有时才是最有力的。En: Sometimes a simple and sincere expression is the most powerful.Zh: 江水继续无声地流淌,在欢乐的气氛中,外滩的一切都如此美好。En: The river continued to flow silently, and in the joyous atmosphere, everything on the Waitan seemed so beautiful. Vocabulary Words:bustling: 忙碌adorned: 点缀aroma: 香味vitality: 生机anxiety: 紧张exquisite: 精致inexplicable: 莫名intuition: 直觉lavish: 华丽的pendant: 吊坠dazzling: 夺目joyous: 欢乐supportively: 支持地relieved: 舒缓shimmering: 闪烁proposal: 求婚commitment: 承诺flowed: 流动amidst: 在...中flow: 流逝gestures: 动作lanterns: 灯笼festival: 节日market: 市场hesitation: 犹豫intricately: 复杂地tranquil: 宁静atmosphere: 氛围support: 支持gesture: 手势
For our latest “site-specific” episode of Time Sensitive, Spencer meets Sheila Hicks inside her courtyard in Paris's Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, where she has called home for more than 60 years. The 91-year-old Nebraska-born artist—widely known for her vibrant, sculptural textile and fiber works—resists any firm classification of what she does, as her multifarious output reflects. Currently, Hicks's work is on view in a solo exhibition at SFMOMA through Aug. 9, and a two-person exhibition, “Material Matters: Sheila Hicks & Shi Hui,” at Shanghai's West Bund Museum through Aug. 2. Last year, Knoll Textiles reissued her classic Altiplano collection from 1966 in an updated palette, and a major Milan retrospective, her first in Italy, will open on Nov. 16 at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea. On the episode, Hicks discusses her lifelong relationship with textiles, weaving, and perception through materials and environments; her formative travels in South America, Morocco, India, and Japan; and how chance encounters can shape one's life. Show notes: Sheila Hicks [0:44] Cour de Rohan [3:05] Altiplano (1966) for Knoll Textiles [10:02] Edward Steichen [16:36] Josef Albers [15:03] Yohji Yamamoto [18:57] George Kubler [19:10] Trevor Paglen [28:00] Ford Foundation [28:00] Darren Walker [33:20] Raoul d'Harcourt [37:50] Rue de Seine [38:43] May Day [41:56] Jantar Mantar [55:48] Florence Knoll [58:44] Cristobal Zañartu [58:44] Opening the Archives [58:44] Hanging by a Thread [1:02:57] “Calder: Rêver en équilibre” [1:04:14] Monique Lévi-Strauss [1:05:15] Thaddeus Mosley Pierre Horay
When it comes to energy, and nuclear in particular, China is doing things differently. As our guest puts it - China has clearly taken the approach that they will structure their energy sector on the assumption of chronic global instability. What does that mean in practical terms? David Fishman from the Shanghai-based Lantau Group joins Sprott Radio to share his deep local knowledge of China's energy buildout and its rapidly expanding nuclear fleet.This podcast is provided for information purposes only from sources believed to be reliable. However, Sprott does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Any opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This communication is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.Any opinions and recommendations herein do not take into account individual client circumstances, objectives, or needs and are not intended as recommendations of particular securities, financial instruments, or strategies. You must make your own independent decisions regarding any securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned or related to the information herein.This communication may not be redistributed or retransmitted, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express written consent of Sprott. Any unauthorized use or disclosure is prohibited. Receipt and review of this information constitute your agreement not to redistribute or retransmit the contents and information contained in this communication without first obtaining express permission from an authorized officer of Sprott.
Eric Olander on how the Global South is reading the Beijing summitsThis week I'm joined again by Eric Olander, founder of the China Global South Project, which runs the most indispensable English-language operation going for understanding China's engagement with Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.I came in with a plan: map, region by region, how the capitals of the Global South were reading the back-to-back Trump and Putin visits to Beijing — relief at a steadier U.S.-China modus vivendi, or foreboding at a G2 condominium squeezing shut their room to maneuver. Eric dismantled the premise within ten minutes. The honest answer, he warned me, is that most of the Global South simply isn't watching the way we are — and the disappointment turned out to be the most interesting thing in the room. What looked like the absence of a story was the story. I'd built my questions around one assumption about what mattered; Eric had built his answers around another, and I cop to being schooled.Once you set the summit framing aside, what Eric's contributors are actually seeing comes into focus: Japan racing to recenter an Asia-Pacific security architecture, a region quietly de-risking from an unreliable United States, fresh cracks in the BRICS, Justin Yifu Lin's “three moves” for Chinese manufacturing, Latin America's “find out” phase, and a Gulf where the Chinese setback so many in Washington insist must exist simply isn't there. We get into all of it — and close on the summit as a remarkable piece of theater, the first since 1945 at which no one quite knew who the most powerful person in the room was.04:27 — The dominant mood: pro forma coverage, exhaustion, and bigger problems at home08:15 — Breaking news: the paused $14B Taiwan arms package and the canceled Colby trip11:15 — The dog that caught the truck: China and the costs of a receding U.S. umbrella13:00 — "Constructive strategic stability" — new equilibrium or just choreography?28:23 — The snub: Beijing sends only an ambassador to the BRICS meeting in New Delhi37:56 — Africa: tariff-free access, the trade imbalance, and Kenya's "collapsed" exports44:34 — Justin Yifu Lin's "three moves": move up-market, localize, move south51:00 — Latin America's "find out" phase in Panama, and very low China literacy57:35 — The Gulf after the war on Iran: who really won?Paying it Forward:Boston University's Global Development Policy (GDP) Research CenterRecommendationsEric: A “rabbit hole” of books on Xi Jinping, currently Party of One by Chun Han Wong (after Kevin Rudd's On Xi Jinping).Kaiser: Angine de Poitrine, a “microtonal math rock” duo from Quebec — think Frank Zappa meets King Crimson — possibly the thing to breathe new life into progressive rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode I chat with visual effects supervisor, second unit director and digital pre-visualisation pioneer David Dozoretz about a career that traces the entire arc of how modern filmmaking shifted from analogue to digital — and how, somewhere in the middle of that shift, pre-vis went from a curious side experiment to a fundamental part of how films get planned and shot. David talks about growing up in Phoenix, falling in love with cinema the day his sister snuck him into the projection booth at the Cine Capri during The Empire Strikes Back asteroid sequence, and how a chance encounter with a Lucasfilm coffee-table book in a university bookstore set him on the path to ILM. He arrived at ILM in 1991 as an intern, became known as "the computer nerd in the art department and the art nerd in the computer department," and ended up bridging the gap between the two as digital began to take over.We get into his first feature — the original Jurassic Park — his year-long apprenticeship in the legendary ILM art department alongside Doug Chiang, Ty Ellingson, Harley Jessup, Mark Moore and Stefan Dechant, and the time he had to split a $1,400 piece of 3D software into two $700 purchase orders to get round ILM's general-manager sign-off threshold. It's a small story but it tells you everything about the era — digital tools were arriving faster than the institutions running things knew what to do with them.A big part of the conversation focuses on the early years of digital pre-visualisation. David did the first major digital previs sequence in mainstream cinema — the train and helicopter sequence in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible, the work John Knoll asked him to do that's now credited as one of the reasons the sequence got greenlit. From there he went on to spend four years working with George Lucas on The Phantom Menace, building the entire pod race in previs (a 25-minute version that almost no one has ever seen got whittled down to the 9-and-a-half-minute final), establishing his now-famous three rules of previs (no textures, no motion blur, no shadows) and then immediately having to break all three of them to convey the sense of speed and floating in the pod race itself.There are some lovely George Lucas stories too, including the time George walked into the editing room and reacted to David's droid-factory post-vis with "honestly, I was a little worried about that one — looks like it's gonna work," and the moment when George trailed off mid-sentence trying to describe a desert landscape and David — a 21-year-old kid — finished the thought with "John Ford?", which David thinks is the moment Lucas decided he could trust him. Later in the conversation we move into David's own company, Persistence of Vision, and his work on Titan A.E., Behind Enemy Lines, JJ Abrams' Mission: Impossible III, the 2009 Star Trek reboot (including the previs realisation that Vulcan being orange meant the costumes — originally designed to evoke 70s NASA — had to be completely redesigned) and Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, where David served as second unit director on the first digital stereoscopic film and the production was effectively beta-testing the cameras Jim Cameron was building for Avatar. We finish on Zafari, David's 52-episode children's animated series rendered almost entirely in Unreal Engine — one of the earliest large-scale uses of real-time rendering in mainstream animation, which saved 30% of the production budget — and on a wider conversation about AI, the future of filmmaking, the importance of human authenticity, and David's lovely closing thought: study the art and history of cinema, study the drawing, not just the pencil. The tools will keep changing. The language won't. Topics coveredGrowing up in Phoenix and the Cine Capri projection-booth moment during EmpireDiscovering The Art of Special Effects book and the road to an ILM internshipJoining the ILM art department in 1991 alongside Doug Chiang, Ty Ellingson, Harley Jessup and Mark MooreBridging the art and computer departments as digital arrived at ILMThe $1,400 / two-$700-purchase-orders workaround for buying 3D softwareWorking on the original Jurassic Park as his first featureDoing previs for the Star Wars Special Editions (the dewback shots, Mos Eisley fly-bys)John Knoll asking him to previsualise the train-and-helicopter sequence on Mission: ImpossibleHow that previs is credited as one of the reasons the sequence got greenlitJoining the new Skywalker Ranch art department under George LucasFour years on The Phantom Menace and the 25-minute version of the pod raceThe three rules of previs (no textures, no motion blur, no shadows) — and breaking all of them to make the pod race workGeorge Lucas reacting to the droid factory post-vis ("looks like it's gonna work")The Jake Lloyd head-turn morph that saved a reshootWhy pod racers go 500 mph in some shots and 2,000 mph in othersThe cinematographer who declared previs "shit" — and was overruled by the studioFounding Persistence of Vision and the move from Lucas to wider HollywoodTitan A.E. and the Don Bluth / Gary Goldman Phoenix animation studioBehind Enemy Lines and pre-vising aerial actionMission: Impossible III with JJ Abrams — the Shanghai building swing and the windmill helicopter sequenceThe Star Trek reboot orbital skydive — and how previs forced a costume redesign because Vulcan was orangeJourney to the Center of the Earth 3D as second unit director, using Jim Cameron's pre-Avatar camerasZafari, Unreal Engine, and saving 30% of an animated TV budget through real-time renderingThe shift from analogue to digital to 3D to real-time to AI — and what stays constantDennis Muren's wisdom on authenticity at the Jurassic Park wrap partyWhy a human premium will remain in an AI-augmented filmmaking worldGeorge Lucas, John Ford and the moment a 21-year-old earned a director's trustThe advice David gives to young filmmakers: study the drawing, not just the pencilSupport the Podcast This podcast is completely independent and made possible by listener support. If you'd like to help me keep making these episodes, you can join my Patreon community here: patreon.com/jamiebenning Watch on YouTube Check out the Filmumentaries YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes clips and extra content: youtube.com/filmumentariesThis podcast is completely independent and made possible by listener support. If you'd like to help me keep making these episodes, you can join my Patreon community here: https://patreon.com/jamiebenning Watch more on YouTube:Check out the Filmumentaries YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes clips and extra content: https://youtube.com/filmumentariesAll my links
Why do tones sometimes seem “good enough”… until they suddenly create complete chaos? In this episode, Jared and John dive into one of the trickiest realities of learning Chinese: when small tone mistakes collide with low-context situations and produce surprisingly big misunderstandings. Inspired by a real-life exchange student story in Shanghai, they share some hilarious examples of Chinese mix-ups involving pandas vs. chest hair, thesis defenses vs. poop, and one especially memorable mistake involving “receiving payment.”Beyond the laughs, this episode explores why context matters so much in Chinese, especially with names, place names, numbers, and situations where listeners don't have enough clues to infer what you mean. Jared and John also share practical strategies to reduce communication breakdowns: using written backup, giving extra context, confirming understanding, paying closer attention to “recasts,” and learning how to spot your own pronunciation errors.If you've ever been convinced you said something correctly only to get blank stares in return, this episode is for you. Mistakes are part of the process, but with a little awareness and a few smart habits, you can avoid some of the most spectacular ones.Links from the episode:Chinese Pronunciation WikiMandarin Companion Graded Readers
Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Saving Tradition: An Architect's Heartfelt Stand in Shanghai Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-23-22-34-02-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 在上海旧城区的一角,有一家老茶馆。En: In a corner of Shanghai's old district, there is an old tea house.Zh: 这里的木雕板和红色灯笼讲述着百年的故事。En: The wooden carvings and red lanterns here tell stories of over a hundred years.Zh: 春天,空气中弥漫着粽子的香味,龙舟节就要到了。En: In spring, the air is filled with the fragrance of zongzi, as the Dragon Boat Festival approaches.Zh: 然而,这家被人们深爱的茶馆即将被拆除。En: However, this beloved tea house is about to be demolished.Zh: 李,一个强大的开发商,和市政府已经签约,龙舟节后就要动工。En: Li, a powerful developer, has already signed a contract with the city government to start construction after the Dragon Boat Festival.Zh: 明是个年轻的建筑师。En: Ming is a young architect.Zh: 他深爱着这片土地的文化遗产。En: He deeply cherishes the cultural heritage of this land.Zh: 但他的职业要求他参与现代化的建设。En: But his profession demands that he participate in modernization projects.Zh: 他心里有个大梦想:能够在专业领域获得认可。En: He has a great dream: to gain recognition in his field.Zh: 但在这之前,他想保护这家茶馆。En: But before that, he wants to protect this tea house.Zh: 明不忍看茶馆消失。En: Ming cannot bear to see the tea house disappear.Zh: 他决定在龙舟节这天组织一个聚会。En: He decides to organize a gathering on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival.Zh: 在茶馆里,人与人之间的交流浓缩成了一杯杯飘香的茶。En: In the tea house, interpersonal communication is distilled into cups of fragrant tea.Zh: 有希望、有故事,更有未来。En: There's hope, there are stories, and there's a future.Zh: 于是,明开始联系朋友和社区的人。En: Thus, Ming begins to contact friends and people from the community.Zh: 节日当天,茶馆装点得绚丽多彩,人们络绎不绝。En: On the day of the festival, the tea house is decorated beautifully, and people come in an endless stream.Zh: 粽子的香气与茶香交织在一起,令人陶醉。En: The aroma of zongzi intermingles with the scent of tea, intoxicating the atmosphere.Zh: 大家在茶馆前集聚,等待明的讲话。En: Everyone gathers in front of the tea house, waiting for Ming's speech.Zh: 明走到人前,他心里略有些紧张。En: Ming walks to the front of the crowd, feeling a bit nervous.Zh: 然后,他开始讲述这家茶馆的历史,讲述过去那些难忘的故事。En: Then, he begins to recount the history of the tea house, telling unforgettable stories from the past.Zh: 他的声音充满情感,他提出一个想法:新旧共存,可以让茶馆成为现代化建设的一部分。En: His voice is full of emotion, and he proposes an idea: coexistence of the old and the new, allowing the tea house to become part of modern development.Zh: 人们开始鼓掌,媒体开始拍摄。En: People start to applaud, and the media begins filming.Zh: 在公众的注视和支持下,市政府和李不得不重新考虑计划。En: Under public attention and support, the city government and Li have to reconsider their plans.Zh: 经过几天的商讨,决定对茶馆进行修缮,以保存其历史价值,同时进行新的商业开发。En: After several days of discussions, they decide to renovate the tea house to preserve its historical value while proceeding with new commercial development.Zh: 明成功了。En: Ming succeeded.Zh: 他从一个犹豫的建筑师成长为一个社区的领袖。En: He grew from a hesitant architect to a community leader.Zh: 他明白了,传统和进步是可以共存的。En: He understood that tradition and progress can coexist.Zh: 他心中激动而满足,看着那家总部焕然一新的茶馆,感慨不已。En: His heart is filled with excitement and satisfaction as he looks at the newly revitalized tea house, full of emotion.Zh: 上海旧城的春天因为有了这么一位年轻人的坚持而变得更加美丽。En: The spring in Shanghai's old district has become more beautiful because of a young man's persistence. Vocabulary Words:carvings: 木雕fragrance: 香味demolished: 拆除developer: 开发商cherishes: 深爱heritage: 遗产modernization: 现代化intoxicating: 陶醉crowd: 人群recount: 讲述unforgettable: 难忘的emotion: 情感coexistence: 共存applaud: 鼓掌media: 媒体filming: 拍摄hesitant: 犹豫preserve: 保存satisfaction: 满足revitalized: 焕然一新persistence: 坚持intermingles: 交织在一起decorated: 装点gathering: 聚会intricately: 精细地proposal: 提议historical: 历史的commercial: 商业的emphasized: 强调renovate: 修缮
Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Friday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan opens with the latest on "deal or no deal" with Iran, as the U.S. and Tehran remain far apart on a peace agreement over Iran's enriched nuclear material and its demand to control the Strait of Hormuz, while the Pentagon prepares for renewed military action if talks fail. He also covers growing signs of U.S. pressure on Cuba, including the arrival of the USS Nimitz strike group in the Caribbean, CIA Director John Ratcliffe's recent trip to Havana, and the DOJ indictment of former Cuban leader Raul Castro. Bryan then turns to a deepening investigation into Neville Roy Singham, the Communist activist living in Shanghai under China's protection, whose money allegedly supports socialist and leftist groups across the United States, including networks tied to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Plus, Bryan breaks down socialist backlash in Seattle and New York as wealthy residents and major companies threaten to leave over tax hikes, the 42-year prison sentence for Feeding Our Future fraud figure Aimee Bock, and a major clash between President Trump and GOP senators over the SAVE Act, the filibuster, and Trump's legislative agenda. He closes with updates on China's looming critical mineral export controls, Trump's new $2 billion quantum computing push, Ebola in Congo, Hantavirus research in the Pacific Northwest, and promising cancer research on pancreatic tumors and vitamin D for breast cancer surgery recovery. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32 Keywords: Iran peace deal Strait of Hormuz nuclear material 2026, Trump Iran war Pentagon targeting list Hormuz mines, USS Nimitz Cuba Caribbean Raul Castro DOJ indictment, CIA Director John Ratcliffe Havana Cuba negotiations, Neville Roy Singham China Communist funding investigation, Seattle wealth tax Katie Wilson Starbucks Tennessee move, Zohran Mamdani NYC wealth tax free groceries, Feeding Our Future fraud Aimee Bock 42 years prison, Trump GOP Senate fight SAVE Act filibuster John Thune, China critical minerals export controls June 2026, Trump quantum computing IBM investment, Ebola Congo outbreak Hantavirus Washington Idaho, pancreatic cancer inflammation treatment vitamin D breast cancer surgery, Bryan Dean Wright podcast, The Wright Report
Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Asian stocks and US equity-index futures advanced on optimism that the US-Iran talks could lead to a peace deal. However, concerns over a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz have unsettled investors, pushing bond yields higher recently amid fears high oil prices will fuel inflation and force central banks to keep interest rates elevated. Even so, traders have largely brushed aside those risks since the war began in late February, propelling stocks to record highs on renewed enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence trade. We speak to Paul Dobson, Bloomberg's Executive Editor for Asia Markets. And we go to Shanghai, where the JPMorgan Global China Summit is underway. Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin spoke to Benjamin Vuchot, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels CEO about his company's business outlook.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on Sinica, I speak with Andrew Seth Meyer, professor of history at CUNY Brooklyn College and the author of a remarkable new book from Oxford University Press, To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China from Confucius to the First Emperor. Sixteen years in the making, it's the first proper one-volume narrative history of the Warring States in English aimed at a general reader — a gap in the field that Andy has now decisively filled. We talk about why this period — the roughly 260 years between Confucius's death and Qin's unification in 221 BCE — really is the deepest layer of Chinese political history that still genuinely matters, and we try together to find the line between responsible historical reasoning about modern China and the kind of lazy essentialism that reaches for Han Feizi every time Xi Jinping makes a speech. Along the way we get into the displacement of the hereditary aristocracy by the shi, the Lüshi Chunqiu as a piece of political genius, why the standard caricature of “Legalist” Qin is wrong, and what it means that the Chinese state is still, in some real sense, running on operating software written in the 4th century BCE.8:14 – The 16-year gestation, why no general-reader Warring States book existed in English, and what made Andy think he could be the one to write it11:06 – The romanization headaches: Wei vs. Wey, King Zhao of Qin vs. King Zhao of Yan, and the special agonies of writing about early China for an English audience14:31 – Why he organized the book by state rather than strictly chronologically — and what that structure lets him do18:14 – The relevance question: how to take the deep continuity of Chinese political life seriously without falling into the orientalist “eternal China” trap25:52 – Why the Warring States is properly called a revolution: the destruction of Zhou-era hereditary aristocracy and the rise of the shi33:15 – Fukuyama's claim that Qin built the world's first genuinely modern state — is “modern” the right word?36:30 – Qin's 38 commanderies, why the radical version lasted only 15 years, and the Han retreat: aristocracy or regional autonomy?39:46 – Reading the Hundred Schools as embedded political actors rather than tidy textbook categories — and the Jixia Academy as ancient Brookings44:06 – The Lüshi Chunqiu as a brilliant piece of political propaganda, and what its tripartite cosmological structure was actually arguing52:31 – Why the cartoon-legalist version of the Qin is wrong: the 70 erudites, the Taishan stelae, and what the book-burning episode really was57:05 – The axial age question: pattern-matching or something real?1:00:40 – What the Warring States actually has to teach us about China in 2026: zhong guo as aspiration, not description1:05:08 – How the Warring States is taught in China and Taiwan today, and what archaeology is doing to the field1:08:36 – Constant self-reinvention as the real Chinese legacy, and why no plausible future China fully repudiates the CCPPaying it forward:Avital Rom (postdoc at Cambridge, early Chinese cultural history, editor of a forthcoming volume on disability and impairment in early China)Liang Cai (Notre Dame, new book on Han-era jurisprudence and legal traditions)Recommendations:Andy: Hadestown on Broadway — and Anaïs Mitchell's original concept albumKaiser: To Say Nothing of the Dog: or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis (audiobook especially recommended)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Want to be featured on the next Q&Andy? Send us a video on our socials or email us at askandy@servedmediagroup.com Andy Roddick sits down with French World No. 24 Arthur Rinderknech in this episode of Q&Andy, where he pulls back the curtain on the surreal reality of the Shanghai final and faced his own cousin in a historic Masters 1000 showdown after battling past Daniil Medvedev. They dive into technical adjustments between clay and grass, an injury update on Rinderknech's coach Lucas Pouille, and why the Texas A&M college tennis system helped him prepare for the ATP. Arthur also drops some invaluable local insider travel advice for any fans planning a trip to Paris for Roland Garros. Plus, Hall of Famer Pam Shriver drops in from Italy to ask Andy how his mindset has changed since his days at the top of the tour.
Malinda Sanna operates at the intersection of creativity, culture, and data, using insight as a creative tool to shape how luxury brands connect with people.As the Founder and CEO of LookLook, she built a 7-figure proprietary consumer insights platform over 15 years with a global team of 16. Her methodology centers around what she calls “Cultivated Communities” — highly curated groups of individuals, particularly high-net-worth women, recruited one relationship at a time rather than through traditional third-party panels.She is the creator of Beautyverse, a proprietary community of 1,000+ affluent women focused on luxury beauty, as well as Luxuryverse, communities designed to provide brands with deeper and more nuanced consumer insights beyond traditional market research.Through more than 900 studies and 30,000+ research participants worldwide, Malinda has helped brands including Shiseido, BMW, LVMH, Google, Mondelez, and Nestlé better understand not just what consumers want, but why they want it — and how to translate that into meaningful products, storytelling, and experiences.Her work spans a global network of executives in New York, Paris, Dubai, São Paulo, Beijing, and Shanghai. She also writes a Substack newsletter followed by luxury brand executives around the world.Before founding LookLook, Malinda studied classical music and English literature at Goshen College and worked as a singer. She has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, HuffPost, Forbes, Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Washington Post, AdWeek, and Inc.LinksWebsite: LookLookInstagram: @luxuryverse100Support the showIf you would like to get involved with The Wider Lens, you can review sponsorship and contribution options here, as well as become a member here.Remember to stay safe and keep your creative juices flowing!---Tech/Project Management Tools (*these are affiliate links)Buzzsprout*Airtable*17hats*ZoomPodcast Mic*
CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon speaks exclusively with Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin from the sidelines of the JPMorgan "Global China Summit" in Shanghai. They discussed the rout in bond markets, the risk of heightened inflation, and why corporate earnings remain so high.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Earn up to a 4% yield on your physical gold or silver, paid in gold ounces: https://Monetary-Metals.com/CommodityFrancis Hunt believes the market to be watching for silver is not in New York or in London, but in Shanghai, as China is setting the real price of physical silver and breaking the paper manipulation once and for all. Francis stresses that China's rapid accumulation of silver, along with a brewing crisis in the government bond market, is setting up a scenario where prices go parabolic.Market Sniper Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMarketSniper1Follow Market Sniper on X: https://x.com/themarketsniperMarket Sniper Website: https://themarketsniper.comFollow Jesse Day on X: https://x.com/jessebdayCommodity Culture on Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/CommodityCulture
Fonterra’s chief executive for Greater China is at Bakery China, the world’s largest professional bakery and trade exhibition in Shanghai.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fin 2024, on comptait plus de 1 750 000 Français établis hors de France, un chiffre qui ne cesse de croître notamment après la crise du Covid. Cette population française à l'étranger est concentrée en Europe occidentale et dans les pays du G20. Précisément, plus de 40% des Français de l'étranger sont établis en Suisse, États-Unis, Royaume-Uni, Belgique, Canada. Près d'1/3 sont binationaux, une caractéristique croissante dans les grandes zones d'expatriation. Que signifie être Français hors de France en 2026 ? Qui sont-ils ? Quels liens entretiennent-ils avec la France ? Bénéficient-ils des services publics ? Comment vivent-ils la politique française ? La question est d'actualité : Des élections consulaires sont organisées cette année en cette fin du mois de mai, précisément les 30 et 31 mai de cette année. Les Français résidant à l'étranger vont élire leurs représentants auprès des ambassades et consulats. Ces représentants jouent un rôle important dans la vie citoyenne des Français de l'étranger. Notamment en matière d'aides sociales et d'éducation. Ils participent également à l'élection des sénateurs de l'étranger. Bref, pour évoquer les Français de l'étranger, nous recevons Laure Pallez, qui a passé vingt ans hors de France, cofondé un think tank dédié aux Français de l'étranger. Laure Pallez a été élue à Shanghai puis en Floride et à l'Assemblée des Français de l'étranger. Encore Laure Pallez a été nommée conseillère du commerce extérieure de la France par décret du Premier ministre fin 2025.
Chris Chavez, Preet Majithia and Paul Hof-Mahoney are back for a packed episode covering the biggest throw in fourteen years, a viral North Carolina high school DQ, the Enhanced Games coming up, ATHLOS expanding to two meets, conference championship weekend, and the full Shanghai Diamond League recap.Discussed in this episode:- North Carolina 8A State Championships DQ: Mallard Creek anchor Nyan Brown raised five fingers in the final two meters of the four-by-four relay — signaling a fifth consecutive state title — and was immediately DQ'd for unsportsmanlike conduct. The team title went to Jordan High School. The clip has been viewed over nine million times, landed in the New York Times, and the case may be heading to court.- ATHLOS expands to two meets: The women's track series returns to Icahn Stadium in New York City on October 2nd and is adding a second international meet.- Marvin Bracey doping case update: Florida man Paul Askew, who operated under a fake female virtual medical persona, is scheduled to plead guilty on May 26th to sports doping conspiracy.- Enhanced Games predictions: The Las Vegas event is this weekend. We predict what they end up running and some of the questions we have around the event.Shanghai Diamond League recap:- Women's shot put: Jessica Schilder threw 21.09, the first throw over 21 meters in 14 years.- 33-year-old Mark English wins in 1:43.85 and steals the win from Kethobogile Haingura, who celebrated early.- Mohamed Abdullahi wins in 7:25.77 with a move from 600m out. 14 athletes went sub-7:30 in the same race.- Birke Haylom wins in 3:55.56 in a tactically controlled race- Tsige Duguma impresses with a 3:55.71 in just her second-ever 1500m. Analyzing Jess Hull's tactics.- Shericka Jackson runs 22.07 for her fastest outdoor opener since 2023. Sha'Carri Richardson fourth in 22.42 is still a good sign.+ More results from the meet- NCAA Conference Championship round-up- Looking ahead: Track Fest takes place at UCLA this weekend with Emma Coburn's first steeple in two years, Parker Valby returns to the 5000m, Josh Kerr and Donovan Brazier in the 800, Michael Norman's first open 400 in years and more. The Xiamen Diamond League takes place on May 23rd — mostly same fields as Shanghai, with the men's 3K upgraded to 5K.____________Hosts: Chris Chavez | @chris_j_chavez + Preet Majithia | @preet_athletics + Paul Hof-Mahoney | @phofmahoneyProduced by: Jasmine Fehr | @jasminefehr____________SUPPORT OUR SPONSORSXENDURANCE: Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping!OLIPOP: Raspberry Sherbet is a limited-edition, nostalgic new flavor that blends tangy raspberry with creamy vanilla. Every can of Olipop contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.
Washington is becoming a national laughing stock as residents flock to freer and more prosperous states. Employees at a store in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood are on edge after a man hid in their store overnight. // Producer Jackson had a horrible flight experience on Alaska over the weekend, but at least it wasn’t as bad as a Delta flight heading to Shanghai. // This healthy food is a cheap option that you should work into your diet.
446: Shanghai Diamond League | Sydney 10 | Jells Park Relays Precision Fuel & Hydration makes it simple with a free online planner. Visit precisionhydration.com and while you are there, place your first order and get 15% off when you use the code "IRP2026". Brad recaps his race execution at Sydney 10. Julian enjoys a weekend at the Great Ocean Road Running Festival Brady splits his double run day with parenting duties. Listener Offer: NordVPN has partnered with the Inside Running Podcast to offer you an amazing discount, head over to nordvpn.com/insiderunning to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 additional months on top! This week's running news is presented by Precision Fuel & Hydration, they make it simple with a free online planner, visit precisionhydration.com and get your numbers. Abbey Caldwell set the #2 all-time 1500m time of 3:56.12 at the Shanghai Diamond League, leading a total of 5 Aussies under the 4-minute mark. Faith Kipyegon won the 5000m in 14:24.14, with Rose Davies in 14:53.28 and Maudie Skyring in 15:10.82. In the Men's 3000m Seth O'Donnell clocked the #2 outdoors in 7:29.49 with Mohamad Abdilaahi of Germany setting a national record of 7:25.77. Luke Boyes lead for much of the 800m to finish fourth in 1:44.16 close behind winner Mark English. Cara Feain-Ryan set a new personal best of 9:21.35 in the 3000m steeplechase. Diamond League Results Luke Hince won the Sydney 10 in 29:10 ahead of Ed Goddard and Jordan Skelly. Kate Spencer won in 33:26 ahead of Dannette Sheehan and Nichola Sheridan. Official Results Sandringham won the Men's Premier Division Jells Park XCR Relays winning over Western Athletics and Bendigo, with Andy Buchanan setting the fastest 6.2km leg of the day in 17:16. Sandringham also won the Women's Premier Division ahead of Box Hill and Western Athletics, with Madison King for Glenhuntly posting the fastest leg in 20:43. Aths Vic Results Hub Dion Finochiarro won the 44km Great Ocean Road Marathon in 2:32:44, with Toby Menday second and Bradon Suter third. Meriem Daoui set a course record of 2:57:10 ahead of Lauren Marino and Haruki Ogasawara. Ben Chamberlain won the 23km Half Marathon in 1:13:04 Forest Robinson and Ben Stevens. Frances Arnott won in 1:26:44 ahead of Amanda Wilson and Jemima Wilson. Andre Waring added another victory in the 14km running 41:44, while Simone McInnes won 47:33. Results Whispers nitpicks race tracking apps and inaccurate splits, as Moose On the Loose tries to make sense of a recent Satisfy brand activation. This episode's Listener Q's/Training Talk segment is proudly brought to you by Precision Fuel & Hydration. What is the best pacing strategy to use while racing on hills? Visit precisionhydration.com for more info on hydration and fuelling products and research, and use the discount code given in the episode. Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/insiderunningpodcast Opening and Closing Music is Undercover of my Skin by Benny Walker. www.bennywalkermusic.com Join the conversation at: https://www.facebook.com/insiderunningpodcast/
This is a personal episode this week talking through what I thought my career would look like and what it is now. It's nice to reflect on how different things are now compared to what I imagined when I first entered the industry. Somehow I ended up building something that feels more "me" because of it. In this episode, I talk about the career I planned, living and working in Shanghai, freelancing, major events, how brands and event formats and sectors influenced what I wanted to do, VIP environments, peaks and troughs, the non-linearity of careers, and how I took pieces from every chapter so far to build something of my own. This is less "career advice" and more an honest conversation about evolution, identity, ambition, and redefining success.P.S. You may notice a small change to the podcast name in the coming months! Just to align with the three topics I now cover - major events, VIP management AND event careers!My new 8 week group program is this summer! Learn more here. It is enrolling now! Get better event opportunities, not just more work:https://lauralloydevents.com/inside-iconic-eventsGet a copy of my FREEBIES:Where to Look for Olympics Jobs and WhenA clear breakdown of where Olympic-related roles are advertised, how far in advance hiring happens, and what to focus on at different stages of the Olympic cycle.https://iconicevents.thrivecart.com/work-at-the-olympics21 Places to Find Iconic Event OpportunitiesA super simple and straightforward resource to help you uncover where opportunities for your dream events existhttps://iconicevents.thrivecart.com/21-places-iconic-events-opportunitiesThe Iconic Events Career Change GuideGet this powerful, no fluff (and not so basic) guide for event pros craving more. Whether you're shifting sectors, re-entering after a break, or finally ready to go after big events, this guide will help you get started: https://iconicevents.thrivecart.com/the-iconic-events-career-evolution-guide/Support Laura:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/laurayarblloyd Connect with Laura:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurayarbroughlloydWebsite: https://www.lauralloydevents.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauralloydevents and https://www.instagram.com/aflairforvipeventsYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@laurayarbroughlloydTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauralloydevents
The winds of change are blowing through the world's maritime hubs…despite some national governments' efforts to the contrary. While the shipping industry carries 90% of global trade, it also leaves a heavy carbon trail in its wake. In this episode of Cities 1.5, we explore the high-stakes transformation of our global ports: once seen as industrial hotspots of pollution, these urban harbours are emerging as the front lines of the green transition. We dive into the groundbreaking "Green Shipping Corridors" that are linking sustainable cities, and the bold shift toward zero-emission fuels. From local air quality to global supply chains, discover how cities are turning the tide on emissions and steering the industry toward a 1.5°C future. It's time to rethink the horizon: clearer skies and smoother sailing ahead.Featured guests: Eric Garcetti, C40 Ambassador for Global Climate Diplomacy and former Mayor of Los AngelesAlisa Kreynes, Director of Ports and Shipping at C40Featured clips:The Shipping Forecast - BBC Radio 4Global shipping emissions vote on a knife edge at IMO - BBC Business TodayLinks:Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from global shipping, 2016–2023 - The International Council on Clean TransportationA guide to the IMO's Net-Zero Framework - Global Maritime ForumLandmark deal to cut global shipping emissions in tatters after US pressure - BBC NewsPorts and Shipping - C40 Knowledge HubGreen shipping corridors programme - C40 Cities websiteFrom Los Angeles to Shanghai, the port cities collaborating to cut shipping emissions - ReutersGreen Ports Forum - C40 Cities websiteWhy should we talk about a 'just and equitable' transition for shipping? - UN Trade and DevelopmentRescuing shipping's Net Zero Framework - Climate AnalyticsCities take the global stage to showcase climate action at the IMO for the first time - C40 Cities websiteIf you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website at https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/Listen to the Cities 1.5 five-part miniseries “Going Steady with Herman Daly: How to Unbreak the Economy (and the Planet)" here: https://lnk.to/HDMiniSeriesCities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and the C40 Centre, and is supported by C40 Cities. Sign up to the Centre newsletter: https://thecentre.substack.com/Writing and executive production by Peggy Whitfield.Narrative and communications support by Chiara Morfeo.Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/Music by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/
The Second Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2026 is underway in Shanghai, with participants reviewing the APEC cooperation in the first half of the year and preparing for the outcomes of the leaders' meeting and other events throughout the rest of the year.
This week I'm sharing the fourth and final installment from the day-long conference convened by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at Johns Hopkins SAIS on April 3rd in Washington — “The China Debate We're Not Having: Politics, Technology, and the Road Ahead.” The first three episodes featured Jessica Chen Weiss's opening remarks and the panels on what China wants, what the United States wants, and tech rivalry and competing visions of the future. This final installment is a fireside conversation between Henry Farrell and Alondra Nelson, followed by Jessica's closing remarks.Once again, my deep thanks to Jessica Chen Weiss, ACF's inaugural faculty director, for organizing this terrific conference and for so generously letting me share this audio with Sinica listeners.Henry Farrell, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs at SAIS, sits down with Alondra Nelson — Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy — for what turns out to be the day's most generative reframing of the AI race. Henry begins by asking how it is that ideas once confined to 1980s science fiction — the singularity, AGI, brains-in-vats — have come to anchor mainstream American AI policy discourse. Alondra traces the genealogy back to the “Californian ideology” and the long history of outré thinking in Silicon Valley, but her real point is that something has shifted: U.S. negative sentiment around AI has been climbing and plateauing high since 2022, even as adoption has spread — the opposite of the usual technology-acceptance curve, and the opposite of what's happening in China, Nigeria, or Brazil.From there the conversation opens up into what I found to be its richest vein: the contrast between a Cartesian, disembodied American conception of AI — “we're working on the brains,” as Sam Altman put it when OpenAI shut down its robotics team in 2022 — and a more embodied approach that integrates the cognitive and the physical, which is part of what's powered China's advances in advanced manufacturing and robotics. Alondra is sharp on the costs of the brain-in-a-vat framing: it treats AI as a state of exception in which existing laws and institutions somehow don't apply, and it lets us float aspirational claims (”AI will cure cancer”) that elide all the clunky institutional stewardship actually required to get from aspiration to outcome.She also offers an incisive reading of the Trump administration's AI policy — which, she argues, is misleadingly described as “deregulatory.” Between export controls, the golden share in Intel, immigration restrictions on STEM talent, and the administration's tight stewardship of who wins and who loses in the AI ecosystem, this is industrial policy by another name — and a narrowing of democratic input over decisions of enormous infrastructural consequence.The conversation closes with Henry asking what a small-d democratic successor administration ought to do, and Alondra's answer is bracingly practical: get rid of the state of exception, take the material supply chain of AI seriously (data centers, electricity, critical minerals, communities), let state-level policy generate evidence about what works, and aim for high-watermark aspirations — North Stars, in the spirit of the AI Bill of Rights — rather than pretending the technology itself will deliver our values.Jessica then offers her closing remarks, thanking the panelists, previewing the ACF Insights Series, and putting out the call for new junior fellows at the Institute.Participants:Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study; former Director, White House Office of Science and Technology PolicyHenry Farrell, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins SAISClosing remarks: Jessica Chen Weiss, David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies and Inaugural Faculty Director, ACFSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on Sinica, I chat with Ali Wyne, Senior Research and Advocacy Adviser for U.S.-China at the International Crisis Group, just hours after President Trump's plane left Chinese airspace at the end of a three-day state visit to Beijing. We dig into the new framework Xi Jinping put on the table — what Beijing is calling 中美建设性战略稳定关系, a "constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability" — and ask whether it's a genuine doctrine of mutual restraint or a rhetorical tripwire that future American moves can be characterized as having violated. Ali and I work through Foreign Minister Wang Yi's morning-after media briefing, including his striking claim that the U.S. side now "does not accept" Taiwan independence — a notable shift from the standard American formulation. We talk about what Trump actually said on Taiwan in his Air Force One press gaggle, the gap between Trump's account of Xi's private remarks on Iran and what Beijing is willing to say publicly, and whether AI can serve as a durable basis for cooperation coming out of the summit. We also turn to the American domestic side: the bind Democrats find themselves in trying to critique Trump's China engagement without out-hawking him, the generational data showing a striking gap in American attitudes toward China that transcends partisan division, and the question of when that shift in mass opinion actually starts to bite on policy.Full podcast page with timestamps and links forthcoming! Just wanted to get this out quickly.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Two superpower leaders, two days of talks, and an agenda with global consequences ... all of it unfolding under the shadow of the war in Iran, which has thrown China's global influence into sharper focus. Over the last thirteen years, President Xi has transformed China, tightening control at home while embracing a bolder strategy abroad. Xiang Lanxin is Professor Emeritus of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and he joins the show from Shanghai. Also on today's show: Indian journalist Rahul Bhatia; clinical psychologist (and Holocaust survivor) Edith Eger and daughter Marianne Engle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Africa is a centre of world history — a fact that's been deliberately obscured, says journalist Howard W. French. In this talk based on his book, The Second Emancipation, he explores the surprisingly early seeds of 20th century Pan-African thought, and how Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana went from reluctant student to influential leader of a free Ghana.Howard W. French delivered the Black History Month lecture at University of Toronto's New College. French was is a former New York Times bureau chief based in Shanghai. He now teaches journalism at Columbia University and is also the author of Born in Blackness.
His Boss Told Him He'd Never Rise Above Engineer Level. Three Years Later, That Boss Reported to Him. Samuel Santos on Getting Noticed at Work Early in his career, his manager told him the company had a prototype for success: blonde hair, green eyes. Samuel Moody Santos was mixed race, Black, an immigrant who had started his working life as a waste picker. His manager told him he would never advance past engineer level. Three years later, Samuel was a manager and that man reported to him. He went on to retire as Senior Vice President at Johnson & Johnson, one of the top 40 Fortune 500 companies in the world. He speaks five languages. He holds an engineering degree and an MBA. And he wrote the book on how he did it: "In Spite of the Headwinds." In this episode, Samuel shares the specific mindset shifts, communication strategies, and career moves that took him from invisible to indispensable, as a minority, an immigrant, and someone who was actively told he didn't belong. You'll learn: Why "success depends on who you know" is the wrong mental model, and the one-sentence reframe Samuel used to challenge a corporate trainer in a room of 40 people that changed how he thought about visibility for the rest of his career. Why doing excellent work and staying quiet about it is the same as doing nothing, and how he marketed his ideas without ever bragging about himself. How he turned a direct manager who tried to limit his career into a stepping stone by building relationships with leaders two and three levels above that manager. The "poor photograph" framework: why being visible without being skilled fails, and why being skilled without being visible fails just as badly. Why he treats every "no" the same way: either he didn't explain the idea well enough, or he needs a different audience. The Starbucks founder knocked on 242 doors. Samuel applied that same logic to ideas inside a corporation. How he disagrees with superiors without triggering defensiveness: "I never disagree with any person. I disagree with ideas." The specific language he used to pose challenges as questions so people moved toward his position instead of defending against it. The performance review confrontation where someone tried to penalize a team member for a mistake from two years prior, and how Samuel addressed the entire room to win that argument on the spot. Why he focused ruthlessly on the one skill he could take above average (presenting technical ideas to non-technical executives), and chose not to develop things that wouldn't move the needle, including declining to learn Mandarin during a two-year assignment in Shanghai. About Samuel Moody Santos: Retired Senior Vice President at Johnson & Johnson, Samuel is an engineer, MBA, minister, polyglot (five languages), honorary consul, former university professor, public speaker, and author of "In Spite of the Headwinds: My Journey from Waste Picker to Vice President at a Top-Forty Fortune 500 Company." Book: https://www.amazon.com/Spite-Headwinds-Picker-Senior-Executive-ebook/dp/B09KGRQ61W Connect with Samuel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-moody-santos-56601a10/
In today's mandarin podcast we interviewed Cherry from the @chinesemandarincherry Chinese Teacher Cherry is young, open-minded, and has experienced life abroad as well as life in big cities in China. But in the end, she made a surprising decision: she left the fast-paced city life behind and moved to Tengchong, a small town in Yunnan.Why would someone choose a quieter and simpler life after seeing so much of the world? What kind of mindset and inner journey led her to make this decision?In this natural Chinese conversation, we talk about modern Chinese culture and China life, pressure in big cities, slow living in China, and the different ways young Chinese people think about happiness and success today.This is also a great video for Chinese learners — you'll hear natural spoken Mandarin, real opinions, and authentic cultural perspectives through comprehensible conversation.Whether you're learning Chinese or simply curious about life in China beyond Beijing and Shanghai, I hope you enjoy this interview.
As U.S. President Donald Trump concludes what he calls a very successful state visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping has highlighted common understandings on trade, expanding cooperation and addressing each other's concerns (01:16). Shanghai is hosting APEC meetings on food safety and women (11:16). And the UK's prime minister is facing a potential challenger after a Labour MP vacated a position in his constituency (22:12).
CZ shares how he went from a rural village in China to Vancouver, McGill and Wall Street‑adjacent fintech roles in Tokyo, New York, Shanghai and Singapore before ever touching crypto. He explains why discovering Bitcoin in 2013 felt “bigger than the internet,” how that conviction led him to sell his Shanghai apartment for around 900,000 dollars to buy Bitcoin at roughly 600 dollars a coin, and why he quit his job to work full‑time in the space even without much cash left.
Bowen Ha joined the San Francisco Symphony at the start of the 2024–25 season after training at Juilliard with Timothy Cobb and Harold Robinson, and appearing as a substitute with major orchestras. Born in Shanghai, Bowen's path ran from piano to cello and finally to bass, through Interlochen, the Shanghai Conservatory's affiliated program, and Juilliard. We dig into the nuts-and-bolts of what changed between Bowen's early pro auditions and his San Francisco win: obsessing over details and doing daily metronome work. Enjoy, and connect with Bowen on Instagram and YouTube! Connect with DBHQ Join Our Newsletter Double Bass Resources Double Bass Sheet Music Double Bass Merch Gear used to record this podcast Zoom H6 studio 8-Track 32-Bit Float Handy Recorder Rode Podmic Sony Alpha 7 IV Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM Lens Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM Lens When you buy a product using a link on this page, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting DBHQ. Theme music by Eric Hochberg
Lisell Jaatma is a women's compound professional archer from Estonia, who recently won her first-ever, individual World Cup title at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai, China. She talks about what that win meant to her, especially after a difficult 2025. Lisell opens up about her struggles physically and mentally in 2025, how it affected her archery, how it affected her life and what she did to overcome the adversity. She admits she's still working on herself, but she has turned the corner and is feeling much better about herself and her archery game.
“Ma conviction profonde, c'est que tout le monde devrait boxer”.Persuadé que sa discipline est largement sous-adressée en France, Cyril Durand se lance le défi de la démocratiser et s'attaque en premier à son fief : Paris.En 2014, alors que tout le destine à une grande carrière dans l'immobilier, il quitte son poste chez Unibail, contre l'avis de son entourage, pour ouvrir une première salle au coeur de la capitale.“Ma grande chance c'est que ça a marché tout de suite”.Mais ce n'est pas le fruit du hasard ou d'une simple tendance vers les sports de combat.Dès le lancement de Temple, Cyril mise sur des coachs aux larges palmarès, une expérience ultra-premium en dehors du ring et des cours pour tous les niveaux axés plus sur le contrôle de soi que sur la recherche de violence.Très vite, la sauce prend.Tous viennent pour le dépassement physique, tous restent pour apprendre à mieux gérer leurs émotions, à rester lucide sous pression, à convoquer consciemment leur agressivité.Aujourd'hui Temple Noble Art c'est 5 salles désormais iconiques et plus de 5000 aficionados qui font, pour 90% d'entre eux, plus de 2 séances par semaine.Cyril raconte dans cet échange profond comment il a placé ses clubs au coeur du monde de la boxe, durablement, loin des modes et des tendances :Les détails invisibles qui rendent une expérience exceptionnelleDesigner des espaces chaleureux et pas seulement fonctionnelsLimiter le "churn", même avec un abonnement à 160€ par moisLes paramètres à (absolument) respecter pour qu'un lieu cartonnePourquoi ouvrir à Shanghai, Londres et Madrid avant Bordeaux, Marseille et LyonCyril nous emmène dans les coulisses de son succès, et nous partage la recette pour créer des expériences qui rendent accro.Vous pouvez contacter Cyril sur LinkedIn et suivre Temple sur Instagram.Si vous indiquez venir de la part de GDIY en mentionnant le code “Paris Boxe Ici”, vous aurez la séance de découverte offerte.Vous souhaitez sponsoriser Génération Do It Yourself ou nous proposer un partenariat ?Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire.TIMELINE:00:00:00 : Boxer avec engagement, sans chercher à blesser00:07:29 : "Pour accomplir un acte courageux, il faut avoir conscience du danger"00:11:24 : Attirer le tout Paris dès la première ouverture00:24:56 : "Tes jugements parlent de toi, pas des autres”00:29:14 : Comment Temple est devenu LE lieu de la boxe à Paris00:42:46 : 10% de "churn" avec un abonnement à 160€ par mois00:51:12 : Les actions invisibles qui rendent une expérience exceptionnelle01:05:07 : Plus difficile que créer des process : retirer des process01:12:55 : "Mon client parfait c'est celui qui se sent incapable de mettre un coup"01:20:52 : La recette secrète des coachs du Temple01:30:27 : Pourquoi la boxe anglaise est plus élégante que toutes les autres01:38:58 : Ouvrir à Shanghai, Londres et Madrid avant Bordeaux, Marseille et Lyon01:47:05 : "On vire quelques dizaines de membres par an"01:53:32 : Le sport de développement personnel par excellence02:06:00 : "En boxe, dès le premier jour tu te fais plaisir"02:12:52 : Résister face au cross-fit, à l'Hyrox et à toutes les tendances "feux de paille"02:23:27 : Théâtraliser les salles pour qu'elles ne ressemblent à aucune autre02:29:35 : Ouvrir 5 nouveaux lieux dans les 3 prochaines années02:37:46 : Essayez la boxe, vous ne regretterez pasLes anciens épisodes de GDIY mentionnés : #518 - Benoît Saint Denis - Combattant de MMA - Devenir le meilleur guerrier possible#441 - Arthur Benzaquen - Masada, réalisateur - Qui a dit que le business n'était pas artistique ?#468 - Chloé Bouscatel - Monday Sports Club - S'inspirer des US pour créer des expériences sportives qui rendent accro#392 - Clémentine Piazza - inmemori - Le business de la mort, un avenir prometteur#373 - Benjamin Cardoso - The Polar Plunge - Faire de son corps une Ferrari#352 - Juliette Lévy - Oh My Cream ! - Se mesurer aux géants de la beauté, casser les codes des DNVB, et tout rafler#479 - Nikola Karabatic - Champion de Handball - 22 titres sur 23 : la légende du sport françaisNous avons parlé de :Sixtine Moullé-BerteauxTemple BoxingLe premier temple, ouvert en 2014 dans le 1er arrondissement de ParisLes règles du noble art définies en 1885 par le Marquis de QueensberryLe gala du temple sur le toit de la Grande ArcheUn grand MERCI à nos sponsors : Squarespace : https://squarespace.com/doitQonto: https://qonto.com/r/2i7tk9 Brevo: brevo.com/doit eToro: https://bit.ly/3GTSh0k Payfit: payfit.com Club Med : clubmed.frCuure : https://cuure.com/product-onely (code DOIT)Vous souhaitez sponsoriser Génération Do It Yourself ou nous proposer un partenariat ?Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Colin Chinnery and Purat ‘Chang’ Osathanugrah discuss their respective cultural institutions in Beijing and Bangkok. We explore how they’re making art more accessible, as well as sound culture and the challenges posed by AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chris and Preet are back for This Week In Track & Field with Diamond League week finally here, and a lot of hypotheticals to sort through before they get there.Discussed in this episode:– Quincy Wilson runs the 300 meter hurdles: The Olympic 400 gold medalist and high school record holder debuted in the 300m hurdles at his Bullis school league meet, winning in 38.77, about 30 minutes after winning the open 400 in 45.8.– Grant Holloway update: The reigning Olympic 110 hurdles champion posted on Instagram confirming he's been dealing with a torn hamstring.– Cross country not added to the 2030 Winter Olympics: The IOC confirmed trail running, cross country, cyclocross, and gravel cycling are out for the French Alps games.– The internet's current hypotheticals: Sebastian Sawe vs. Rachel Entrekin in a 250-miler + Mo Farah vs. Luke Littler darts world champion in a half marathon where you must stop and throw a leg of darts every mile.Diamond League Shanghai/Keqiao preview:– Women's 5000m: Faith Kipyegon's return to the distance for the first time since her 2023 world record. – Women's 400m: Salwa Eid Nasser opened at a Florida youth meet with an 11.7/23.3/50.9 triple.– Men's 110m hurdles: Cordell Tinch returning to the hurdles after his multi-event indoor detour.– Women's steeplechase: Closest thing to a world championship semi-final on the schedule — Faith Cherotich, Norah Jeruto, Peruth Chemutai, and five of the top Americans.– Women's 200m: What does Sha'Carri open up with?– Women's 100m hurdles: Tobi Amusan, Masai Russell, Akera Nugent.– Men's 3000m: Andreas Almgren's track return is the main draw.– Women's 1500m: Great field — the Australian Commonwealth Games selection battle plays out here since the five top Aussies didn't get their proper matchup at home due to the fall incident.– Men's 100m: Bednarek, Bromell, Coleman headline the U.S. presence vs. Letsile Tebogo and Akani Simbine.– Men's 300m hurdles: Warholm vs. Dos Santos____________Hosts: Chris Chavez | @chris_j_chavez + Preet Majithia | @preet_athletics Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | @jasminefehr____________SUPPORT OUR SPONSORSXENDURANCE: Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate the exact Boston or London Marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, no breaking your flow. When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping!OLIPOP: Raspberry Sherbet is a limited-edition, nostalgic new flavor that blends tangy raspberry with creamy vanilla. Every can of Olipop contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.
445: Lakeside:5 | Shanghai Diamond League Preview | Staying Motivated Saily have teamed up with Inside Running Podcast to offer an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code INSIDERUNNING at checkout. To get started, download the Saily app or visit: https://saily.com/insiderunning and check out link in bio. Brad goes into his preparations for Sydney 10 against the Canberra cold. Julian gets around through some pretty gruelling weather. Brady breaks out the gloves for the first time of the season. This week's running news is presented by Precision Fuel & Hydration, they make it simple with a free online planner, visit precisionhydration.com and get your numbers. XCR26 Lakeside:5 was taken out by Ed Marks in 13:37 for Glenhuntly, ahead of Bendigo duo Matt Buckell and Andy Buchanan. Sandringham were the winning team of the Premier Division. Donve Viljoen won the race in 16:07 ahead of Box Hill teammate Stella Radford and Katherine Dowie of Ballarat. Box Hill were the winning team of the Premier Division. Aths Vic Results Hub The IOC confirms cross country will not be added to the 2030 Winter Olympics programme. Canadian Running Magazine Big Australian names set for a rematch at the Shanghai Diamond League. Diamond League Women's Field Preview Jaylah Hancock-Cameron took out the 800m in 2:01.85 at the Kinami MIchitaka Memorial Athletics Meet in Japan. Results via World Athletics Moose On the Loose what constitutes “leaving time on the table” and when tactics should give way to etiquette. This episode's Listener Q's/Training Talk segment is proudly brought to you by Precision Fuel & Hydration. How do you stay motivated after a setback? Visit precisionhydration.com for more info on hydration and fuelling products and research, and use the discount code given in the episode. Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/insiderunningpodcast Opening and Closing Music is Undercover of my Skin by Benny Walker. www.bennywalkermusic.com Join the conversation at: https://www.facebook.com/insiderunningpodcast/
Host Scott Tong is reporting from China this week as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for a high-profile summit in Beijing. He joins us from Shanghai to share his first impressions of the country since the last time he was there.Then, the summit is set for later this week. Senior research fellow Yu Jie from Chatham House explains the power dynamic going into the meeting.And, Russia held its annual Victory Day parade on Saturday. It was scaled back compared to previous years, with the country's military might displayed not in person but on giant TV screens, out of fear of a possible attack from Ukraine. Nina Khrushcheva, New School professor and great-granddaughter of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, details Russian President Vladimir Putin's hold on power.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Last time we spoke about the battle Yaoyi. Japan pushed hard into Hubei with a plan: surround the main Chinese forces and seize Yichang, hoping to use it to strike at Chongqing. At first, the fighting was chaotic and punishing. The Chinese side tried to hold the line and disrupt the advance, and they even managed setbacks for the Japanese, pushing back, retaking key ground, and hitting supply and positioning weaknesses. But victory came with a cost: commanders were lost, and every gain was hard-won. Still, the battle didn't unfold as a clean Chinese retreat or a simple Japanese win. As Japanese units shifted and tested for openings, the Chinese forces adjusted—delaying, regrouping, and fighting to keep their formations from being completely trapped. Eventually, Japan managed to break through at critical moments, especially through crossings and maneuvers that the Chinese had not fully sealed off. In the end, Japan succeeded in taking Yichang, but it didn't achieve the decisive annihilation it wanted. #201 The New Fourth Army Incident and the Strained United Front 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. After the catastrophe of the early 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entered the war against Japan in a political mood that was both hopeful and wary: it wanted to be seen as a genuine national leader of resistance, yet it also feared being absorbed—or destroyed—by the Guomindang (KMT) state it had spent years battling. That tension became the organizing principle of the war's early years. The turning point came from the Xi'an Incident in December 1936, which forced a new calculation in Nationalist politics. In the months that followed, agreements between KMT and CCP representatives were publicly proclaimed in August and September 1937, after the Shanghai fighting began. Under these arrangements, the CCP accepted constraints that in peacetime would have looked like surrender: it pledged to strive for Sun Yixian's "Three People's Principles," to end its former policies of armed revolt and sovietization, to abolish the soviet government, and to discontinue both the term "Red Army" and the expectation that its forces would operate outside central control. Communist troops would be treated as part of the national military under KMT command, and the revolution's old administrative structures were to be formally dismantled. In return, the KMT offered the CCP something just as important: space to exist publicly and politically. Liaison offices were permitted in key cities; the CCP was allowed to publish the New China Daily; and it could nominate representatives to KMT advisory bodies. Civil rights were extended—political prisoners were released—and subsidies were established to help cover administrative and military expenses in "reintegrated" areas and territories. The war thus transformed the tactical reality on the ground: the CCP could not treat the KMT as an immediate enemy, but it also could not afford to become politically passive. It had to learn how to fight Japan while building legitimacy fast enough to survive the next phase. In the first year and a half, the Party Center focused on three problems that kept returning in different forms: how the "united front" would be defined—especially what the CCP's relationship to the National government should be; how to coordinate military strategy and tactics with Nationalist units without losing control of its own operations; and how leadership should be consolidated, particularly for Mao Zedong in a party that still contained rival centers of authority. These disputes mattered not just for doctrine but for survival, because the CCP's autonomy was constantly being tested by the very alliance that was supposed to protect it. Mao's own approach to the united front combined cooperation with a refusal to surrender independence. Publicly, the CCP praised Jiang Jieshi and the KMT and promised unity, but it did so in language that was deliberately broad. In private (and in internal party debates), Mao treated unity as conditional: the CCP must not split the united front, but it also must not be "bound hand and foot." The strategic idea that emerged was political initiative under constraints—fighting when it could plausibly claim justification, keeping enough restraint that the CCP would not appear self-interested or anti-national, and deciding for itself when to engage and when to withdraw. This balance was reinforced through military reorganization. In August–September 1937, CCP forces were reorganized as the Eighth Route Army (8RA), with roughly 30,000 men drawn from Long March survivors, local forces, and new recruits. The 8RA was divided into three divisions: the 115th, 120th, and 129th, commanded by Lin Biao, He Long, and Liu Bocheng respectively. Shortly after the war began, the National government also authorized a second major Communist force: the New Fourth Army (N4A), to operate in central China. Its core came from those left behind when the Long March began in 1934—small groups surviving in difficult conditions against continuing KMT pressure. Officially authorized at 12,000, it took months to reach that strength. Nominally commanded by Ye Ting, actual military and political control rested with Xiang Ying and Chen Yi. From the start, then, the CCP's wartime "integration" with the National system coexisted with a clear effort to preserve internal control. Ideologically, the CCP worked to make its revolutionary program compatible—at least in appearance—with a national resistance coalition. On the New Democracy demonstrated how this strategy operated on two levels. In KMT-controlled spaces, its language could be read as aligning with liberal-democratic expectations: public participation, multi-party governance, legally protected civil rights. But in CCP-controlled areas, the same text could carry sharper class-based and authoritarian implications. The Party wanted a united front that broadened support without becoming committed to Nationalist limits on how society itself might be reorganized after victory. Meanwhile, even as the rhetoric of unity rose, the CCP worried about something more dangerous than military setbacks: the possibility that the KMT might accommodate Japan. Late 1939 and early 1940 made this fear harder to dismiss. Japan pursued collaboration with Wang Jingwei, culminating in the establishment of a "reorganized" government at Nanjing in March 1940. At the same time, Japanese intermediaries sought approaches to Chiang Kai-shek himself—an effort that the CCP tracked closely as a sign that peace negotiations might be possible even when battlefield conditions looked grim. Propaganda was involved, but the anxiety was real: if Japan and the Nationalists reached an arrangement, the CCP's whole wartime legitimacy-building effort could collapse overnight. As a result, the united front was interpreted inside the CCP not as a permanent coalition with the KMT, but as a flexible strategy with a cardinal purpose: to prevent peace between Japan and the Nationalists. Mao's position on the united front reflected this. For him, the alliance was meant to suspend the possibility of a China–Japan settlement, not to end the CCP's separate identity. The CCP could participate in a reconstituted national framework—possibly even a "democratic republic"—to gain legality and influence, but it should remain politically and, where possible, physically separate from the KMT. By 1939, however, the practical meaning of "flexibility" collided with reality. What had seemed, to some observers, like an unusually cordial entente began to fade. The KMT Central Committee adopted measures early in 1939 aimed at restricting Communist expansion, and armed clashes increased through the summer and continued into autumn and winter—especially around North China Communist bases. The period of rising conflict was later labeled by the CCP as the "first anti-Communist upsurge" (roughly spanning December 1939 into March 1940), but the crucial point was that both sides viewed each confrontation as a test of legal rights, moral legitimacy, and control over territory. Strategically, the CCP understood the KMT's effort as an attempt to check unauthorized growth of Communist armed power and to recover areas where influence had already slipped away—either to the Communists or, by indirect effect, to Japan. The KMT emphasized its traditional legal authority; the CCP countered with its claim to an "evolutionary" moral right to challenge the government's legitimacy. In practice, the conflict took the form of increasingly systematic military pressure, including a blockade around the Shen–Gan–Ning region. By this point, the blockade involved large numbers of troops (on the order of hundreds of thousands), halting Communist expansion and disrupting direct contact with other Communist forces farther afield, even as fighting flared along border zones and around vulnerable points in the Communist defensive perimeter. So, by the edge of the "middle years," the wartime alliance had not broken into open civil war—but it had also stopped being secure. The united front survived, yet it operated under strain: its language of cooperation continued, while "friction" between partners hardened into a central feature of the resistance struggle. Transition into the war's second phase began in early 1939, shaped by the stalemate Mao had already anticipated at the sixth plenum in late 1938. Mao argued that during this prolonged "new stage" the forces of resistance—above all, Communist-led forces—would strengthen. The overall result, however, was mixed. In Shandong and Central China, new Communist bases did take shape. But across much of North China, Japanese consolidation cost the resistance heavily in manpower and population. Base-area economies suffered serious strain, and the peasantry endured hardships more severe than at any earlier point. This stalemate had two main dimensions. The first was the growing resentment of the Nationalists toward Communist expansion—resentment made especially sharp by their own losses. As the Nationalists were driven out of regions that had previously provided them their greatest wealth and power in the central and lower Yangtze basin, they also lost the "cream" of their armies. In contrast, the CCP was spreading through the wider countryside behind Japanese lines, extending its influence and winning broader popular support. The second dimension was Japan's desire—and need—to consolidate territories it had only nominally conquered and to extract economic value from them. After all, the logic of the "China Incident" was to draw on China's labor and resources to strengthen Japan, not to bleed Japan's gains away by draining wealth into China's vast interior. A Japanese colonel, lamenting the situation, captured the frustration of this drift into deeper entanglement: he regretted that Japan had not ended the "China Incident" once its initial objectives were reached. Instead, Japan was drawn into the hinterland and became bogged down in endless attrition—leaving it with little more than "real estate" rather than the popular support it believed it would secure from those it claimed to "liberate." To improve their position, Japanese authorities—still fragmented by internal rivalry—pursued several strategies. One was a new peace offensive aimed simultaneously at Jiang Jieshi, alongside efforts to establish a "reformed" Nationalist government under Wang Jingwei, who had fled Chongqing in December 1938. Japan also recruited more collaborators and puppet officials. Finally, it carried out forceful military, political, and economic measures intended to establish effective territorial control and eliminate opposition. During the middle years of the war, the Communists described their conflicts with the Nationalists using the euphemism "friction". By 1939, what many observers—possibly incorrectly—had viewed as an unusually warm alliance began to break down. In early 1939, the KMT Central Committee adopted measures meant to restrict the CCP. From the summer onward, military clashes began and continued into autumn and winter with increasing frequency and intensity, most of them concentrated around and within the North China base areas. The Communists later labeled the period from December 1939 to March 1940 the "first anti-Communist upsurge." Naturally, each side accused the other of aggression and claimed self-defense against unjust attacks. Strategically, though, the North China "upsurge" functioned as a Nationalist attempt to limit the CCP's expansion beyond the areas assigned to it and to regain influence in regions the Communists—or the Japanese—had already taken from the KMT. Jiang Jieshi framed the matter as a defense of legal rights grounded in tradition, while the Communists asserted an "evolutionary" right to challenge the moral legitimacy of those legal claims. During 1939, the Nationalists began to blockade Shen–Gan–Ning around its southern and western perimeter. Within a year, this blockade grew to nearly 400,000 troops, including some of the last remaining Central Army units under the command of Hu Zongnan. The blockade stopped further Communist expansion, especially into Gansu and Suiyuan, and severed direct contact between SKN and Communists operating in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) adjacent to Soviet Central Asia. The Xinjiang Communists—including Mao Zedong's brother—were eliminated in 1942. Meanwhile, fierce fighting erupted along the Gansu–Shaanxi border and in the north-eastern corner of SKN near the Great Wall at Suide, as the blockading forces probed for weak points. Elements of He Long's 120th Division were even pulled back from the Jin–Sui base across the Yellow River to strengthen SKN's regular defenses. Economically, the blockade was even more damaging. During 1939, central government subsidies to the Border Region budget were cut off. Trade between the Border Region and other parts of China nearly stopped, a devastating blow to a region unable to supply itself with many basic commodities. At the same time, Nationalist and regional forces also attempted to expand their military and administrative authority into Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong—areas the CCP now considered its base zones. In resisting these efforts, the CCP predictable accused its rivals of harming resistance work and damaging the people's interests. The "experts in dissension" were said to cooperate with the Japanese and their puppets. Based on increasing collaboration by regional units with Japan, the CCP implied that this was a deliberate and cynical strategy—described as "crooked-line patriotism"—intended to preserve those units for future anti-Communist operations. Even so, the CCP tried to avoid an open break with the Nationalist regime in Chongqing. In public, it consistently portrayed these clashes as being initiated by local commanders acting beyond orders from higher authority—despite knowing this depiction was false. Jiang Jieshi, unable to refute the claim outright, effectively permitted it to serve as the justification for a firm Communist response. Mao Zedong outlined the general resistance policy as "justification, expedience, and restraint". The CCP was to fight when it could claim justification and when it could gain advantage, but not to press attacks beyond what the Nationalists would tolerate or in ways that could damage its image as selfless patriots. Communist forces were expected to keep initiative as much as possible in their own hands—deciding when to engage, whether to engage, and when to disengage. The most striking episode of the "first anti-Communist upsurge" was the rupture with Yan Xishan in December 1939. Tensions in Shanxi had been rising throughout the summer and autumn, as Yan and his conservative supporters—associated with the "Old Army"—linked the Sacrifice League and the Dare-to-die Corps of the "New Army" with Communist forces. When base areas and Japanese occupation eventually took over much of his province, Yan was forced into exile at Qiulin across the Yellow River in Shaanxi. In November, Yan ordered his Old Army to disarm the Dare-to-die forces with help from central units dispatched by Hu Zongnan. In the bloody fighting that followed, these elements gradually broke free of even nominal provincial control and fully completed their connection with Communist forces. More than 30,000 people went over to the Communists. One KMT intelligence agent described the process with bitterness and a sense of inevitability: the Communists were first "full of sweet words," flattery, and distortions designed to open things up and conceal their actions. But once they had fully entrenched themselves, and once the low-level base had been established, they turned and bit. The agent suggested they had suspected things might end this way, but were not aware how quickly events would move—or that it could happen precisely while Communist calls for "united front" and "maintenance of unity for resistance" filled the air. About a month later, in February and March 1940, elements of the 8RA beat back this so-called upsurge. Zhang Yinwu's forces were disarmed and dispersed across the plains of north Hebei. To the south, Chu Huaiping and Shi Yusan were pushed out of the base area, as was the KMT-appointed provincial governor Lu Zhonglin. Although some non-Communist forces remained in the region, the CCP's and CCLY bases were never again seriously threatened by forces affiliated with the central government. Reinforcing the CCP's accusations, Shi Yusan was later executed in 1940 by the central government for collaboration with the Japanese. By late 1939, CCP central authorities maintained that the areas where the CCP could expand its armed strength were mainly limited to Shandong and Central China. In those regions, the CCP continued trying to carve out bases where they could operate. The situation in Shandong was complicated. After the Japanese invasion, most Nationalist-affiliated forces stayed in the province, while Communist forces and bases were weaker and more scattered than further west. Only in late 1938 did major 8RA units from the 115th and 129th Divisions—led by Xu Xiangqian and Luo Ronghuan—enter Shandong to link up with the Shandong column and local guerrillas, including survivors of a large band recently decimated by the Japanese. Even with these efforts, Communist actions led to clashes not only with Japanese forces but also with various Nationalist-affiliated groups—groups that were stronger than the Communists at the time. Until late 1940, the CCP's clashes with Nationalist forces in Shandong were actually bloodier than clashes with the Japanese. The CCP understood that its Chinese rivals mistrusted one another, and that their attitudes toward the CCP varied widely. The main Nationalist forces were often not tightly affiliated with Chiang Kai-shek or the central government. Instead, they operated under independent—and at times disgruntled—regional commanders. Communist tactics were expressed through slogans emphasizing ways to win support and isolate hardliners: develop progressive forces and win over fence-sitters while isolating "die-hards"; flatter top echelons, enlist the middle ranks, and hit the rank and file; and win over Yi Xuezhong, isolate Shen Honglie, and eliminate Qin Qirong. Still, unlike other North China base areas, the Communists were unable for several years to neutralize Nationalist forces in Shandong. Even if Japanese mop-up campaigns had not weakened those Nationalists, the text suggests the Communists may still have struggled to do so. By November 1940, Xu Xiangqian claimed meaningful progress while admitting Shandong had not yet become a fully consolidated base. CCP successes were greatest along parts of the Shandong–Hebei border, around the Taishan massif in central Shandong, and near the tip of the peninsula far to the east. Elsewhere, "progressive forces" remained weak. Communist regular troops numbered about 70,000, which was far below the party center's goals of 150,000 regulars and between 1.5 and 2 million self-defense forces. Moreover, systematic economic reforms had barely begun. The CCP relied on familiar practices—confiscations, collections of "national salvation grain," contributions, and loans—alongside a conventional taxation system adjusted to favor poorer peasants. Communist expansion in Central China was even riskier, with a greater likelihood of large-scale conflict with central government forces than in the north. In much of North China, "friction" came primarily from rapid Communist expansion into areas with partial vacuums. In Central China, however, base-building required displacing an existing Nationalist military-administrative presence closely tied to Jiang Kai-shek and the Chongqing government. The burden of this expansion was carried mainly by the 6th Detachment (northern Anhui and Jiangsu) and the 5th Detachment, which was reinforced by 15,000 to 20,000 8RA troops under Huang K'o-ch'eng. As Chen Yi's 1st Detachment crossed from south to north through the corridor provided by Guan Wenwei's local forces, it became actively involved as well. This expansion—driven by increasingly urgent directives from Mao and Liu during the latter part of 1939 and into 1940—brought the N4A north of the river into ever more frequent and sharper clashes with Nationalist authorities in Anhui and Jiangsu, especially with units under Jiangsu governor Han Deqin. South of the river, though, Xiang Ying did not directly challenge Chongqing's commanders. Mao later charged that Xiang Ying may have been influenced by Wang Ming, or else he may simply have seen no realistic alternative. His forces—three detachments plus a headquarters unit—were heavily outnumbered by Qu Chutong's Nationalist units, not to mention Japanese forces and their puppets. Even if Mao insisted bases could be built "anywhere," the Shanghai–Hangzhou–Nanjing triangle was especially difficult terrain. Xiang Ying and his followers had survived with extraordinary tenacity in the mountains of South China between 1934 and 1937, enduring brutal search-and-destroy operations that were not lifted until the war began. It therefore seems unlikely that such survivors would suddenly become "right-wing capitulationists." Yet by spring 1940, Mao was pressing Xiang Ying more intensely. The Central Committee's message was explicit: expansion was necessary in all cases. It meant reaching into all enemy-occupied areas rather than being bound by the Kuomintang's restrictions—going beyond Kuomintang limits, not waiting for official appointments, not depending on higher-ups for financing, and instead expanding armed forces freely and independently. It also meant setting up base areas without hesitation, independently mobilizing the masses in those areas, and building united front organs of political power under Communist Party leadership. The struggle between Nationalists and Communists involved more than contests for control of territory behind Japanese lines. It also involved national-level politics, ideology, and leadership. One worrying development for the CCP was the campaign throughout 1939 to expand Jiang Kai-shek's prestige and formal power—adding more titles for him across major party, government, and military positions. In early 1939, the Central Executive Committee appointed him "director-general" of the Kuomintang, a title reminiscent of the one previously held by Sun Yat-sen. In addition, during the summer and autumn of 1939 there was talk of constitutional rule. In November, the KMT announced plans to convene a constitutional assembly the following year. If Jiang could fulfill these promises, he and his government could gain new legitimacy and wider popularity. Mao and his colleagues could not allow this to go unchallenged. If the Nationalists were to have a paramount leader and authoritative spokesperson, the CCP needed one as well. The timing of Mao's famous "On the new democracy"—written in late 1939 and published the next January—was therefore no accident. Its substance had been anticipated earlier, but its final timing and full development were shaped by the KMT's constitutional movement. The CCP's entry into this competition served as both a bid for support away from the KMT and a statement of the multi-class united front that the CCP wanted to lead. Although "On the new democracy" was written in a tone that seemed moderate, it persuaded many Chinese readers that the CCP had either diluted its revolutionary objectives or postponed them to a distant future. In Kuomintang-controlled areas, the work could be read through the liberal values associated with Anglo-American democracy—popular participation, multi-party government, legally protected civil rights. In CCP-controlled territories, the same language carried stronger authoritarian, class-based meanings. In internal documents meant for party audiences rather than public consumption, the ambiguity was removed, showing a tough but patient and flexible commitment not only to resistance but also to social control and social change. During this same period, the Communists expressed deep concern about Nationalist capitulation to Japan—not only on the battlefield behind Japanese lines but also at the highest levels. Some of this concern was propaganda, but beneath propaganda lay genuine anxiety. In late 1939 and early 1940, politically aware Chinese already knew that Japan was negotiating with the unpredictable Wang Jingwei, who had fled Chongqing a year earlier. A "reorganized national government" in Nanjing was finally established in March 1940, representing the most formidable collaboration with Japan to date. Less well known, but equally important, was that Japan was also seeking an understanding directly with Jiang Kai-shek through intermediaries in Hong Kong. This effort, called "Operation Kiri"—described as spreading a "feast for Chiang"—combined intrigue with a kind of dark comedy. Reports suggested Chiang's reported interest in peace could have been a stratagem designed to discredit Wang Jingwei by keeping him waiting. But even if Chiang had no intention of coming to terms with Japan, the Communists could not be sure what the outcome would be until after the multi-pronged peace offensive had failed. By the middle of 1940, China had never been so isolated. In Europe, the "phony war" ended in the spring when Germany launched a blitz across the Low Countries. France fell soon after, and England appeared likely to be next. Japan used this moment to press China to sever its last tenuous connections to the outside world: cutting the Burma Road, trade with neutral Hong Kong, and the rail link running from Hanoi to Kunming. At the same time, Russia was engaged in a difficult and embarrassing war with Finland and reduced military aid to the Nationalists. The United States was only gradually moving away from isolationism and clearly regarded England as more important than China. In Chongqing and elsewhere in "Free China," signs of war weariness, despair, and demoralization were visible. Under these circumstances, Mao's insistence on aggressive expansion was a calculated risk—either it would deter any Japanese advance, or it would place the Communists in the strongest possible position in case a split between the KMT and the CCP became unavoidable. In Central China, the size and pace of the fighting kept increasing, starting in the final months of 1939. One flashpoint was the clash between Luo Pinghui's 5th Detachment and units of Han Deqin's Jiangsu force near Lake Gaoyou. In the following months, Guan Wenwei's forces ranged along the left bank of the Yangtze, repeatedly running into Luo's troops as they operated farther north. Luo also began receiving some 8RA reinforcements, moving them south through areas controlled by the 6th Detachment. Clearly, a major showdown was taking shape across north and central Jiangsu. At the same time, the South Yangtze Command was doing poorly. Nationalist commanders Leng Xin and Qu Chutong restricted its activities so severely that Mao and Liu gradually abandoned the idea of building a unified, consolidated base in that region. During late spring and early summer, Chen Yi moved most of his 1st and 2nd Detachments north of the Yangtze. In September, the 3rd Detachment followed suit, crossing the river into the area around Lake Chaohu, where the 4th Detachment was already stationed. After these moves, only the Headquarters Detachment—under Ye Ting and Xiang Ying—remained south of the Yangtze, positioned at Qingxian in southern Anhui. As the military situation edged toward an open confrontation, negotiations began in June 1940 between representatives of the KMT and the CCP. The core issues were Communist operating zones and the authorized strength of the armies led by the CCP. Proposals were exchanged, followed by equally sharp and hostile counter-proposals, but no agreement was reached. The KMT viewed it as a concession to permit the CCP "free rein" north of the pre-1938 course of the Yellow River, with the exception of southern Shanxi, which was to remain under the influence of Yan Xishan. In exchange, the KMT demanded that all 8RA and N4A units evacuate Central China. In effect, the KMT was offering the CCP something it was already prepared to allow, in return for the CCP giving up what it might soon be able to obtain by force of arms. Nationalist authorities then issued a set of deadlines, but without clearly stating what would happen if those deadlines were violated. On the surface, the CCP appeared to be complying in part. The movements of Chen Yi and the South Yangtze Command could look like obedience, but in reality they were responses to orders coming from their own superior leadership rather than instructions issued by the Nationalists. Even so, Xiang Ying's continued delays and evasions during the autumn and winter of 1940 remained puzzling. One possibility is that he felt—quite reasonably—that Mao had already lost confidence in him and that once he crossed to the north bank of the river he would lose his command. Another complication was that directives from Yan'an were sometimes ambiguous and even contradictory. He may also have been trying to reach secure understandings with KMT commanders about evacuation routes and guaranteed safe conduct out of the area. For a period, Han Teqin kept most of his forces—estimated at about 70,000 men, far outnumbering the N4A—in north Jiangsu, thereby blocking the expansion of the 6th Detachment and slowing further southern intrusions by 8RA troops. But by mid-summer he realized he would have to counter the N4A build-up in central Jiangsu, or else risk writing that region off to the Communists. A confusing sequence of engagements then unfolded, culminating in a decisive battle in early October 1940 near the central Jiangsu town of Huangjiao. Over the course of four days, several of Han's main-force units belonging to the 89th Army were destroyed, while others were scattered. That battle also served as a signal for the 6th Detachment to advance more aggressively in the north. In the aftermath, one of Han's principal commanders entered collaboration with the CCP, while another defected to the Nanjing government under Wang Jingwei. Although Han Teqin managed to maintain a foothold in Jiangsu until 1943, his real power had been broken. Relatively little attention was paid to the battle of Huangjiao in the Chinese press. The KMT did not want to publicize what it considered a disastrous defeat, while the Communists were satisfied to stay silent about an episode that conflicted with their proclaimed policy of a united front. As could be expected, during the autumn—after Han Teqin's defeat—KMT-CCP negotiations deteriorated further. In early December, Jiang Kai-shek personally ordered that all N4A forces withdraw from southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu by 31 December. He also ordered that the entire 8RA be positioned north of the Yellow River by the same deadline, followed one month later by the N4A. Discussions then followed between Ye Ting and Qu Chutong's deputies concerning the route to be taken, safe conduct, and—astonishingly—the money and supplies that were to be provided to the N4A to help it move. On 25 December, Mao Zedong ordered Xiang Ying to begin evacuating immediately. Yet it was not until 4 January 1941 that Ye and Xiang actually started moving. Almost immediately, Qu Chutong's forces harassed and dispersed the N4A Headquarters Group, which included administrative personnel, wounded soldiers and dependents, as well as combat-ready troops. In an attempt to reorganize, they moved southwest toward Maolin, where they were surrounded by Nationalists and, over the next several days, were cut to pieces. Losses were heavy on both sides. The CCP suffered an estimated 9,000 casualties. Xiang Ying tried twice to break out of the blockade on his own, but failed. He was then denounced as a deserter by Ye Ting, who took over full command of the doomed forces. Xiang Ying eventually escaped, but he was killed a couple of months later by one of his own bodyguards, motivated by the N4A gold reserves that he had taken with him. Up to the very end, Xiang either failed or refused to seek refuge in Liu Shaoqi's domain north of the Yangtze. The unfortunate Ye Ting was arrested and spent the rest of the war in prison. He was finally released in 1946, only to die one month later in a plane crash, along with several other high-ranking party members. On 17 January, Jiang Kai-shek declared that the New Fourth Army was dissolved for insubordination. Direct contacts between Yan'an and Chongqing nearly came to an end, and CCP military liaison offices in several cities held by the Nationalists were closed. This is what became known as the New Fourth Army incident, also referred to as the South Anhui incident. Clearly, it functioned as an act of retaliation for the defeats suffered by Han Teqin in north and central Jiangsu. It ended any realistic prospect of establishing a consolidated Communist base south of the Yangtze. Still, from a strategic perspective, these losses were ultimately more than offset by the gains achieved farther north. In fact, only a few months later, the reorganized N4A quietly began reintroducing some units into this region, where they carried out guerrilla activities without possessing a secure territorial base. Unlike the relative silence surrounding the fighting at Huangjiao, the New Fourth Army incident sparked bitter, prolonged controversy. The CCP argued that it was a second "anti-Communist upsurge," even more serious than the first. Presenting themselves as martyred patriots, they depicted their opponents as people who wanted to end the War of Resistance through what they called "Sino-Japanese cooperation" aimed at "suppressing the Communists." In their account, the Nationalists wanted to replace the war of resistance with civil war, substitute capitulation for independence, trade unity for a split, and replace light with darkness. People were telling each other the news and were horrified. Indeed, they claimed that the situation had never been as critical as it was at that moment. The Nationalist response, of course, was that provocations had been numerous and serious, and that violations of military discipline could not be tolerated. But the KMT's unwillingness to describe in detail its own defeats at the CCP's hands left it speaking in broad generalities. In the propaganda battle, the CCP clearly gained the better position and won more political capital. If it was politically valuable to be regarded as a national hero, it was even more valuable to be seen as a national martyr. Many Chinese—and some outside—observers were genuinely alarmed and feared that civil war might openly resume. Yet, with a few exceptions, the events that culminated in the New Fourth Army incident have generally been interpreted as marking the breakdown of the second united front. That interpretation, however, is described as being wrong in two respects. First, the CCP understood the united front not as a narrow arrangement limited to a few major partners, but as a strategy that could be applied flexibly to all political, military, and social forces in China—from the highest levels of the central government down to the smallest village. Relations with Jiang Jieshi and the Guomindang regime mattered, but they did not, by themselves, constitute the whole of the united front. Even regarding Jiang and the Nationalists specifically, the common reading is said to be misguided. Throughout the war, a cardinal objective of the united front was to prevent peace between Japan and the Nationalists. Therefore, if clashes between CCP forces and those of the central government on such a large scale as at Huangjiao and Maolin could occur without leading to peace with Japan and without triggering a full-scale resumption of civil war, then this should not be understood as the end of the united front—it should be seen as its fundamental vindication. If friction at that scale could nevertheless be tolerated by Jiang Jieshi, then fears about his future accommodation with Japan were greatly reduced. Following the New Fourth Army incident, the CCP reorganized its political and military presence in Central China. The Central Plains and South-east China Bureaus were merged and renamed the Central China Bureau, with Liu Shaoqi placed in charge, reflecting the area's importance to Party Central. The New Fourth Army was also reorganized completely and substantially regularized. Chen Yi became its new acting commander, since Ye Ting was imprisoned. He directed the force, now divided into seven divisions. Each division had territorial responsibilities, and in each region the CCP claimed the establishment of a base. Indeed, base construction proceeded in earnest only after the friction of 1940 and the New Fourth Army incident. In the years that followed, the operating areas of the First through Fourth Divisions contained expanding enclaves of consolidated territory, where military dominance was joined with open party work: administrative control, the development of mass organizations, local elections, and socio-economic reforms. The other three areas fluctuated between semi-consolidated and guerrilla status. With the incident, the worst phase of the KMT-CCP conflict was now over. When CCP documents later speak of a third upsurge in 1943, they refer to something openly political. With the exception of Shandong—where a fairly strong Nationalist presence persisted for a longer time—the overall balance of power among Chinese forces behind Japanese lines had shifted in favor of the CCP by mid-1941. In subsequent years the CCP's predominance became even more pronounced, until by the end of 1943 the Communists were virtually beyond challenge by Chinese rivals. 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. After the CCP and KMT entered the united front, cooperation felt conditional from the start. Mao pushed the New Fourth Army to reorganize and preserve Communist autonomy, even as the 1937 agreements publicly pledged obedience to KMT leadership. In 1939–40 the Communists worried that Chiang might negotiate peace with Japan; so they expanded bases and military presence, triggering repeated clashes. The pressure intensified when KMT orders forced the New Fourth Army to evacuate south Anhui in late 1940.
This week on Sinica, in a special episode recorded as a live joint webcast with NYRB/Poets and Equator Magazine, I sit down with Eleanor Goodman — poet, scholar, research associate at Harvard's Fairbank Center, and one of the most accomplished translators working between Chinese and English — to talk about the extraordinary Sichuan-born poet Zheng Xiaoqiong (郑小琼).Born in 1980 in a mountain village, trained as a nurse, Zheng joined the great tide of internal migration in her early 20s, ending up on the assembly line of a hardware factory in Dongguan in the Pearl River Delta. She picked up a pen after a workplace injury — part of her finger taken off by a lathe — and what came out across poems, essays, and reportage has made her one of the most singular voices in contemporary Chinese literature. Her trajectory from the assembly line to the editorial desk of an official literary magazine is, as far as I know, essentially without parallel.Eleanor has been translating Zheng since around 2013, and the partnership they've built has given Anglophone readers access to a body of work that defies easy categorization — at once intimate and historical, ethnographic and lyric, tender and unsparing. We talk about how they met, about Zheng's resistance to the "migrant worker poet" label, about the bodily feminism that runs through her verse, about her unmoralizing portraits of sex workers, about lost youth and the way the body keeps the ledger of factory time. Eleanor reads Zheng's poem "Woman Worker: Youth Pinned to a Workstation" (女工: 被固定在卡桌上的青春) in both Chinese and her English translation — and it is, every time, devastating.Huge thanks to Abigail Dunn at NYRB Poets and Ratik Asokan at Equator for organizing this conversation and for inviting me to host it, to Eleanor for her generosity and her brilliance, and most of all to Zheng Xiaoqiong, whose voice — even when she cannot be with us in person — comes through with absolute clarity.Eleanor's translation of Zheng Xiaoqiong's In the Roar of the Machine is available from NYRB Poets. The Equator selections, drawn from Zheng's long-form prose, are available at Equator Magazine.05:07 — How Eleanor and Zheng met in 2013, and why a book had to happen08:14 — Navigating the awkward proposition of China for the Western left10:50 — Zheng's trajectory: from a Sichuan village to the assembly line to the editor's desk16:29 — Resisting the "migrant worker poet" (打工诗人) label20:47 — Conventions of the genre: exhaustion, iron, lost identity, the screw in the machine24:58 — Who gets translated into English, and why28:34 — The translator's ethics: how do you render a factory poem honestly?32:42 — Eleanor reads "Woman Worker, Youth Pinned to a Workstation" (女工被固定在卡桌上的青春) in Chinese and English37:14 — Zheng's bodily feminism: irregular periods, a different way of caring40:37 — Lost youth and the passage of time44:36 — Sex work and women's labor: portraits without moralizing49:59 — Whose work actually counts in Chinese urban discourse?52:45 — Why Zheng Xiaoqiong wasn't able to join us, and how censorship really works54:44 — Rose Courtyard and what's next: classical allusions, ancestral homes, embroidering grandmothers57:39 — Audience Q&A: American worker poets, the WeChat communities of migrant writers, and Zheng's standing in Chinese lettersSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It's EV News Briefly for Tuesday 05 May 2026, everything you need to know in less than 5 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the EV News Daily Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/EVNewsDailyNORWAY BEV SHARE HITS 99% IN APRILNorway set a new monthly record in April 2026, with battery electric vehicles taking 98.6% of new passenger car registrations, up from the previous record of 98.4% in March. Of 11,103 new cars registered, 10,952 were fully electric, with diesel managing just 87 units and petrol a mere 31 units — making combustion-engine sales little more than a rounding error.TESLA CUTS MODEL 3 PRICES IN CANADATesla has slashed prices across its Canadian Model 3 line-up, introducing a new entry Premium RWD trim starting at C$39,490 — about 31% cheaper than the equivalent US price — after shifting production from its Fremont plant to its Shanghai factory to take advantage of Canada's new 6.1% Chinese-EV import tariff. The line-up now has just two trims after removing the Long Range mid-range, though Shanghai-built cars do not qualify for Canada's federal EVAP rebate of up to C$5,000.FACTORIAL BETS SOLID-STATE CAN BREAK CHINA'S LEADFactorial Energy, a Massachusetts-based startup backed by Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai/Kia, argues that solid-state batteries — which charge from 15% to 90% in 18 minutes and offer 20–50% more range than lithium-ion — are the West's best chance to leapfrog Chinese rivals rather than imitate them. The company plans to go public on Nasdaq in mid-2026 via a SPAC merger, and a Mercedes-Benz EQS prototype fitted with its cells drove 1,205 km non-stop in August 2025.IONIQ 5 SALES HOLD UP AFTER US TAX CREDIT LOSSHyundai's IONIQ 5 held fifth place among US EV sellers in 2025 despite losing the federal EV tax credit, while rivals like the Ford Mustang Mach-E saw sales collapse 60% year-on-year in Q1 2026. Domestic production at Hyundai Metaplant America in Savannah, Georgia was credited as a key factor in shielding the IONIQ 5 from the impact of Trump administration trade policy changes.VOLKSWAGEN RAISES RIVIAN STAKE TO 15.9%Volkswagen has lifted its stake in Rivian to 15.9% after completing a further $1 billion investment tranche, triggered by the RV Tech joint venture clearing its winter testing milestones, bringing its total investment to $3 billion of a committed $5.8 billion. Volkswagen gains access to Rivian's software stack and zonal architecture, while Rivian retains full ownership of its motors, batteries, chassis, and autonomy framework.VW TESTS 'GAMECHANGER' AT WOLFSBURGVolkswagen has launched a pilot production process codenamed Gamechanger at its Wolfsburg headquarters, aimed at cutting costs and enabling profitable EV manufacturing in Germany through techniques expected to include megacasting and parallel modular assembly streams. The plant is expected to eventually produce an electric Golf and an SUV counterpart on the next-generation SSP platform, potentially under the names ID. Golf and ID. Roc.TESLA LAUNCHES BASECHARGER FOR SEMI DEPOTSTesla has unveiled the Basecharger, a depot-focused DC fast charger for the Tesla Semi that tops out at 125 kW and can charge a truck from low to 60% in around four hours, using a 6-metre cable to accommodate yard layouts. The unit starts at $20,000, supports the open MCS (Megawatt Charging System) standard, and up to three units can share a single breaker — potentially serving future MCS-compatible trucks from Daimler, Volvo, and Scania.MFG EV POWER ADDS PLUG&CHARGEMotor Fuel Group has integrated its MFG EV Power network of around 2,000 rapid and ultra-rapid UK charging points with Hubject's Plug&Charge infrastructure, going live on 1 May 2026 after over a year of technical development. Compatible EVs can now begin charging automatically the moment they plug in, eliminating the need for RFID cards or apps.ALLEGO APP ADDS EUROPE-WIDE CHARGING ROAMINGAllego has transformed its app into a pan-European roaming platform, giving drivers access to roughly one million charging points from competing networks under a single account with no additional roaming fees. The app also includes a Smart Route Planner to help EV drivers plan charging stops across longer cross-border journeys.NEW AI VOICE ASSISTANTS FOR RIVIAN, POLESTAR AND VOLVO EVSRivian's AI voice assistant — first unveiled at its December 2025 Autonomy & AI Day — is now expected to reach customers in the coming weeks after slipping roughly four months behind its original early-2026 target, and will roll out to both R1 and R2 vehicles. Separately, Google has begun rolling out Gemini to Polestar and Volvo cars running Android Automotive OS, enabling conversational AI with multi-turn dialogue, trip planning, and a continuous hands-free mode called Gemini Live — with Volvo saying models dating back to 2020 are eligible for the upgrade.
Preview for Later Today: Guest Gordon Chang. Chang examines the trade dilemma involving China's support for Iran's nuclear program. He discusses President Trump's efforts to stop Beijing's military proliferation by leveraging China's current economic trade dependencies. 1/6MAY 9 1939 SHANGHAI