Podcasts about Zhou

In this episode, Drs. Rob Assibey and Cynthia Chen-Joea are joined by Dr. Bright Zhou (they/them). They discuss social media health advocacy as a tool to reshape public narratives around family medicine, the evolving role of physician hospitalists and the unique challenges they face, and highlights from the CAFP New Physician Toolkit and how it will be helpful for doctors everywhere. GUESTS Bright Zhou (They/Them) is a core faculty member at the University of Southern California Family Medicine Residency, where they practice both inpatient and outpatient medicine. Their clinical interests are in health dissemination through social media, mental health, narrative medicine, LGBTQ+ and immigrant health. Bright is a boba connoisseur, an archaeologist, a singer/violist, and a budding DJ.  The Family Docs Podcast is hosted by Rob Assibey, MD, FAAFP and Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, FAAFP.  RESOURCES Follow Dr. Zhou on social: @genzattending on instagram and tiktok New Physician Toolkit - familydocs.org/nptoolkit NEJM - AI/Centaur model - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra2503232, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250828/How-can-medical-trainees-use-AI-without-losing-critical-thinking-skills.aspx  Family Medicine POP: Prism of Practice conference, August 21-23, 2026 (San Diego) - www.familydocs.org/pop CAFP's All Member Advocacy Meeting (AMAM), March 14-16, 2026 (Sacramento) - www.familydocs.org/amam     Information: The Family Docs podcast is developed, produced, and recorded by the California Academy of Family Physicians. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or the California Academy of Family Physicians. More information at www.familydocs.org/podcast.  Visit the California Academy of Family Physicians online at www.familydocs.org. Follow us on social media: Twitter - https://twitter.com/cafp_familydocs  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cafp_familydocs  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/familydocs  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/california-academy-of-family-physicians

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Last time we spoke about the fall of Wuhan. In a country frayed by war, the Yangtze became a pulsing artery, carrying both hunger and hope. Chiang Kai-shek faced a brutal choice: defend Wuhan to the last man, or flood the rivers to buy time. He chose both, setting sullen floodwaters loose along the Yellow River to slow the invaders, a temporary mercy that spared some lives while ripping many from their homes. On the river's banks, a plethora of Chinese forces struggled to unite. The NRA, fractured into rival zones, clung to lines with stubborn grit as Japanese forces poured through Anqing, Jiujiang, and beyond, turning the Yangtze into a deadly corridor. Madang's fortifications withstood bombardment and gas, yet the price was paid in troops and civilians drowned or displaced. Commanders like Xue Yue wrestled stubbornly for every foothold, every bend in the river. The Battle of Wanjialing became a symbol: a desperate, months-long pincer where Chinese divisions finally tightened their cordon and halted the enemy's flow. By autumn, the Japanese pressed onward to seize Tianjiazhen and cut supply lines, while Guangzhou fell to a ruthless blockade. The Fall of Wuhan loomed inevitable, yet the story remained one of fierce endurance against overwhelming odds.   #174 The Changsha Fire 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. In the summer of 1938, amid the upheaval surrounding Chiang Kai-shek, one of his most important alliances came to an end. On June 22, all German advisers to the Nationalist government were summoned back; any who refused would be deemed guilty of high treason. Since World War I, a peculiar bond had tied the German Weimar Republic and China: two fledgling states, both weak and only partially sovereign. Under the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Germany had lost extraterritorial rights on Chinese soil, which paradoxically allowed Berlin to engage with China as an equal partner rather than a traditional colonizer. This made German interests more welcome in business and politics than those of other Western powers. Chiang's military reorganization depended on German officers such as von Seeckt and von Falkenhausen, and Hitler's rise in 1933 had not immediately severed the connection between the two countries. Chiang did not share Nazi ideology with Germany, but he viewed Berlin as a potential ally and pressed to persuade it to side with China rather than Japan as China's principal East Asian, anti-Communist partner. In June 1937, H. H. Kung led a delegation to Berlin, met Hitler, and argued for an alliance with China. Yet the outbreak of war and the Nationalists' retreat to Wuhan convinced Hitler's government to align with Japan, resulting in the recall of all German advisers. Chiang responded with a speech praising von Falkenhausen, insisting that "our friend's enemy is our enemy too," and lauding the German Army's loyalty and ethics as a model for the Chinese forces. He added, "After we have won the War of Resistance, I believe you'll want to come back to the Far East and advise our country again." Von Falkenhausen would later become the governor of Nazi-occupied Belgium, then be lauded after the war for secretly saving many Jewish lives. As the Germans departed, the roof of the train transporting them bore a prominent German flag with a swastika, a prudent precaution given Wuhan's vulnerability to air bombardment. The Japanese were tightening their grip on the city, even as Chinese forces, numbering around 800,000, made a stubborn stand. The Yellow River floods blocked northern access, so the Japanese chose to advance via the Yangtze, aided by roughly nine divisions and the might of the Imperial Navy. The Chinese fought bravely, but their defenses could not withstand the superior technology of the Japanese fleet. The only substantial external aid came from Soviet pilots flying aircraft bought from the USSR as part of Stalin's effort to keep China in the war; between 1938 and 1940, some 2,000 pilots offered their services. From June 24 to 27, Japanese bombers relentlessly pounded the Madang fortress along the Yangtze until it fell. A month later, on July 26, Chinese defenders abandoned Jiujiang, southeast of Wuhan, and its civilian population endured a wave of atrocities at the hands of the invaders. News of Jiujiang's fate stiffened resolve. Chiang delivered a pointed address to his troops on July 31, arguing that Wuhan's defense was essential and that losing the city would split the country into hostile halves, complicating logistics and movement. He warned that Wuhan's defense would also be a spiritual test: "the place has deep revolutionary ties," and public sympathy for China's plight was growing as Japanese atrocities became known. Yet Chiang worried about the behavior of Chinese soldiers. He condemned looting as a suicidal act that would destroy the citizens' trust in the military. Commanders, he warned, must stay at their posts; the memory of the Madang debacle underscored the consequences of cowardice. Unlike Shanghai, Wuhan had shelters, but he cautioned against retreating into them and leaving soldiers exposed. Officers who failed in loyalty could expect no support in return. This pep talk, combined with the belief that the army was making a last stand, may have slowed the Japanese advance along the Yangtze in August. Under General Xue Yue, about 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back the invaders at Huangmei. At Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with poison gas finally forcing Japanese victory. Yet even then, Chinese generals struggled to coordinate. In Xinyang, Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted; they expected relief from Hu Zongnan's forces, but Hu instead withdrew, allowing Japan to capture the city without a fight. The fall of Xinyang enabled Japanese control of the Ping-Han railway, signaling Wuhan's doom. Chiang again spoke to Wuhan's defenders, balancing encouragement with a grim realism about possible loss. Although Wuhan's international connections were substantial, foreign aid would be unlikely. If evacuation became necessary, the army should have a clear plan, including designated routes. He recalled the disastrous December retreat from Nanjing, where "foreigners and Chinese alike turned it into an empty city." Troops had been tired and outnumbered; Chiang defended the decision to defend Nanjing, insisting the army had sacrificed itself for the capital and Sun Yat-sen's tomb. Were the army to retreat again, he warned, it would be the greatest shame in five thousand years of Chinese history. The loss of Madang was another humiliation. By defending Wuhan, he argued, China could avenge its fallen comrades and cleanse its conscience; otherwise, it could not honor its martyrs. Mao Zedong, observing the situation from his far-off base at Yan'an, agreed strongly that Chiang should not defend Wuhan to the death. He warned in mid-October that if Wuhan could not be defended, the war's trajectory would shift, potentially strengthening the Nationalists–Communists cooperation, deepening popular mobilization, and expanding guerrilla warfare. The defense of Wuhan, Mao argued, should drain the enemy and buy time to advance the broader struggle, not become a doomed stalemate. In a protracted war, some strongholds might be abandoned temporarily to sustain the longer fight. The Japanese Army captured Wuchang and Hankou on 26 October and captured Hanyang on the 27th, which concluded the campaign in Wuhan. The battle had lasted four and a half months and ended with the Nationalist army's voluntary withdrawal. In the battle itself, the Japanese army captured Wuhan's three towns and held the heartland of China, achieving a tactical victory. Yet strategically, Japan failed to meet its objectives. Imperial Headquarters believed that "capturing Hankou and Guangzhou would allow them to dominate China." Consequently, the Imperial Conference planned the Battle of Wuhan to seize Wuhan quickly and compel the Chinese government to surrender. It also decreed that "national forces should be concentrated to achieve the war objectives within a year and end the war against China." According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Hirohito authorized the use of chemical weapons against China by specific orders known as rinsanmei. During the Battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in Kotohito transmitted the emperor's orders to deploy toxic gas 375 times between August and October 1938. Another memorandum uncovered by Yoshimi indicates that Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni authorized the use of poison gas against the Chinese on 16 August 1938. A League of Nations resolution adopted on 14 May condemned the Imperial Japanese Army's use of toxic gas. Japan's heavy use of chemical weapons against China was driven by manpower shortages and China's lack of poison gas stockpiles to retaliate. Poison gas was employed at Hankou in the Battle of Wuhan to break Chinese resistance after conventional assaults had failed. Rana Mitter notes that, under General Xue Yue, approximately 100,000 Chinese troops halted Japanese advances at Huangmei, and at the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory secured only through the use of poison gas. Chinese generals also struggled with coordination at Xinyang; Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted, and Hu Zongnan's forces, believed to be coming to relieve them, instead withdrew. Japan subsequently used poison gas against Chinese Muslim forces at the Battle of Wuyuan and the Battle of West Suiyuan. However, the Chinese government did not surrender with the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, nor did Japan's invasion end with Wuhan and Guangzhou's capture. After Wuhan fell, the government issued a reaffirmation: "Temporary changes of advance and retreat will not shake our resolve to resist the Japanese invasion," and "the gain or loss of any city will not affect the overall situation of the war." It pledged to "fight with even greater sorrow, greater perseverance, greater steadfastness, greater diligence, and greater courage," dedicating itself to a long, comprehensive war of resistance. In the Japanese-occupied rear areas, large armed anti-Japanese forces grew, and substantial tracts of territory were recovered. As the Japanese army themselves acknowledged, "the restoration of public security in the occupied areas was actually limited to a few kilometers on both sides of the main transportation lines." Thus, the Battle of Wuhan did not merely inflict a further strategic defeat on Japan; it also marked a turning point in Japan's strategic posture, from offense to defense. Due to the Nationalist Army's resolute resistance, Japan mobilized its largest force to date for the attack, about 250,000 personnel, who were replenished four to five times over the battle, for a total of roughly 300,000. The invaders held clear advantages in land, sea, and air power and fought for four and a half months. Yet they failed to annihilate the Nationalist main force, nor did they break the will to resist or the army's combat effectiveness. Instead, the campaign dealt a severe blow to the Japanese Army's vitality. Japanese-cited casualties totaled 4,506 dead and 17,380 wounded for the 11th Army; the 2nd Army suffered 2,300 killed in action, 7,600 wounded, and 900 died of disease. Including casualties across the navy and the air force, the overall toll was about 35,500. By contrast, the Nationalist Government Military Commission's General Staff Department, drawing on unit-level reports, calculated Japanese casualties at 256,000. The discrepancy between Japanese and Nationalist tallies illustrates the inflationary tendencies of each side's reporting. Following Wuhan, a weakened Japanese force confronted an extended front. Unable to mount large-scale strategic offensives, unlike Shanghai, Xuzhou, or Wuhan itself, the Japanese to a greater extent adopted a defensive posture. This transition shifted China's War of Resistance from a strategic defensive phase into a strategic stalemate, while the invaders found themselves caught in a protracted war—a development they most disliked. Consequently, Japan's invasion strategy pivoted: away from primary frontal offensives toward a greater reliance on political inducements with secondary military action, and toward diverting forces to "security" operations behind enemy lines rather than pushing decisive frontal campaigns. Japan, an island nation with limited strategic resources, depended heavily on imports. By the time of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan's gold reserves,including reserves for issuing banknotes, amounted to only about 1.35 billion yen. In effect, Japan's currency reserves constrained the scale of the war from the outset. The country launched its aggression while seeking an early solution to the conflict. To sustain its war of aggression against China, the total value of military supplies imported from overseas in 1937 reached approximately 960 million yen. By June of the following year, for the Battle of Wuhan, even rifles used in training were recalled to outfit the expanding army. The sustained increase in troops also strained domestic labor, food, and energy supplies. By 1939, after Wuhan, Japan's military expenditure had climbed to about 6.156 billion yen, far exceeding national reserves. This stark reality exposed Japan's economic fragility and its inability to guarantee a steady supply of military materiel, increasing pressure on the leadership at the Central Command. The Chief of Staff and the Minister of War lamented the mismatch between outward strength and underlying weakness: "Outwardly strong but weak is a reflection of our country today, and this will not last long." In sum, the Wuhan campaign coincided with a decline in the organization, equipment, and combat effectiveness of the Japanese army compared with before the battle. This erosion of capability helped drive Japan to alter its political and military strategy, shifting toward a method of inflicting pressure on China and attempting to "use China to control China", that is, fighting in ways designed to sustain the broader war effort. Tragically a major element of Chiang Kai-shek's retreat strategy was the age-old "scorched earth" policy. In fact, China originated the phrase and the practice. Shanghai escaped the last-minute torching because of foreigners whose property rights were protected. But in Nanjing, the burning and destruction began with increasing zeal. What could not be moved inland, such as remaining rice stocks, oil in tanks, and other facilities, was to be blown up or devastated. Civilians were told to follow the army inland, to rebuild later behind the natural barrier of Sichuan terrain. Many urban residents complied, but the peasantry did not embrace the plan. The scorched-earth policy served as powerful propaganda for the occupying Japanese army and, even more so, for the Reds. Yet they could hardly have foreseen the propaganda that Changsha would soon supply them. In June, the Changsha Evacuation Guidance Office was established to coordinate land and water evacuation routes. By the end of October, Wuhan's three towns had fallen, and on November 10 the Japanese army captured Yueyang, turning Changsha into the next primary invasion target. Beginning on October 9, Japanese aircraft intensified from sporadic raids on Changsha to large-scale bombing. On October 27, the Changsha Municipal Government urgently evacuated all residents, exempting only able-bodied men, the elderly, the weak, women, and children. The baojia system was mobilized to go door-to-door, enforcing compliance. On November 7, Chiang Kai-shek convened a military meeting at Rongyuan Garden to review the war plan and finalize a "scorched earth war of resistance." Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, drafted the detailed implementation plan. On November 10, Shi Guoji, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, presided over a joint meeting of Changsha's party, government, military, police, and civilian organizations to devise a strategy. The Changsha Destruction Command was immediately established, bringing together district commanders and several arson squads. The command actively prepared arson equipment and stacked flammable materials along major traffic arteries. Chiang decided that the city of Changsha was vulnerable and either gave the impression or the direct order, honestly really depends on the source your reading, to burn the city to the ground to prevent it falling to the enemy. At 9:00 AM on November 12, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Zhang Zhizhong: "One hour to arrive, Chairman Zhang, Changsha, confidential. If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned. Please make thorough preparations in advance and do not delay." And here it seems a game of broken telephone sort of resulted in one of the worst fire disasters of all time. If your asking pro Chiang sources, the message was clearly, put up a defense, once thats fallen, burn the city down before the Japanese enter. Obviously this was to account for getting civilians out safely and so forth. If you read lets call it more modern CPP aligned sources, its the opposite. Chiang intentionally ordering the city to burn down as fast as possible, but in through my research, I think it was a colossal miscommunication. Regardless Zhongzheng Wen, Minister of the Interior, echoed the message. Simultaneously, Lin Wei, Deputy Director of Chiang Kai-shek's Secretariat, instructed Zhang Zhizhong by long-distance telephone: "If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned." Zhang summoned Feng Ti, Commander of the Provincial Capital Garrison, and Xu Quan, Director of the Provincial Security Bureau, to outline arson procedures. He designated the Garrison Command to shoulder the preparations, with the Security Bureau assisting. At 4:00 PM, Zhang appointed Xu Kun, Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment, as chief commander of the arson operation, with Wang Weining, Captain of the Social Training Corps, and Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Garrison Command, as deputies. At 6:00 PM, the Garrison Command held an emergency meeting ordering all government agencies and organizations in the city to be ready for evacuation at any moment. By around 10:15 PM, all urban police posts had withdrawn. Around 2:00 AM (November 13), a false report circulated that "Japanese troops have reached Xinhe" . Firefighters stationed at various locations rushed out with kerosene-fueled devices, burning everything in sight, shops and houses alike. In an instant, Changsha became a sea of flames. The blaze raged for 72 hours. The Hunan Province Anti-Japanese War Loss Statistics, compiled by the Hunan Provincial Government Statistics Office of the Kuomintang, report that the fire inflicted economic losses of more than 1 billion yuan, a sum equivalent to about 1.7 trillion yuan after the victory in the war. This figure represented roughly 43% of Changsha's total economic value at the time. Regarding casualties, contemporary sources provide varying figures. A Xinhua Daily report from November 20, 1938 noted that authorities mobilized manpower to bury more than 600 bodies, though the total number of burned remains could not be precisely counted. A Central News Agency reporter on November 19 stated that in the Xiangyuan fire, more than 2,000 residents could not escape, and most of the bodies had already been buried. There are further claims that in the Changsha Fire, more than 20,000 residents were burned to death. In terms of displacement, Changsha's population before the fire was about 300,000, and by November 12, 90% had been evacuated. After the fire, authorities registered 124,000 victims, including 815 orphans sheltered in Lito and Maosgang.  Building damage constituted the other major dimension of the catastrophe, with the greatest losses occurring to residential houses, shops, schools, factories, government offices, banks, hospitals, newspaper offices, warehouses, and cultural and entertainment venues, as well as numerous historic buildings such as palaces, temples, private gardens, and the former residences of notable figures; among these, residential and commercial structures suffered the most, followed by factories and schools. Inspector Gao Yihan, who conducted a post-fire investigation, observed that the prosperous areas within Changsha's ring road, including Nanzheng Street and Bajiaoting, were almost completely destroyed, and in other major markets only a handful of shops remained, leading to an overall estimate that surviving or stalemated houses were likely less than 20%. Housing and street data from the early post-liberation period reveal that Changsha had more than 1,100 streets and alleys; of these, more than 690 were completely burned and more than 330 had fewer than five surviving houses, accounting for about 29%, with nearly 90% of the city's streets severely damaged. More than 440 streets were not completely destroyed, but among these, over 190 had only one or two houses remaining and over 130 had only three or four houses remaining; about 60 streets, roughly 6% had 30 to 40 surviving houses, around 30 streets, 3% had 11 to 20 houses, 10 streets, 1% had 21 to 30 houses, and three streets ) had more than 30 houses remaining. Housing statistics from 1952 show that 2,538 houses survived the fire, about 6.57% of the city's total housing stock, with private houses totaling 305,800 square meters and public houses 537,900 square meters. By 1956, the surviving area of both private and public housing totaled 843,700 square meters, roughly 12.3% of the city's total housing area at that time. Alongside these losses, all equipment, materials, funds, goods, books, archives, antiques, and cultural relics that had not been moved were also destroyed.  At the time of the Changsha Fire, Zhou Enlai, then Deputy Minister of the Political Department of the Nationalist Government's Military Commission, was in Changsha alongside Ye Jianying, Guo Moruo, and others. On November 12, 1938, Zhou Enlai attended a meeting held by Changsha cultural groups at Changsha Normal School to commemorate Sun Yat-sen's 72nd birthday. Guo Moruo later recalled that Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying were awakened by the blaze that night; they each carried a suitcase and evacuated to Xiangtan, with Zhou reportedly displaying considerable indignation at the sudden, unprovoked fire. On the 16th, Zhou Enlai rushed back to Changsha and, together with Chen Cheng, Zhang Zhizhong, and others, inspected the disaster. He mobilized personnel from three departments, with Tian Han and Guo Moruo at the forefront, to form the Changsha Fire Aftermath Task Force, which began debris clearance, care for the injured, and the establishment of soup kitchens. A few days later, on the 22nd, the Hunan Provincial Government established the Changsha Fire Temporary Relief Committee to coordinate relief efforts.  On the night of November 16, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Changsha and, the next day, ascended Tianxin Pavilion. Sha Wei, head of the Cultural Relics Section of the Changsha Tianxin Pavilion Park Management Office, and a long-time researcher of the pavilion, explained that documentation indicates Chiang Kai-shek, upon seeing the city largely reduced to scorched earth with little left intact, grew visibly angry. After descending from Tianxin Pavilion, Chiang immediately ordered the arrest of Changsha Garrison Commander Feng Ti, Changsha Police Chief Wen Chongfu, and Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment Xu Kun, and arranged a military trial with a two-day deadline. The interrogation began at 7:00 a.m. on November 18. Liang Xiaojin records that Xu Kun and Wen Chongfu insisted their actions followed orders from the Security Command, while Feng Ti admitted negligence and violations of procedure, calling his acts unforgivable. The trial found Feng Ti to be the principal offender, with Wen Chongfu and Xu Kun as accomplices, and sentenced all three to prison terms of varying lengths. The verdict was sent to Chiang Kai-shek for approval, who was deeply dissatisfied and personally annotated the drafts: he asserted that Feng Ti, as the city's security head, was negligent and must be shot immediately; Wen Chongfu, as police chief, disobeyed orders and fled, and must be shot immediately; Xu Kun, for neglect of duty, must be shot immediately. The court then altered the arson charge in the verdict to "insulting his duty and harming the people" in line with Chiang's instructions. Chiang Kai-shek, citing "failure to supervise personnel and precautions," dismissed Zhang from his post, though he remained in office to oversee aftermath operations. Zhang Zhizhong later recalled Chiang Kai-shek's response after addressing the Changsha fire: a pointed admission that the fundamental cause lay not with a single individual but with the collective leadership's mistakes, and that the error must be acknowledged as a collective failure. All eyes now shifted to the new center of resistance, Chongqing, the temporary capital. Chiang's "Free China" no longer meant the whole country; it now encompassed Sichuan, Hunan, and Henan, but not Jiangsu or Zhejiang. The eastern provinces were effectively lost, along with China's major customs revenues, the country's most fertile regions, and its most advanced infrastructure. The center of political gravity moved far to the west, into a country the Nationalists had never controlled, where everything was unfamiliar and unpredictable, from topography and dialects to diets. On the map, it might have seemed that Chiang still ruled much of China, but vast swaths of the north and northwest were sparsely populated; most of China's population lay in the east and south, where Nationalist control was either gone or held only precariously. The combined pressures of events and returning travelers were gradually shifting American attitudes toward the Japanese incident. Europe remained largely indifferent, with Hitler absorbing most attention, but the United States began to worry about developments in the Pacific. Roosevelt initiated a January 1939 appeal to raise a million dollars for Chinese civilians in distress, and the response quickly materialized. While the Chinese did not expect direct intervention, they hoped to deter further American economic cooperation with Japan and to halt Japan's purchases of scrap iron, oil, gasoline, shipping, and, above all, weapons from the United States. Public opinion in America was sufficiently stirred to sustain a campaign against silk stockings, a symbolic gesture of boycott that achieved limited effect; Japan nonetheless continued to procure strategic materials. Within this chorus, the left remained a persistent but often discordant ally to the Nationalists. The Institute of Pacific Relations, sympathetic to communist aims, urged America to act, pressuring policymakers and sounding alarms about China. Yet the party line remained firmly pro-Chiang Kai-shek: the Japanese advance seemed too rapid and threatening to the Reds' interests. Most oil and iron debates stalled; American businessmen resented British trade ties with Japan, and Britain refused to join any mutual cutoff, arguing that the Western powers were not at war with Japan. What occurred in China was still commonly referred to in Western diplomatic circles as "the Incident." Wang Jingwei's would make his final defection, yes in a long ass history of defections. Mr Wang Jingwei had been very busy traveling to Guangzhou, then Northwest to speak with Feng Yuxiang, many telegrams went back and forth. He returned to the Nationalist government showing his face to foreign presses and so forth. While other prominent rivals of Chiang, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and others, rallied when they perceived Japan as a real threat; all did so except Wang Jingwei. Wang, who had long believed himself the natural heir to Sun Yat-sen and who had repeatedly sought to ascend to power, seemed willing to cooperate with Japan if it served his own aims. I will just say it, Wang Jingwei was a rat. He had always been a rat, never changed. Opinions on Chiang Kai-Shek vary, but I think almost everyone can agree Wang Jingwei was one of the worst characters of this time period. Now Wang Jingwei could not distinguish between allies and enemies and was prepared to accept help from whomever offered it, believing he could outmaneuver Tokyo when necessary. Friends in Shanghai and abroad whispered that it was not too late to influence events, arguing that the broader struggle was not merely China versus Japan but a clash between principled leaders and a tyrannical, self-serving clique, Western imperialism's apologists who needed Chiang removed. For a time Wang drifted within the Kuomintang, moving between Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing, maintaining discreet lines of communication with his confidants. The Japanese faced a governance problem typical of conquerors who possess conquered territory: how to rule effectively while continuing the war. They imagined Asia under Japanese-led leadership, an East Asia united by a shared Co-Prosperity Sphere but divided by traditional borders. To sustain this vision, they sought local leaders who could cooperate. The search yielded few viable options; would-be collaborators were soon assassinated, proved incompetent, or proved corrupt. The Japanese concluded it would require more time and education. In the end, Wang Jingwei emerged as a preferred figure. Chongqing, meanwhile, seemed surprised by Wang's ascent. He had moved west to Chengde, then to Kunming, attempted, and failed to win over Yunnan's warlords, and eventually proceeded to Hanoi in Indochina, arriving in Hong Kong by year's end. He sent Chiang Kai-shek a telegram suggesting acceptance of Konoe's terms for peace, which Chungking rejected. In time, Wang would establish his own Kuomintang faction in Shanghai, combining rigorous administration with pervasive secret-police activity characteristic of occupied regimes. By 1940, he would be formally installed as "Chairman of China." But that is a story for another episode.  In the north, the Japanese and the CCP were locked in an uneasy stalemate. Mao's army could make it impossible for the Japanese to hold deep countryside far from the railway lines that enabled mass troop movement into China's interior. Yet the Communists could not defeat the occupiers. In the dark days of October 1938—fifteen months after the war began—one constant remained. Observers (Chinese businessmen, British diplomats, Japanese generals) repeatedly predicted that each new disaster would signal the end of Chinese resistance and force a swift surrender, or at least a negotiated settlement in which the government would accept harsher terms from Tokyo. But even after defenders were expelled from Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan, despite the terrifying might Japan had brought to bear on Chinese resistance, and despite the invader's manpower, technology, and resources, China continued to fight. Yet it fought alone. 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. In a land shredded by war, Wuhan burned under brutal sieges, then Changsha followed, a cruel blaze born of orders and miscommunications. Leaders wrestled with retreat, scorched-earth vows, and moral debts as Japanese force and Chinese resilience clashed for months. Mao urged strategy over martyrdom, Wang Jingwei's scheming shadow loomed, and Chongqing rose as the westward beacon. Yet China endured, a stubborn flame refusing to surrender to the coming storm. The war stretched on, unfinished and unyielding.

Dr. Steve Zhou joins the show!

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from first year MDiv student Audrey Zhou on open question of home, the clarity of coming to a resolution, different ways of asking why, and many, many other things.

In this episode of What's Best For The Patient Is Best For The Business, Jerry sits down with Julia Zhou, a seasoned Healthcare Technologist with nearly 30 years of experience on both the payer and provider sides of the industry. They dive deep into the practical and transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, moving beyond the hype to explore its real-world applications.Julia brings a unique, high-level perspective, arguing that AI is not a magic bullet but a powerful tool that must be strategically integrated. She outlines a clear framework for healthcare organizations to adopt AI successfully, emphasizing that the goal isn't to chase technology, but to solve pressing business and patient-care challenges.From smart scheduling and revenue cycle management to ambient clinical documentation and personalized patient engagement, Julia breaks down how AI can streamline workflows, empower providers, and fundamentally improve the patient journey—ensuring the right person gets the right care at the right time.Key Takeaways:• Start with the Problem, Not the Tool: The most successful AI implementations begin by identifying the organization's biggest pain points, not by searching for the latest tech developments. Julia advises asking, "If you had a magic wand, what would you solve?"• AI is an End-to-End Patient Engagement Engine: Discover how AI can revolutionize the entire patient experience—from pre-visit summaries that prepare a provider in one minute, to ambient listening during consultations, and post-visit follow-ups that improve compliance and reduce claim denials.• The Criticality of an "AI Readiness" Assessment: Before implementation, organizations must ask hard questions about their data governance, guardrails, KPIs, and manual processes. Automating an inefficient system only amplifies its problems.• Think Upstream to Prevent Chaos: Jerry and Julia challenge listeners to use AI proactively to solve problems like patient no-shows and claim denials at their source, rather than just creating bots to fill empty slots or chase down payments.• The Future is "Right Person, Right Place, Right Time": The ultimate value of AI in healthcare is its ability to act as a sophisticated triage and coordination system, ensuring patients and providers connect in the most effective and efficient manner possible, whether in-person or via telehealth.Tune in for a conversation that demystifies AI and provides an actionable roadmap for leveraging technology to enhance patient outcomes and build a stronger, more resilient healthcare business.

In der heutigen Folge gibt es die Rennanalyase zu Mexiko 2025. Wir sind auch auf Instagram erreichbar: https://www.instagram.com/formulanerdpodcast Wir freuen uns über Kritik, Ideen und weitere Anregungen, um unser kleines Projekt für euch immer Besser zu machen. Viel Spaß wünschen Marc und Manu. E-Mail: formulanerdpodcast@web.de Dieser Podcast wird vermarktet von der Podcastbude.www.podcastbu.de - Full-Service-Podcast-Agentur - Konzeption, Produktion, Vermarktung, Distribution und Hosting.Du möchtest deinen Podcast auch kostenlos hosten und damit Geld verdienen?Dann schaue auf www.kostenlos-hosten.de und informiere dich.Dort erhältst du alle Informationen zu unseren kostenlosen Podcast-Hosting-Angeboten. kostenlos-hosten.de ist ein Produkt der Podcastbude.

In der heutigen Folge gibt es die Rennanalyase zu Mexiko 2025. Wir sind auch auf Instagram erreichbar: https://www.instagram.com/formulanerdpodcast Wir freuen uns über Kritik, Ideen und weitere Anregungen, um unser kleines Projekt für euch immer Besser zu machen. Viel Spaß wünschen Marc und Manu. E-Mail: formulanerdpodcast@web.de Dieser Podcast wird vermarktet von der Podcastbude.www.podcastbu.de - Full-Service-Podcast-Agentur - Konzeption, Produktion, Vermarktung, Distribution und Hosting.Du möchtest deinen Podcast auch kostenlos hosten und damit Geld verdienen?Dann schaue auf www.kostenlos-hosten.de und informiere dich.Dort erhältst du alle Informationen zu unseren kostenlosen Podcast-Hosting-Angeboten. kostenlos-hosten.de ist ein Produkt der Podcastbude.

It is hard to believe that today's crossword was a debut, but ... believe it! By turns elegant, hilarious, engaging and definitely taxing, both cohost were decidedly enamored with today's work. We have all the many reasons why inside, so have a listen, and let us know if you concur.In other news, in honor of the day, we have another Fun Fact Friday segment, and we guarantee that, like the fun fact itself, you will either love it or hate it. (We're hoping, of course, for the former!)Show note imagery: Dr. Frankenstein and the monster, rendezvousing somewhere in the AlpsWe love feedback! Send us a text...Contact Info:We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com.Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!

Judd Trump gegen Mark Allen und Zhou Yuelong gegen Jack Lisowski sind die Halbfinals bei den Northern Ireland Open. Allen und Zhou bestritten schon das erste Finale der Home Nations Series in dieser Saison, während sich Trump und Lisowski in dieser Spielzeit erstmals in solchen Gefilden befinden. Kathi und Chris blicken auf ein spaßiges Wohlfühl-Lineup im Halbfinals von Belfast voraus und fassen die gestrigen Viertelfinals ausgiebig zusammen. Dieser Podcast wird vermarktet von der Podcastbude.www.podcastbu.de - Full-Service-Podcast-Agentur - Konzeption, Produktion, Vermarktung, Distribution und Hosting.Du möchtest deinen Podcast auch kostenlos hosten und damit Geld verdienen?Dann schaue auf www.kostenlos-hosten.de und informiere dich.Dort erhältst du alle Informationen zu unseren kostenlosen Podcast-Hosting-Angeboten. kostenlos-hosten.de ist ein Produkt der Podcastbude.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods group, has reported revenue of 58.1 billion euros ($67.7 billion) for the first nine months of 2025, up 1 percent year-on-year, buoyed by improving demand in China.全球最大奢侈品集团路威酩轩（LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton）公布，2025年前9个月营收达581亿欧元（约合677亿美元），同比增长1%，这一增长得益于中国市场需求的改善。The modest uptick offers a positive signal for a global luxury sector struggling with a waning appetite for high-end goods.这一温和增长为全球奢侈品行业释放了积极信号——目前该行业正受高端商品需求减弱的困扰。The company said it maintained "good resilience and powerful innovative momentum" despite ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.该公司表示，尽管地缘政治和经济不确定性持续存在，仍保持了“良好的韧性和强劲的创新势头”。Revenue in Europe and the United States remained broadly stable compared with the same period in 2024, supported by solid local demand.在强劲本土需求的支撑下，欧洲和美国市场的营收与2024年同期相比基本保持稳定。Japan posted a decline, reflecting a normalization from last year's tourist-driven surge fueled by a weaker yen.日本市场营收出现下滑，这一现象反映出市场正从去年的增长中回归常态——去年日元贬值推动旅游消费激增，带动了日本奢侈品市场增长。Meanwhile, the rest of Asia — largely dominated by China — recorded a notable turnaround, with 2 percent growth after contractions of 6 percent and 11 percent in previous quarters this year.与此同时，以中国为主要市场的“亚洲其他地区”实现显著回暖：在今年前两个季度分别收缩6%和11%后，该区域此次录得2%的增长。The third quarter was LVMH's first of organic growth this year, with all groups and regions improving except Europe, where tourist spending fell due to currency shifts.今年第三季度是LVMH首次实现自然增长的季度，所有业务板块和地区均有所好转，唯有欧洲例外——该地区因汇率变动导致旅游消费下降。"The Chinese mainland market turned positive in Q3," Chief Financial Officer Cecile Cabanis told analysts during an earnings call. "We are getting very close to stabilization. Chinese local demand is now growing mid to high-single digits, and while Chinese travel purchases are still down double digits, they are improving significantly."“中国大陆市场在第三季度转为正增长，”首席财务官塞西尔·卡巴尼（Cecile Cabanis）在财报电话会议上对分析师表示，“我们已非常接近市场稳定状态。中国本土需求目前正以中高个位数增长；尽管中国消费者境外旅游购物支出仍呈两位数下降，但降幅已显著收窄。”Cabanis cautioned that LVMH faces headwinds heading into the fourth quarter, including unfavorable currency movements and a challenging macroeconomic outlook. However, she expressed confidence in the group's creative momentum, noting that financial improvement would come "gradually" over time.卡巴尼提醒，LVMH在进入第四季度时面临不利因素，包括汇率波动带来的负面影响和严峻的宏观经济前景。不过，她对集团的创新势头表示有信心，并指出财务状况的改善将“逐步”实现。Chinese consumers have long driven luxury market growth, but recent years saw slowed spending, particularly among younger buyers, impacting brands like Gucci, whose first-half sales fell 26 percent this year.长期以来，中国消费者一直是奢侈品市场增长的核心驱动力，但近年来消费增速放缓，年轻消费者群体的支出尤为明显，这对古驰（Gucci）等品牌造成影响——该品牌今年上半年销售额下降了26%。Despite that, Zhou Ting, head of consultancy Yaok Institute, said LVMH's recent rebound in China was closely tied to Louis Vuitton's marketing efforts.尽管如此，要客研究院院长周婷表示，LVMH此次在中国市场的复苏与路易威登（Louis Vuitton）的营销举措密切相关。Launched in June in Shanghai, in the shape of a magnificent boat, "The Louis" is a 1,600-square-meter, three-storey experience space, measuring 114.5 meters in length and 30 meters in height, comprising retail, Le Cafe Louis Vuitton, and a Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys exhibition.今年6月，路易威登在上海推出了“路易号”（The Louis）——这一体验空间以华丽的船只为造型，总面积1600平方米，共三层，长114.5米、高30米，涵盖零售区、路易威登咖啡馆（Le Cafe Louis Vuitton）以及“路易威登创想之旅”展览。"'The Louis' concept has been a major contributor to LVMH's performance recovery in China," Zhou told Beijing Business Today.“‘路易号'这一概念是LVMH在中国市场业绩复苏的重要推动因素，”周婷在接受《北京商报》采访时表示。"The project has helped LV stand out amid a sluggish market, generating both attention and sales," Zhou added.“该项目帮助路易威登在低迷的市场中脱颖而出，既吸引了关注度，也带动了销售额增长，”周婷补充道。Zhou said that LVMH's broader "store optimization strategy" — closing smaller locations, expanding flagship experiences, and engaging with high-end communities through exclusive events — has enhanced its brand performance in China.周婷指出，LVMH更广泛的“门店优化战略”也提升了其在中国的品牌表现，具体举措包括关闭小型门店、扩大旗舰店体验空间，以及通过专属活动与高端客群建立联系。Euromonitor International projects a gradual recovery for China's luxury market, with retail value to rise to 3.13 trillion yuan ($380 million) this year from 3.01 trillion yuan in 2024.欧睿国际（Euromonitor International）预测，中国奢侈品市场将逐步复苏，零售总额将从2024年的3.01万亿元增长至今年的3.13万亿元（约合3.8亿美元）。LVMH Groupn.路威酩轩集团（全球最大奢侈品集团） /ˌel viː em ˈeɪtʃ ɡruːp/Chinese luxury consumersn.中国奢侈品消费者/ˌtʃaɪˈniːz ˈlʌkʃəri kənˈsjuːməz/

True North Country Comics Podcast chats with Vivian Zhou about her graphic novel 'Atana and the Jade Mermaid' published by HarperAlley. The post Vivian Zhou reveals ‘Atana and the Jade Mermaid’ appeared first on True North Country Comics.

Jessica reports LIVE from Jakarta on all the details from day two of women's qualifying. World Championships Headquarters Videos, Interviews, Podcasts, Fantasy, Guides Extended Episode + Live Q&A (Members) +30 extra minutes of analysis, behind-the-scenes secret stories, plus member questions. Here's how to ask questions live. Can't make it live? Add Club bonus episodes to your favorite podcast player (instructions here). Chapters 00:00 – Intro: Flavia hits beam & Melnikova dominates qualifying 01:10 – Headlines: Big names miss finals (Zhou, Wong, Perotti) 06:20 – Stars of the Day: Voinea, Zhang, McDonald, Caylor 09:40 – USA Recap: Barely through, but through 15:45 – All-Around Standings & Event Finalists 27:55 – Lessons from the Score Rankings 29:08 – Spencer's Jakarta Updates & Team USA Deep Dive 40:16 – Best & Worst Moments: Injuries, artistry, and leotards 49:55 – BTS: Flavia vs. the giant bug + rule-breaking highlights 54:12 – Deep Dive: Subs 4–10 and medal contenders How Do I Watch the Competition? All sessions of the competition will be streamed on Eurovision Sport. Follow along here! Gymnastics Indonesia's YouTube channel will stream all qualification sessions Live scores from the FIG and Swiss Timing Check out NBC's behind-the-scenes mini-doc on the US Women's World Trials Headlines Women's qualifications are complete! Angelina Melnikova is leading the women's all-around and vault standings, Kaylia Nemour is leading bars, Zhang Qingying leads beam, and Sabrina Voinea is the top scorer on floor What were moments that made us want to call the gymnastics police? Who were our all-star queens of the day? What did Chellsie Memmel have to say after the USA's qualification performance? Takeaways from pre-Worlds international score rankings The tale of Flavia Saraiva vs the giant bug GymCastic Updates Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Coming Up 6 days of LIVE podcasts at World Championships in Jakarta Club members get extended coverage and can join us live to ask questions immediately after the meet Play our World Championships Fantasy Game! Win a Club Gym Nerd Scholarship: Go to our Forum > Show Stuff > GymCastic Scholarship We are matching every new sponsorship If you would like access to the club content, but aren't currently in a position to purchase a membership, all you need to do is fill out the form that's linked in our message board If you would also like to sponsor a scholarship, please email editor@gymcastic.com. Thank you! Support Our Work Club Gym Nerd: Join Here Become a Sponsor: GymCastic is matching all donations Nearly 50 scholarships have been awarded so far Learn More Headstand Game: Play Now Forum: Start Chatting Merch: Shop Now Thank you to our Sponsors Gymnastics Medicine Beam Queen Bootcamp's Overcoming Fear Workshop Resources Jakarta schedule & times: See our live podcast times on the Worlds HQ schedule Guides: Download the quick-reference guide on the Jakarta Headquarters page The Balance Beam Situation: Spencer's GIF Code of Points Gymnastics History and Code of Points Archive from Uncle Tim Kensley's men's gymnastics site Neutral Deductions   Unlock the Extended Episode Join Club Gym Nerd → Choose a plan Complete checkout — your site account is created. Log in here → /my-account/ Return to this page and refresh. The extended player appears automatically.

In der heutigen Folge gibt es die Rennanalyase zu Austin 2025 Zudem verleihen wir nachträglich die Awards für Singapur, da es hierzu keine Folge gegeben hat. Wir sind auch auf Instagram erreichbar: https://www.instagram.com/formulanerdpodcast Wir freuen uns über Kritik, Ideen und weitere Anregungen, um unser kleines Projekt für euch immer Besser zu machen. Viel Spaß wünschen Marc und Manu. E-Mail: formulanerdpodcast@web.de Dieser Podcast wird vermarktet von der Podcastbude.www.podcastbu.de - Full-Service-Podcast-Agentur - Konzeption, Produktion, Vermarktung, Distribution und Hosting.Du möchtest deinen Podcast auch kostenlos hosten und damit Geld verdienen?Dann schaue auf www.kostenlos-hosten.de und informiere dich.Dort erhältst du alle Informationen zu unseren kostenlosen Podcast-Hosting-Angeboten. kostenlos-hosten.de ist ein Produkt der Podcastbude.

In der heutigen Folge gibt es die Rennanalyase zu Austin 2025 Zudem verleihen wir nachträglich die Awards für Singapur, da es hierzu keine Folge gegeben hat. Wir sind auch auf Instagram erreichbar: https://www.instagram.com/formulanerdpodcast Wir freuen uns über Kritik, Ideen und weitere Anregungen, um unser kleines Projekt für euch immer Besser zu machen. Viel Spaß wünschen Marc und Manu. E-Mail: formulanerdpodcast@web.de Dieser Podcast wird vermarktet von der Podcastbude.www.podcastbu.de - Full-Service-Podcast-Agentur - Konzeption, Produktion, Vermarktung, Distribution und Hosting.Du möchtest deinen Podcast auch kostenlos hosten und damit Geld verdienen?Dann schaue auf www.kostenlos-hosten.de und informiere dich.Dort erhältst du alle Informationen zu unseren kostenlosen Podcast-Hosting-Angeboten. kostenlos-hosten.de ist ein Produkt der Podcastbude.

Born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents, Nancy Zhou began the violin under the guidance of her  father, who is from a family of traditional musicians. She went on to study with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory while pursuing her interest in literature at Harvard University.Nancy has collaborated with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hangzhou Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony, among others.She is a regular guest educator at various international summer festivals, holding not only masterclasses but also workshops on fundamental training and well-being for musicians. Over the years, Nancy's interest in cultural heritage and the humanities manifested in a string of notable collaborations across the US and in China.Recently, she recorded her debut album, STORIES (re)TRACED, featuring four seminal and inextricably connected works for solo violin, including Béla Bartók's Sonata.

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Ryan Corces from the Gladstone Institutes about his work on the impact of chromatin architecture on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease. The discussion begins in discussing he start of Dr. Corces research career and he shares his groundbreaking findings in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), demonstrating how mutations occurring in hematopoietic stem cells lead to the evolution of this disease. He emphasizes the pivotal role of epigenetic modifiers and how these insights steered his focus towards epigenetic research. As the conversation progresses, Dr. Corces covers his transition to a postdoctoral role, emphasizing his collaborative work employing the ATAC-seq technique. He details how refinements to this protocol not only improved data quality but also paved the way for more expansive research within the fields of hematology and cancer genetics. Additionally, he discusses his excitement for developing new computational tools for single-cell analysis, aiming to address the critical challenge of distinguishing between cellular states effectively. The episode also explores the fascinating intersection of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Dr. Corces explains the rationale for studying both conditions simultaneously, shedding light on the shared and divergent pathological features that emerge in patients. He argues for the importance of understanding mixed pathologies, which reflect the reality for many individuals diagnosed with these neurodegenerative diseases. References Corces, M. R., Trevino, A. E., Hamilton, E. G., Greenside, P. G., Sinnott-Armstrong, N. A., Vesuna, S., Satpathy, A. T., Rubin, A. J., Montine, K. S., Wu, B., Kathiria, A., Cho, S. W., Mumbach, M. R., Carter, A. C., Kasowski, M., Orloff, L. A., Risca, V. I., Kundaje, A., Khavari, P. A., Montine, T. J., … Chang, H. Y. (2017). An improved ATAC-seq protocol reduces background and enables interrogation of frozen tissues. Nature methods, 14(10), 959–962. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4396 Corces, M. R., Granja, J. M., Shams, S., Louie, B. H., Seoane, J. A., Zhou, W., Silva, T. C., Groeneveld, C., Wong, C. K., Cho, S. W., Satpathy, A. T., Mumbach, M. R., Hoadley, K. A., Robertson, A. G., Sheffield, N. C., Felau, I., Castro, M. A. A., Berman, B. P., Staudt, L. M., Zenklusen, J. C., … Chang, H. Y. (2018). The chromatin accessibility landscape of primary human cancers. Science (New York, N.Y.), 362(6413), eaav1898. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav1898 Corces, M. R., Trevino, A. E., Hamilton, E. G., Greenside, P. G., Sinnott-Armstrong, N. A., Vesuna, S., Satpathy, A. T., Rubin, A. J., Montine, K. S., Wu, B., Kathiria, A., Cho, S. W., Mumbach, M. R., Carter, A. C., Kasowski, M., Orloff, L. A., Risca, V. I., Kundaje, A., Khavari, P. A., Montine, T. J., … Chang, H. Y. (2017). An improved ATAC-seq protocol reduces background and enables interrogation of frozen tissues. Nature methods, 14(10), 959–962. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4396 Sant, C., Mucke, L., & Corces, M. R. (2025). CHOIR improves significance-based detection of cell types and states from single-cell data. Nature genetics, 57(5), 1309–1319. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02148-8 Related Episodes ATAC-Seq, scATAC-Seq and Chromatin Dynamics in Single-Cells (Jason Buenrostro) Multiple challenges of ATAC-Seq, Points to Consider (Yuan Xue) Contact Epigenetics Podcast on Mastodon Epigenetics Podcast on Bluesky Dr. Stefan Dillinger on LinkedIn Active Motif on LinkedIn Active Motif on Bluesky Email: podcast@activemotif.com

A nicely scented room, cozy beds, elegant décor, and personalized service—the perfect recipe for a relaxing holiday in a beautiful hotel. But what if there’s something more waiting in your room—something that wasn’t part of the reservation? 香气扑鼻的房间，柔软舒适的床铺，精致华丽的装潢，还有无微不至的客房服务——这一切本该是度假的完美享受。可当夜幕降临，你是否真的确定，房间里只有你一个人?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The more you roam the roads at night, the greater your chances of crossing paths with something... not quite human. Have you ever encountered someone—or something—from the other side during a late-night ride? 行得夜路多，必有遇鬼时。夜路走多了，是不是真的比较容易碰到鬼？你还敢开夜车？See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As global supply chains undergo transformation and investment patterns shift, China has taken on a dual role in the world economy — as both a magnet for foreign enterprises and an increasingly influential outbound investor, said experts and executives.专家与企业高管表示，在全球供应链深度调整、投资格局加速演变的背景下，中国在世界经济中扮演着双重角色——既是吸引外资企业的“磁石”，也是影响力持续提升的对外投资主体。This signals not only continuity in the country's opening-up policy, but also a deeper transformation — that China is no longer just a participant in global growth, but is becoming a co-architect of it, they said.他们指出，这不仅体现中国对外开放政策的连续性，更标志着深层次转型：中国已不再是全球经济增长的单纯参与者，正逐步成为全球经济发展的共同构建者。What draws foreign companies today is not the promise of low costs, but the chance to innovate, to test ideas in a vast and demanding market, and to use China as a springboard into global competition.如今吸引外资企业的，不再是低成本优势，而是创新机遇、在庞大且高要求市场中验证理念的可能，以及以中国为跳板参与全球竞争的广阔空间。"China remains the top target market for enterprises expanding their global trade layout, with 44 percent of global enterprises selecting China as their first choice for expansion," said David Liao, co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East at HSBC.汇丰银行亚洲及中东联席首席执行官廖宜建表示：“中国仍是企业拓展全球贸易布局的首要目标市场，44%的全球企业将中国选为海外扩张的首选地。”Citing survey data, he added that 40 percent of global firms are either already increasing or planning to increase their manufacturing footprint in China over the next two years. "These findings highlight that China remains a hot spot for international investment and occupies a central position in the global trade landscape."他援引调研数据补充道，未来两年，40%的全球企业已在增加或计划增加在华制造业布局。“这些数据充分说明，中国仍是国际投资的热点地区，在全球贸易格局中占据核心地位。”That reality is reflected in the way executives describe the market. Many call it a touchstone for development.企业高管对中国市场的评价，也印证了这一现实——许多人将中国视为发展的“试金石”。ABB CEO Morten Wierod said China is the cornerstone of ABB's business, with Xiamen, Fujian province becoming its largest global manufacturing base and innovation center.ABB集团首席执行官史毕福称，中国是ABB业务发展的基石，其中福建省厦门市已成为ABB全球最大的制造基地与创新中心。The same pattern plays out in life sciences and healthcare. Anita Wei, vice-president of External Affairs at Danaher China, said her company's "Double Innovation Engine" strategy is built on deep localization.在生命科学与医疗健康领域，这一趋势同样显著。丹纳赫中国政府事务副总裁韦春艳表示，丹纳赫的“双创新引擎”战略根植于深度本土化。"We aim to achieve 80 percent of sales revenue from localized production and 80 percent of raw material sourcing from the Chinese market," she explained. "This allows our research and development teams to respond directly to clinical needs in China and then promote those solutions globally."“我们目标实现80%的销售收入来自本土化生产，80%的原材料采购源自中国市场，”她解释道，“这让我们的研发团队能够直接响应中国临床需求，并将这些解决方案推向全球市场。”Wei emphasized that the company's commitment is also about long-term trust. "China's continuous opening-up and improving business environment give us the confidence to keep investing. We are committed to building long-term, trusted partnerships that address global challenges together."韦春艳强调，企业的投入也源于对中国市场的长期信任。“中国持续扩大开放、不断优化营商环境，给了我们持续投资的信心。我们致力于构建长期互信的合作伙伴关系，共同应对全球挑战。”Other foreign companies have adopted similar strategies.其他外资企业也采取了类似策略。Zhao Bingdi, president of Panasonic China, described the shift by saying that China is not only a manufacturing center for Panasonic, but also an innovation hub, and that the Japanese firm is transitioning from "in China, for China" to "in China, for global" with the aim of leveraging the competitive edge honed in China for Southeast Asia and beyond.松下电器（中国）总裁赵炳弟这样描述战略转变：中国对松下而言，不仅是制造中心，更是创新枢纽。这家日本企业正从“在中国，为中国”向“在中国，为全球”转型，旨在将在中国市场打磨的竞争优势延伸至东南亚及更广泛地区。These strategies have been underpinned by policy.这些战略的落地，离不开政策的有力支撑。China has steadily opened doors wider, reducing national and free trade zone negative lists for foreign investment to 29 and 27 items, respectively. Restrictions on manufacturing investment have been removed, while pilot programs in cloud computing, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals are underway. Procurement, IP protection, data flows and tax incentives are all being fine-tuned to create a more predictable business climate.中国持续扩大对外开放：全国和自由贸易试验区外资准入负面清单分别缩减至29项、27项；制造业领域外资限制全面取消；云计算、生物技术、外资独资医院等领域试点有序推进。与此同时，中国还在采购管理、知识产权保护、数据流动、税收优惠等方面不断优化，为市场营造更可预期的发展环境。If inbound investment illustrates how China strengthens multinationals, outbound investment shows how Chinese firms are reshaping international markets. In 2024, outward direct investment reached $192.2 billion, bringing cumulative stock above $3.14 trillion. For the 13th year in a row, China ranked among the world's top three investors, according to the 2024 statistical bulletin of outward foreign direct investment.如果说吸引外资体现了中国如何助力跨国企业发展壮大，那么对外投资则展现了中国企业如何重塑国际市场格局。《2024年中国对外直接投资统计公报》显示，2024年中国对外直接投资规模达1922亿美元，累计对外直接投资存量突破3.14万亿美元，连续13年位居全球对外投资前三行列。In total, by the end of 2024, 34,000 Chinese investors had established 52,000 overseas enterprises in 190 countries and regions, including 19,000 in Belt and Road Initiative partner countries.截至2024年底，中国3.4万家投资者在全球190个国家和地区设立了5.2万家境外企业，其中在“一带一路”合作伙伴国家设立企业1.9万家。Hungary illustrates China's new depth of global cooperation, particularly with countries participating in the BRI. From 2014 to 2024, Chinese enterprises invested close to $20 billion in Hungary, creating more than 30,000 local jobs in sectors such as automotive batteries and intelligent logistics. These projects have not only delivered advanced technologies, but also strengthened Hungary's position in Europe's industrial chain.匈牙利的案例，彰显了中国全球合作的新深度，尤其是与“一带一路”参与国的合作成果。2014年至2024年，中国企业在匈牙利投资近200亿美元，在汽车电池、智能物流等领域创造当地就业岗位超3万个。这些项目不仅带来了先进技术，更提升了匈牙利在欧洲产业链中的地位。In Egypt's TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, Chinese enterprises have built integrated clusters centered on high-end manufacturing and logistics — a "localized production+global sales" model that has spurred industrial upgrading and job creation, earning praise from the Egyptian government.在埃及泰达苏伊士经贸合作区，中国企业打造了以高端制造、物流为核心的产业综合体，形成“本土化生产+全球化销售”模式。这一模式推动当地产业升级、创造大量就业，得到埃及政府高度认可。The energy sector tells a similar story.能源领域亦呈现相似态势Wang Pengcheng, president of Hithium Energy Storage Technology Co, said, "The global energy storage market is experiencing rapid growth, and Hithium Energy is building a global full-chain capability from materials and product systems to system integration and full-station services, providing customized integrated solutions for global customers." The company's shipments have grown at a compound annual rate of 167 percent over the past three years, with demand rising fast in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.海辰储能科技股份有限公司总裁王鹏程表示：“全球储能市场正迎来快速增长，海辰储能正构建从材料、产品系统到系统集成、全站服务的全球全链条能力，为全球客户提供定制化综合解决方案。”过去三年，该公司出货量复合年增长率达167%，在美国、欧洲、中东等地区的市场需求增长迅猛。Smooth two-way capital flows depend on a robust financial system that can provide not only funding, but also risk protection and efficiency for cross-border activities.双向资本的顺畅流动，离不开健全的金融体系支撑——它不仅能提供资金支持，更能为跨境经贸活动提供风险保障与效率提升服务。"Outbound investment always involves the movement of capital across borders, and financial institutions are now participating in more diverse ways," said Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.中国国际贸易促进委员会国际贸易经济合作研究院高级研究员周密指出：“对外投资必然涉及跨境资本流动，当前金融机构的参与方式正日趋多元。”Zhou outlined three avenues of support. "First, banks can provide direct financing — loans that help enterprises participate in overseas projects or place large orders. Second, risk-protection products such as investment insurance reduce uncertainty for firms abroad. Last, trade-related financing tools, like buyer's credit, can lower the costs of running international operations."周密进一步阐述了金融支持的三大路径：“首先，银行可提供直接融资支持，通过贷款助力企业参与海外项目或承接大额订单；其次，投资保险等风险保障产品能降低企业海外经营的不确定性；最后，买方信贷等贸易融资工具可减少企业开展国际业务的成本。”Zhou believes that services will only grow more localized and innovative. "Many Chinese and international banks are expanding their global presence, which allows them to provide on-the-ground services. At the same time, new tools — such as stablecoins and faster cross-border payment systems — are emerging to make capital flows more efficient," he said. "Of course, cross-market risks remain, and the key will be ensuring that financial capital and real-economy capital complement each other to drive innovation. That balance requires constant adjustments."在周密看来，金融服务的本土化与创新化水平将持续提升。“众多中资银行与国际银行正加速拓展全球布局，以便提供在地化服务。与此同时，稳定币、高效跨境支付系统等新型工具不断涌现，推动资本流动效率提升，”他表示，“当然，跨市场风险依然存在，关键在于确保金融资本与实体经济资本相互补充、共同驱动创新。这一平衡需要持续调整优化。”The trend was clear at this year's China International Fair for Investment and Trade last month, where banks introduced instant transaction platforms and insurers offered tailored risk products for projects in politically complex regions.上月举办的本届中国国际投资贸易洽谈会（简称“投洽会”）上，这一趋势体现得尤为明显：银行机构推出即时交易平台，保险机构则针对政治环境复杂地区的项目定制专属风险保障产品。Liao of HSBC added that the Panda Bond market has become a vital channel for foreign companies raising capital in China. "Since 2005, the Panda Bond market had recorded an accumulated issuance size of over 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) as of July. The ready availability of domestic fundraising tools reduces financing costs and accelerates the expansion of the footprint of multinational companies in China," Liao said. "It also helps optimize their asset-liability structures and improve overall capital allocation efficiency."汇丰银行的廖宜建补充道，熊猫债市场已成为外资企业在华融资的重要渠道。“自2005年以来，截至今年7月，熊猫债市场累计发行规模已突破1万亿元人民币（约合1400亿美元）。便捷的在华融资工具不仅降低了融资成本，还助力跨国企业加速拓展在华业务布局，”廖宜建说，“这同时有助于企业优化资产负债结构，提升整体资金配置效率。”Finance is the bloodstream of two-way investment, but innovation is the heartbeat. Both inbound and outbound flows increasingly target high-tech fields, from artificial intelligence and robotics to green energy. That matches China's strategy of high-quality growth and the world's demand for greener, smarter solutions.金融是双向投资的“血脉”，而创新则是其“心跳”。无论是外资流入还是对外投资，均日益向人工智能、机器人、绿色能源等高科技领域集聚。这既契合中国高质量发展战略，也顺应了全球对更绿色、更智能解决方案的需求。That perspective is increasingly shared by foreign executives, who point to China's blend of policy support, market demand and industrial supply chains as a foundation for technological progress.越来越多外资企业高管认同这一观点，他们认为中国的政策支持、市场需求与产业供应链形成合力，为技术创新奠定了坚实基础。Events such as CIFIT showcase two-way investment results. More than 1,100 cooperation projects, with a combined value of 644 billion yuan, were signed at the fair this year.中国国际投资贸易洽谈会等平台，正是双向投资成果的重要展示窗口。本届投洽会共签约1100多个合作项目，总金额达6440亿元人民币。While China's dual role in global capital flows has already delivered results, challenges remain. Geopolitical frictions, divergent regulatory system, and rising protectionism all weigh on the investment outlook.尽管中国在全球资本流动中扮演的双重角色已成效初显，但挑战依然存在。地缘政治摩擦、监管体系差异、保护主义抬头等因素，均对投资前景构成压力。Even so, with its vast market, comprehensive supply chains, and growing financial and innovation ecosystems, China is well placed to deepen two-way cooperation.即便如此，凭借庞大的市场规模、完备的供应链体系，以及不断完善的金融与创新生态，中国具备深化双向合作的坚实基础，未来可期。cumulative/ˈkjuːmjələtɪv/adj.累积的；累计的honed/həʊnd/adj.经过磨练的；打磨robust/rəʊˈbʌst/adj.强健的；健全的；稳固的divergent/daɪˈvɜːdʒənt/adj.不同的；有分歧的；相异的

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John Gaspar's guest this week is Tony Zhou. Tony is in the top echelon of successful Tournament players and has won countless live bankroll tournaments both live and online.

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When someone's behavior suddenly turns bizarre, is it a descent into madness—or a sign of possession? Why are certain individuals more vulnerable to the spirit world? And what truly happens after a person becomes possessed? 一个人突如其来怪异的行为，究竟是发疯还是被鬼上身？为什么有些人特别容易招惹灵界？See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who doesn’t enjoy a little retail therapy? But be careful what you shop for—especially late at night, when the malls should be closed. In this episode, Mr. Zhou continues his journey through Malaysia and ventures into a notoriously haunted, long-abandoned shopping mall. 逛街疗愈心情，但午夜时分的商场，真的是空无一人吗？周公在马来西亚的探秘之路展开新篇章——深入一栋长期废弃、流传着闹鬼传说的购物中心，揭开隐藏其中的秘密。See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Send us a textHello all!A little announcement here for ya! Instead of focusing his time and energies on finishing The Fate of Daya, The Orillian Regiment, Anderkant, or The Steg, K. Zhou, master of story and song, has been hard at work reworking one of the few stories he actually fucking finished already.[Sigh] So… it is my great pleasure to announce that Episode 1 of Wide-End has now been reworked and remastered to get the sound design closer to the quality you have come to expect from the NoReturniverse AAAAAAND to link it in more—[sigh] is this a joke? You want me to actually say this? Fine, fine… [sigh]—to link it in more clearly with the ‘meta plot' which runs across the NoReturn stories.Episode 1: Bloody Ungrateful Creatures has released today AAAAAAAAAAAAAND over the next weeks and months additional scenes will be added to the remaining Wide-End episodes too! So look forward to that!I've just been handed a little note here which says… we are also still working on The Fate of Daya, The Orillian Regiment, Anderkant, The Steg, and many other stories, and that I should keep my flippant little trap shut because this is an unpaid volunteer-only production and people should be grateful they are getting anything at all—because this shit is at least 4-star quality and literally free…Well… go and enjoy the episode, I guess!Support the show

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Mr. Zhou is in Malaysia, and it’s time for school. It’s no secret that many schools in Johor Bahru are built over old cemeteries. But that strange noise coming from the music room—what era could it be from? We may never know… 周公来到马来西亚，直击新山校园探灵。新山有不少学校是建立在坟场上，求学之余是否有听过其他来自历史的声音？See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Service is a rite of passage for every Singaporean male, but it’s the ghost stories—from haunted camps to eerie field encounters—that linger the longest. What’s your spooky experience? 服兵役是新加坡男生的共同回忆。相信当过兵的人都有他们自己的灵异经验，不管是在兵营里还是野外受训。你的故事又是什么？See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

En lo último en salud y fitness edición de septiembre 2025, damos un paseo por las últimas tendencias, investigaciones y noticias en el mundo de la salud y el fitness.Imagina un tratamiento capaz de reducir el riesgo de que el cáncer regrese en casi un 30%. Un tratamiento sin los efectos secundarios devastadores de la quimio, que además te hace más fuerte, te da más energía y es completamente gratis.¿Y si te dijera que ese suplemento tan popular y caro que tienes en la despensa podría estar haciendo… bueno, prácticamente nada? ¿O que quizás estás sufriendo de más en el gimnasio para obtener los mismos resultados?En esta edición de septiembre de 2025 vamos a hablar de cómo el ejercicio podría ayudar a personas que han pasado por cáncer de colon, la verdadera efectividad del colágeno, tu café matutino y hasta el protector solar.Atajos Del Episodio02:28 - El Arma Secreta que Ya Tienes Contra el Cáncer: Tu Propio Cuerpo104:38 - Colágeno Post-Entreno: ¿El Gran Engaño del Fitness?207:30 - Entrenar al Fallo: ¿Más Sufrimiento para los Mismos Resultados?310:10 - Tu Café Matutino: ¿Estás Anulando sus Beneficios?411:57 - El Falso Dilema: Protector Solar o Vitamina D. La Ciencia Responde5Referencias:1.      Courneya, K. S., Vardy, J. L. & O'Callaghan…, C. J. Structured exercise after adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer. … England Journal of … (2025).2.      Aussieker, T., Kaiser, J., Hendriks, F. K. & Janssen…, T. A. H. The Effects of Ingesting a Single Bolus of Hydrolyzed Collagen versus Free Amino Acids on Muscle Connective Protein Synthesis Rates. Medicine & Science in … (2025).3.      Hermann, T., Mohan, A. E., Enes, A. & Sapuppo…, M. Without Fail: Muscular Adaptations in Single-Set Resistance Training Performed to Failure or with Repetitions-in-Reserve. Medicine & Science in … (2025).4.      Zhou, B., Ruan, M., Pan, Y., Wang, L. & Zhang, F. F. Coffee Consumption and Mortality Among US Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study. The Journal of Nutrition (2025).5.      Gatta, E. & Cappelli, C. Sunscreen and 25-hydroxyvitamin D vitamin D levels: friends or foes? Systematic review and meta-analysis. Endocrine Practice (2025).

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, Septembr 24, 2025, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poet/writer J. Khan, Angela Brunner Development/Communication Director Mattie Rhodes Center, and Zhou B art director Izzy Vivas. J. KHAN- J. Khan and Leonard Greco, artist and author, have combined talents to narrate and illustrate the epic journey of the Maya Hero Twins in the underworld of Xibalba. And back. Their book Popol Vuh: The Maya Hero Twins in Xibalba draws from their familiarity with the Popol Vuh and Maya culture. The result is a compelling illustrated journey that revitalizes Americaoldest spiritual and poetic epic. Each poem is accompanied by a full color illustrated work. Reviews note that Khan's epic narrative style brings the characters, setting, and plot to life. Greco's intense archetypal figures evoke the timeless quality of a creation parable. Together they create a groundbreaking adaptation which exemplifies the living vitality of the Popol Vuh. Perfect for lovers of epic poetry, ekphrastic work, historians, Mesoamerican scholars, educators, as well as Maya and Neo-Baroque aficionados.180 pp. 6x9. Color. Soft Cover. Blurb Press. Introduction by Denise Low. Illustrated end papers. ISBN 979-8- 31-999595-7 Price: $39.50 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Khan is a prize-winning poet whose works appear in the United States and internationally. Born in the UK, Khan has lived and travelled overseas but spent his adult life in the US. He holds post-graduate degrees from the University of Missouri and Harvard. Writings have appeared in Fifth Estate, I-70 Review, and New Letters. He has served as a rotating guest editor for Glass: Poets Resist and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Khan has been interviewed by NPR, appeared on national news feeds, and has been cited by Time Magazine and international news publications. For over a decade he has traveled to Honduras to provide volunteer medical services. www.JKAuthor.com Angela Brunner Development/Communication Director Mattie Rhodes Mattie Rhodes Center Calendar: First Friday, October 3, 2025 – Exhibit Opening & Celebration First Friday, November 7, 2025 – Exhibit Closing & Calaca Night Parade For more than twenty years, Mattie Rhodes has been the heart of Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Kansas City. Festivities are held in the historic Westside neighborhood, home to many of Kansas City's Latinx residents. It began in the classrooms of the Mattie Rhodes Art Center where children worked on Dia de los Muertos themed projects after school. It was in one of those classrooms that Richard Bay, a local artist and art educator in the Kansas City Public School District, held a discussion night about the holiday where an impressive crowd gathered to learn about its traditional practices. The people's interest was apparent, as was the need for more space, and thus a gallery was opened next door in order to foster a space for cultural and artistic education. Since then Mattie Rhodes Center has dedicated itself to this idea and hosts a variety of events during Dia de los Muertos, including an altar exhibition made for and by members of the community, cultural workshops and tours, and related celebrations in the streets of the Westside. Altogether, we hope to create an experience that is similar to and honors the traditional celebration of Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. We cherish the connections and collaborations we have made through this event with our community members as well as valued institutions around the city such as the Kansas City Museum in the Northeast, Stonelion Puppets Theater, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The holiday of Dia de los Muertos varies from place to place, from person to person. The holiday originates in Mexico, though it is celebrated in many other countries in different forms. Dia de los Muertos embodies themes from both All Saints and All Souls Day (Catholic holidays) and those of the Aztecs and the Mayans. The culminations of these many beliefs focus on families reflecting upon those who have passed and rejoice in the happiness they once shared. Even though families are saddened by a loved one's departure, they do not cry on the Day of the Dead. The elders say the road back to the world of the living must not be made slippery by tears. El Dia de Los Muertos evokes happy and sad emotions, but it is always a celebration that unites the living the dead together for a short time. The holiday can be seen as practice in which we laugh at death, we triumph over it by celebrating life. While Halloween focuses on scary images of monsters, witches and other frights, the Day of the Dead displays a strong sense of respect and love for family, ancestry, and community. Death is a natural part of life, and this holiday allows people to talk and laugh about death and lose some of their fear. Although traditionally Dia de Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, many people celebrate the days of the dead from October 18th through November 9th, with each day dedicated to different groups of souls, also including a thirteen day feast. For this celebration of life and death, ofrendas (altars) are constructed for those who have passed and people tell stories and reflect on the good times they all once shared. There are many standards for the creation of the altars. Specific items are called for, the inclusion of the four elements (earth, wind, fire, and water), a towel and bowl of water, a cushion or chair, photographs, candles, flowers, personal items and even food. Our exhibit of altars and artwork displays and explains these aspects and brings others to the surface. Some work portrays the traditional aspects of the day of the dead, while others reflect contemporary views that push the principles of ofrendas. They also present many different views to the public, some dedicated to family and others purely aesthetic. The artwork of various local artists on the walls stirs up the celebration and positive energy that the holiday exudes. The fiestas take you right to the heart of Mexico with the parade, performers, live music, food, activities, marketplace, and art that involve the entire community. The workshops teach you how to decorate and prepare for the festivities, and the slide presentation shows you first hand accounts of the holiday in Mexico. Overall, we bring you many ways to learn, understand, experience and celebrate this wonderful and uplifting Mexican holiday. Traditional Mexican Calendar: Many people witness the holiday of Dia de los Muertos on November 1st and 2nd, All Saints and All Souls Days. In some areas of Mexico the holiday begins as early as October 18th and lasts through November 9th. Although the days change from place to place and family to family, the basic festivities remain the same. Below is a calendar of the Days of the Dead from many areas in Mexico. October 25th- The Feast of the Holy Souls. This is the beginning of a 13-day feast of the dead for the Tzeltals of Mexico. Here graves are decorated with pine needles and tusus (yellow wildflowers). October 27th- The souls of those who have no living family members are offered breads and water from jugs on this day. October 28th- On this day the accidentados return (the souls of those who died in accidents). This is also the day for the souls who have caused great harm or murder to return. They are also offered jugs of water and breads. These souls are un-forgiven for their acts, so their offerings are placed outside the houses or in the corner of a church. October 30th- The unbaptized souls return on this day. The children who visit on this day are known as Los Ninos Limbos (children who died before baptism). October 31st- Angelitos (the souls of children) show up on this day and must return to the land of the dead by afternoon of the following day. Toys and candy are left for them. November 1st- The souls of the dead adults return today. Cigars, cigarettes, alcohol and liquor is left out for the adults only on this day. The adults may remain until the next day. Many families spend the night in the cemetery to spend time with them. This day is known as All Saints Day, a Catholic festival day. Someone is called to ring a bell through town or in the church to summon the souls of the adults. November 2nd- Known as All Souls Day, another Catholic festival day. This day focuses on the living assisting the dead in their move into Heaven. This is usually the last day of celebration and includes the largest fiestas. By the end of the day, all the souls must leave, and to help them along, the mummers (dancers) wear costumes and masks and run through the streets dancing and singing, trying to scare the spirits back to the land of the dead. November 3rd- The living may share and eat the objects from the altar. People usually give their objects to their neighbors saying, they were left for them by the souls. In Mixquic, a bellman rings a bell on the hours of each day of the dead to announce the different happenings and rituals to be performed. The Aztecs dedicated an entire month to the dead. The month was called Miccailhuitontli, and was named after and presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, who was the Lady of the Dead. This happens from July 24th through August 12th. During this month, rituals were dedicated to her and the god of war known as Huitzilopochtli. This was the time of the harvest and it was believed that the souls followed the scents of the harvest in order to find their way to their altars. Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center is located at 1701 Jarboe, KCMO 64108 www.mattierhodes.org IZZY VIVAS Art Director Zhou B art center- https://www.zhoubartcenterkc.com/current-exhibiton

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Last time we spoke about the beginning of the battle of Nanjing. As the relentless tide of war approached Nanjing in December 1937, fear gripped its residents. As atrocities unfolded in the countryside, civilians flocked toward safety zones, desperate for refuge. Under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, the Chinese forces prepared for a fierce defense, determined to hold their ground against the technologically superior invaders. Despite heavy losses and internal strife, hopes flickered among the defenders, fueled by the valor of their troops. Key positions like Old Tiger's Cave became battlegrounds, exemplifying the fierce resistance against the Japanese advance. On December 9, as artillery fire enveloped the city, a battle for the Gate of Enlightenment commenced. Both sides suffered grievously, with the Chinese soldiers fighting to the last, unwilling to yield an inch of their soil. Each assault from Japan met with relentless counterattacks, turning Nanjing into a symbol of perseverance amidst impending doom, as the siege marked a critical chapter in the conflict, foreshadowing the brutal events that would follow.   #167 The Battle of Nanjing 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. By mid-December, the landscape surrounding Nanjing was eerily quiet. The Japanese Army marched through what seemed to be desolate fields and mountains, but they were not truly empty. Civilians were scarce, with most having fled, but a few remained in their homes, hiding in cellars and barns, clinging to the hope that the war would bypass them. Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese soldiers, left behind and unable to keep pace with their units, still posed a significant danger to the Japanese forces. The Japanese Army had not truly conquered the territory east and south of Nanjing; they had merely passed through. Mopping-up operations became a top priority. Soldiers from the 16th Infantry Division, stationed near Purple Mountain, spent early December conducting these missions far from the city's walls. “Chinese stragglers may be hiding in this area, and they must be flushed out. Any small structure of no strategic value to the Japanese Army must be burned!” This command rang out to the division's soldiers as they spread across the countryside around Unicorn Gate. Soon, isolated fires began to illuminate the horizon, one for each home. Soldiers from the 9th Infantry Division, who were not directly engaged in combat south of the Gate of Enlightenment, were also conducting similar mopping-up operations. On December 11 at noon, one squad received orders to investigate a suspicious farm building. Although it had been searched previously, movement inside prompted renewed caution. The Japanese entered carefully, moving from room to room. In the basement, they discovered eight Chinese soldiers who offered no resistance, immediately raising their hands in surrender. Bound together, they were brought outside. Using a few Chinese words supplemented by sign language, the Japanese gathered that the Chinese had been in the vicinity where one of their comrades had been killed days earlier. Unanimously, they decided the prisoners should be executed in front of their comrade's grave. Some of the older soldiers hesitated, reluctant to partake in the killings, leaving it to the younger ones to carry out the order. Soon, eight headless bodies lay sprawled before a solitary Japanese grave.  On the morning of December 11, the first soldiers of the 6th Japanese Infantry Division finally spotted the distant city wall of Nanjing. They had been engaged in fierce combat for nearly two days, attempting to dislodge the tenacious defenders of the Yuhuatai plateau, the elite soldiers of the 88th Division. In a desperate bid to maintain their foothold on Yuhuatai, the 88th Division deployed its reserved 528th Regiment along with a battalion of engineers. Despite their efforts, the regiment's ranks had been depleted, filled with inexperienced recruits, and their leadership nearly obliterated, limiting their effectiveness. Under the relentless assaults from the Japanese forces, their defenses began to falter almost immediately. Faced with the stiff resistance at the Gate of Enlightenment, the Japanese shifted their focus to the Chinese Gate on December 11. Japanese aircraft were summoned for tactical air support, forcing the 88th Division's defenders to retreat behind the wall. This withdrawal occurred swiftly and somewhat chaotically, allowing the Japanese to pursue closely. Before the Chinese could regroup, 300 Japanese soldiers had breached the wall. Only the mobilization of all available forces enabled the Chinese to push the attackers back outside. Meanwhile, the left flank of the 88th Division, stationed east of Chinese Gate, remained outside the wall. Here, they clashed with elements of the 9th Japanese Division but faced intense pressure and were compelled to fall back. By the end of the day, the Chinese division had shortened its defensive line, regrouping in front of the city wall. Plans for a nighttime counterattack were ultimately abandoned, as it became clear that the division's soldiers were too fatigued to mount an effective offensive. Overall, it proved to be a successful day for the Japanese 10th Army. Further south, the Kunisaki Detachment successfully crossed the Yangtze River at Cihu village, beginning their advance toward Pukou. Its special amphibious training made the detachment ideally suited for the operation, but its limited numbers, essentially a reinforced infantry regiment, raised concerns at field headquarters about whether it could accomplish the task alone. Prince Asaka proposed transporting part of the 13th Division across the Yangtze further north to sever the railway connecting Tianjin to Pukou, cutting off a potential retreat route for Chinese forces that had escaped Nanjing.  On December 11, Japanese artillery shells rained down relentlessly, targeting both the interior and exterior of Nanjing's city walls. Administrators of the Safety Zone were alarmed to witness several shells landing perilously close to its southern edge. In a bid to provide some semblance of security, American and foreign flags were raised around the zone's perimeter, though their protective influence against artillery fire from miles away was negligible. The leaders of the Safety Zone faced an unexpected dilemma: how to handle lawbreakers with the city courts now out of operation. That day, they encountered a thief caught in the act. As Rabe noted in his diary “We sentence the thief to death, then pardon him and reduce his punishment to 24 hours in jail, and ultimately, due to the absence of a jail, we simply let him go”. Refugees continued to pour in, with a total of 850 having found shelter at Ginling College. Vautrin and her colleagues began to feel that their initial estimate of 2,700 women and children seeking refuge on the campus was overly optimistic. They were soon proven wrong. On the banks of the Yangtze River, hundreds of injured soldiers and civilians were lining up to be ferried across to Pukou, where trains awaited to transport them further inland and away from danger. Many had been waiting for days without food. While ferries made continuous trips across the river to rescue as many as possible, the process was painfully slow. As of late December 10, approximately 1,500 wounded civilians remained stranded on the south bank of the Yangtze. The Japanese forces were confronted by a fiercely determined enemy composed largely of young soldiers from the Training Division. These soldiers had the advantage of having been stationed near Purple Mountain for several years, making them familiar with the terrain. Additionally, they were part of an elite unit, groomed not just in equipment and training but also instilled with a sense of nationalism rooted in Chiang Kai-shek's ideology. Li Xikai, the commander of the division's 3rd Regiment, had set up his command post directly in the path of the primary Japanese advance, yet his regiment continued to resist. Despite the fierce resistance, the Japanese gradually gained control over the Purple Mountain area. General Nakajima Kesago, commander of the 16th Division, visited an artillery observation post early in the day and was pleased to receive reports that his troops had captured two peaks of Purple Mountain and were poised to take the main peak.  Yet there loomed a problem on Nakajima's right flank. A widening gap was emerging between the 16th Division and the 13th Division, which had advanced along the southern bank of the Yangtze. There was a risk that Chinese forces could escape through this lightly guarded area. The 13th Division was stationed in the strategically important river port city of Zhenjiang, preparing to cross the Yangtze. The Central China Area Army ordered the 13th Division to mobilize three infantry battalions and one artillery battalion. This new formation, known as the Yamada Detachment after its commander, Yamada Senji, was tasked with remaining on the Yangtze's south bank and advancing westward to capture two Chinese fortresses on the river: Mt. Wulong and Mt. Mufu. This redeployment alleviated concerns about the gap, allowing the 16th Division to focus on the city wall. As the sun dipped towards the horizon, one Captain Akao Junzo prepared for what he believed would be his final assault. He had been ordered to seize a hill northeast of Sun Yat-sen Gate that overlooked the city entrance. His commander told him “The attack on Nanjing will likely be the last battle of this war, and I hope your company can be at the front when the enemy's lines are breached”. The hill was fortified with numerous machine gun positions, reinforced with mud, bricks, and tiles, and connected by an intricate network of trenches. Dense rows of barbed wire lay before the positions, designed to halt attackers and expose them to machine-gun fire. Additionally, the area was likely heavily mined, and Chinese soldiers maintained a high level of alertness. Akao knew this all too well; when he crawled forward and slightly lifted his head to survey the landscape, he triggered a hail of bullets, one of which grazed his helmet. Around late afternoon, four mountain guns from the regimental artillery began firing on the Chinese positions, sustaining the bombardment for over an hour. By 5:00 pm, as the winter sky darkened, Akao decided it was time to launch the attack. Expecting close-quarters combat, he instructed his men to carry only their rifles and small entrenchment tools. With the entire company poised to move, he dispatched a small group of soldiers ahead to cut openings in the barbed wire while receiving covering fire from the mountain guns and the rifles and machine guns of their comrades. The remainder of the company advanced with swords raised and bayonets fixed. As they approached within about 700 feet of the enemy positions, the artillery bombardment ceased as planned. The enemy, still reeling from the ferocity of the earlier assault, scrambled in a panic from their trenches, retreating in disarray. Akao and his fellow soldiers pressed forward, cutting down any opposition in their path. Seizing the momentum, Akao charged to occupy the hill that had been his target. He found it deserted upon his arrival and sent a triumphant message back to command, reporting that the objective had been achieved. However, the reply he received left him baffled: he was ordered to withdraw with his company and return to their lines. Apparently, the regimental command deemed the position too precarious. Sensing that a precious advantage was being squandered, Akao disregarded the order. Before his company could establish a defensive position on the hill, the Chinese launched a counterattack. Lying down, the Japanese soldiers returned fire while frantically digging into the earth to fortify their position. Gradually, they began to form a rudimentary perimeter at the summit. The fighting continued into the night. Exhausted from days without sleep, many soldiers rotated between guard duty and rest, dozing off intermittently in their shallow trenches, reassuring one another that everything would be alright before drifting back to sleep. They successfully repelled all attempts by the Chinese to reclaim the hill and were eventually relieved. On December 11, after leaving his capital, Chiang Kai-shek took time to reflect on everything that had happened in his diary. He reassured himself that his nationalist revolution would persist, regardless of whether he held Nanjing, “Temporary defeat can be turned into eventual victory.” Yet he did not fear so much the Japanese invasion itself, but rather how the weakening of his nationalist government might allow the Communists to rise. He wrote about how his nation was on the brink of becoming a second Spain. While foreign invasions were undoubtedly disastrous, they could eventually be overcome, if not immediately, then over years or decades. Sometimes, this could be achieved merely by absorbing the outmatched invader and assimilating them into Chinese society. In contrast, internal unrest posed a far more fundamental threat to the survival of any regime. As we have seen in this series, going back to the mid 19th century, was it the foreign empires of Britain, France and Russia that threatened to destroy the Qing dynasty, or was it the internal civil war brought on by the Taiping? As Chiang famously put it “the Japanese were a treatable disease of the skin. Communism however was a disease of the heart”. Chiang could accept a humiliating but rapid retreat from Nanjing. In his view, it would be far more difficult to recover from a bloody yet futile struggle for the city that might cost him what remained of his best troops. A prolonged defensive battle, he reasoned, would be a tragic waste and could shift the balance of power decisively in favor of the Communists. This new mindset was reflected in a telegram he sent late on December 11 to Tang Shengzhi: “If the situation becomes untenable, it is permissible to find the opportune moment to retreat to regroup in the rear in anticipation of future counterattacks.” On December 12, tankettes cautiously plunged into the Yuhuatai plateau. Unexpectedly the Chinese defenders abandoned their positions and rushed down the hillside toward Nanjing's walls. Upon discovering this, the Japanese tankettes opened fire on the retreating Chinese, cutting swathes through the masses and sending bodies tumbling down the slope. Some Japanese infantry caught up, joining in the slaughter and laughing boisterously as they reveled in the chaos. A tankette column escorted a group of engineers to the Nanjing wall and then drove east along the moat until they reached a large gate, flanked by two smaller openings, all securely shut. A chilling message, painted in blue, adorned the gate's surface. Written in Chinese characters, it conveyed a stark warning: “We Swear Revenge on the Enemy.” The wall itself loomed three stories high, but Japanese artillery was already targeting it, this was known as the Chinese Gate. Now that Yuhuatai was virtually in Japanese hands, capturing the gate had become the primary objective. At this location, the wall stood 70 feet tall, protected by a 100-foot moat to the outside. All bridges spanning the moat had been destroyed. The area around the gate was heavily defended, with approximately one machine gun positioned every 50 yards atop the wall. Inside, the gate was reinforced with a formidable barrier of sandbags. Chinese infantry armed with mortars and small arms could fire down on the Japanese attackers while others had established isolated positions in nearby buildings that had survived the “scorched earth” policy. Taking the gate and the heavily fortified southwestern corner of the wall was the responsibility of the 6th Division. The division was deploying its regiments: the 13th, the 47th, and the 23rd from east to west. The 45th Regiment, the final unit of the division, was tasked with skirting the western side of the wall and advancing northward, aiming for the Yangtze docks at Xiaguan. The soldiers of the division had already formed a rough understanding of the formidable defenses they were facing. During the night between December 11 and 12, they had advanced nearly to the wall, gathering intelligence to prepare for an assault at dawn. As planned, the assault commenced. Field artillery fired round after round at the gate, but the wall sustained minimal damage. A Japanese tank rolled up, firing point-blank at the gate but producing no visible effect. Next, it was the engineers' turn. A “dare-to-die” squad, equipped with long ladders, crept as close to the wall as possible without exposing themselves and then sprinted the final distance. The moment they broke into the open, a Chinese machine gun opened fire, cutting them down to the last man. At noon, three Japanese planes soared overhead, dropping bombs near a Chinese-held building outside the gate. The smoke from the resulting fire briefly obscured the area. Seizing the opportunity presented by the reduced visibility, a large group of Chinese soldiers holed up inside attempted to dash back to the wall. The Japanese spotted their movement instantly, and every soldier in the line opened fire. The fleeing Chinese were mowed down like ripe grass, collapsing in heaps.  Meanwhile the battle for the Gate of Enlightenment was drawing to a close. On the Chinese side of the wall, confusion reigned regarding the overall situation on December 12. Chen Yiding, brigade commander of the 87th Division, had been warned that heads would roll if the Gate of Enlightenment fell to the Japanese. Hearing the sounds of fierce fighting on the edges of Yuhuatai and seeing the smoke rise from numerous fires on Purple Mountain, he was left in the dark about their implications, surrounded by the fog of war. Chen's troops had finally managed to establish a telephone link to the rear, but by mid-afternoon, it was cut off, likely due to a stray artillery shell. After dark, Chen sent an officer to his left flank to make contact with the Chinese forces there. The report that followed was far from reassuring. A unit from Guangdong Province was abandoning its positions and retreating north, attempting to exit the capital through one of the gates in the city wall. The officer had attempted to inquire about their destination, but the retreating soldiers ignored him. With neighboring units evacuating autonomously, a significant gap was opening in the Chinese line atop the wall between the Gate of Enlightenment and Sun Yat-sen Gate. A frightening possibility emerged: the Japanese could walk right in across the undefended southeastern corner of the city wall and surround Chen Yiding's troops before they had a chance to withdraw. The situation was becoming untenable, a fact underscored by the artillery fire raining down on Chen's position. Despite this, retreat was not a simple decision for Chen and the other commanders of the 87th Division. They had been garrisoned in Nanjing before the war, and the city had become home to many of the soldiers. Shortly after midnight, Chen called a meeting with his senior officers. After considerable discussion, they concluded that they had no choice but to withdraw. Nonetheless, Chen insisted that everyone sign a document confirming their support for this decision, recognizing the potential danger of taking such a significant step without consensus. After all, his own life had been threatened if the situation deteriorated further. Soon after, the Chinese began to move out of their positions. The Japanese were initially unaware of the retreat; all they noticed during the night between December 12 and 13 was that the Chinese artillery fire began to grow increasingly distant. By 4:00 am it had stopped completely. The few remaining Chinese were quickly overwhelmed and killed. In the end, the gate, which had cost so many lives during the seemingly endless battle, was taken almost effortlessly by the Japanese. Soldiers of the 9th Division, stationed outside the wall, scrambled up the slope created by the previous days' shelling. Once at the top, they thrust their hands into the air, shouting “Banzai!” so loudly that they believed their families back home in Japan might hear them. Tears streamed down their faces as soldiers embraced and shook hands, reflecting on the friends they had lost throughout the months of fighting, from Shanghai to their current position. They reassured each other that their sacrifices had been worth it for this very moment. On December 12,  the slopes of Purple Mountain  were ablaze. Zhou Zhenqiang, commander of the Training Division's 1st Brigade, led his men in a desperate struggle to maintain control of the mountain's forested peaks. However, they were being overwhelmed by the better-equipped Japanese troops, and Zhou knew it was only a matter of time before he would have to relinquish his position. Zhou found himself unable to obtain any information from his superiors about the overall situation, despite repeated attempts to contact the Training Division's headquarters. He dispatched a runner, who returned a few hours later with disheartening news: the divisional commander had left late in the afternoon. Other reports indicated a general breakdown in command. The elite 88th Division was in disarray, and an entire division of Guangdong troops, that being the same force that had abandoned the wall near the Gate of Enlightenment, had been spotted marching out of the Gate of Great Peace, seemingly intent on returning home. With indications of collapse all around him, Zhou decided to execute an orderly withdrawal from Purple Mountain, leaving a small contingent behind to cover the retreat. His troops entered through the city wall at Sun Yat-sen Gate and marched in disciplined columns through the streets of Nanjing, where signs of imminent anarchy were evident. Chinese soldiers were scattered everywhere, speaking a cacophony of dialects, yet they appeared to lack any coherent command. Tang Shengzhi's grip on the situation was weakening. Meanwhile Japan's 13th Air Group had been busy with the final stages of the battle for Nanjing.  In the morning of December 12, after raiding Chinese positions at Sun Yat-sen Gate, they  received new orders. Intelligence indicated that Chinese ships, laden with troops, were moving up the Yangtze from Nanjing. Japanese infantry on the ground could only watch as this prize slipped through their fingers, and the army requested air support. All available planes at Changzhou, a mix of A4N fighters and Yokosuka B4Y bombers, totaling 24 aircraft, were assembled for the crucial mission. The day was clear, providing excellent visibility as the pilots headed toward the section of the Yangtze where they believed the vessels would be, based on reasonable assumptions about their speed. At 1:30 p.m., 28 nautical miles upriver from Nanjing, the pilots sighted four ships. Trusting their military intelligence, they saw no need for further identification. Initially, the B4Ys bombed the vessels from a considerable height. One bomb struck the lead ship, a military vessel, disabling its forward gun and snapping the foremast. Then, a first wave of six A4Ns dove down over the line of ships, attacking individually. In total, they dropped about 20 bombs. Several exploded close enough to the lead vessel to damage its hull and injure crew members on deck. A 30-caliber machine gun on board was manned, with gunners stripped to the waist firing at the Japanese planes but failing to score a hit. Several of the A4Ns strafed the ship with machine-gun fire. After 20 minutes of sustained bombing and strafing, the result was utter devastation. The lead vessel was stuck in mid-river, riddled with bullets, aflame, and listing to starboard. Two other ships were beached on the right bank, while another sat stranded on the left. Satisfied with their mission, the Japanese aviators broke off and returned to their temporary base. Upon their landing in Changzhou, instead of receiving accolades, the pilots were met with reprimands. Why hadn't they sunk all the vessels? They were ordered to return immediately to finish the job. Though they didn't find the original targets, they stumbled upon four other vessels closer to Nanjing. One aircraft dove toward the ships, releasing a 60-kilogram bomb that struck one vessel. As the pilot pulled up, he caught sight of the Union Jack on the hull and realized his mistake; he had inadvertently targeted neutral ships. The other pilots recognized the significance of the markings as well and withheld their bombs. The vessel was identified as the SS Wantung. Soon after, the Japanese pilots understood that the ships they had attacked earlier upriver from Nanjing were also Western; three of them were Standard Oil tankers. The last vessel, which had sustained the most damage, was the USS Panay, a lightly armed flat-bottomed gunboat,  tasked with protecting American lives and property along China's longest river. The Panay had been instrumental in evacuating American citizens from the war zone in November and December. On the day it was attacked, the Panay was carrying four American embassy personnel and ten American and foreign journalists to safety. The ship's doctor converted the engine room into a makeshift sick bay, treating a steady stream of injured personnel. By the end, he was tending to 45 patients. The soldiers and passengers were evacuated in two small boats to a nearby marshy island covered in reeds, where they hid, fearful of further strafing. From their hiding place, they watched as a Japanese powerboat filled with soldiers approached the Panay. After firing more volleys at the vessel, the soldiers boarded it, remaining for only five minutes before departing. The American flag still flew from the bow at that time. At 3:54 pm, the Panay rolled over to starboard and sank in seven to ten fathoms of water. Cold and frightened, the survivors waded through knee-deep mud to a nearby village, assisting those too severely wounded to walk.  Meanwhile back at Chinese Gate, the mutual slaughter continued into the afternoon of December 12. The Japanese made no significant progress, although their failure was not for lack of trying. The commanders of the 6th Division had strategically placed the boundary between the 13th and 47th Regiments exactly at the gate, encouraging both units to compete to be the first to seize the position. Yet, despite their efforts, it became clear that willpower alone was not enough to breach the Chinese defenses at Chinese Gate. In peacetime, Nanjing's city gates served as entry points into a bustling capital, but in wartime, they transformed into heavily fortified and nearly impregnable strongholds. Any Japanese officer hoping for a swift victory would soon be disappointed; by early afternoon, the situation at the gate had devolved into a stalemate. The section of the wall manned by the 47th Infantry Regiment, located east of the gate, also saw little meaningful movement as the day wore on. Japanese soldiers, pinned down by Chinese fire from atop the wall, could do little more than take pride in a symbolic triumph. A small group of soldiers had managed to reach the wall and place a ladder against it, but it fell nearly ten feet short of the top. One soldier skillfully scaled the last portion, gripping protruding bricks and crevices of the nearly vertical surface. The entire Japanese front watched him with bated breath. He reached the top and unfurled a Japanese flag, but it immediately drew intense Chinese fire, forcing him to duck for cover. Soon, he vanished from sight, raising concerns among his compatriots about his fate. Later, it was revealed that he had taken refuge in a depression in the wall, waiting out the battle. The real breakthrough of the day would occur west of the gate. The 23rd Regiment was deployed there with orders to capture sections of the wall near the southwestern corner. It became evident that the wall could not be scaled without first bringing up artillery to create gaps in its solid masonry. A significant portion of the divisional fire support, 36 small-caliber mountain guns, four 100mm howitzers, and four 150mm howitzers, was assigned to this section. Artillery observers were also sent to the 23rd Regiment's forward command post to coordinate with the infantry and assess the effects of the shelling. By mid-afternoon, the artillery bombardment had created a ravine-like hole in the wall large enough for an assault. The 23rd Regiment positioned its 2nd and 3rd Battalions at the front, with the 1st Battalion held in reserve. First, the engineers undertook the challenging task. As the assault commenced, the rest of the regiment provided covering fire to force the Chinese defenders to seek shelter while the engineers charged into the 70-foot-wide moat. Once a human chain formed, they held up ladders as a makeshift bridge, allowing a company from the 3rd Battalion to rush across and into the gap in the wall. As the batteries switched to close infantry support, they laid down a barrage around the breach to prevent Chinese interference as the attack entered its decisive phase. The Japanese soldiers scrambled up the rubble, created by the artillery fire, which rose several dozen feet high. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., the Japanese seized control of the southwestern segment of the wall. The Chinese launched several counterattacks to reclaim the position, but none were successful. This action ultimately sealed Nanjing's fate; beyond the wall, there was nothing left to save the ancient city and its inhabitants. As defeat appeared imminent, more and more civilians sought safety in foreign-controlled areas, though danger still loomed large. Bits of shrapnel narrowly missed Dr. Robert Wilson while he operated in the Safety Zone. Every square foot of John Rabe's property became filled with families, many camping in the open with their own blankets. Some sought refuge under his large swastika flag, believing that this would make the area especially “bomb-proof” given the growing friendship between Tokyo and Berlin; they assumed Japanese aviators would think twice before targeting a region seemingly under German protection. With just hours left before the Japanese Army was expected to gain control, the residents of Nanjing made their last preparations, prioritizing personal survival. The brutal behavior of Japanese troops in conquered territories fueled intense concern over the possible fate of injured soldiers who might fall into enemy hands. As Nanjing's last hours as a free city unfolded, it became imperative for local hospitals to evacuate as many wounded soldiers as possible across the Yangtze. On December 12, doctors found a motorboat stranded on the riverbank, having apparently broken down. They managed to repair it and ferried several hundred patients to safety throughout the day. Throughout December 12, the citizens of Nanjing were subjected to the unsettling cacophony of heavy shelling, mixed with the roar of bombers overhead. By evening, the entire horizon south of the city glowed with flames. The sound of fighting emanated from all directions, continuing long after sunset. However, in the middle of the night, activity began to wan. Every few minutes, the muffled thuds of shells could still be heard, though their origin was unclear. For the most part, an eerie silence prevailed, as if the city was holding its breath in anticipation of the final onslaught. Chiang Kai-shek had indicated he would understand if Tang chose to abandon the capital. However, on December 12, he reversed his stance, sending a telegram to Tang expressing optimism that the Nanjing garrison could hold out significantly longer. In his words “If you do not shy away from sacrifices, you will be able to hold high the banner of our nation and our army, and this could transform defeat into victory. If you can hold out one more day, you will add to the pride of the Chinese nation. If you can hold out for half a month or more, the domestic and international situation could see a substantial change.” Tang adopted a hardline approach toward any signs of defeatism among his troops. When he learned that General Sun Yuanliang, commander of the formerly elite 88th Division, was leading approximately 2,000 men from the Gate of Enlightenment to the dock area, Tang acted swiftly. He dispatched Song Xilian, the commanding general of the 36th Division, to halt the retreat. When the two units met, a fratricidal clash nearly occurred. Fortunately, the 88th Division agreed to return to the gate and continue fighting. Whatever Tang's plans, they were rendered irrelevant at 3:00 pm,  when he received another telegram from Chiang, this time ordering a full retreat. Rumors that the Chinese Army had started evacuating Nanjing triggerec panic among many units. Thousands abandoned their positions and joined the throngs of soldiers and civilians moving slowly down the city's main avenues. The crowd seemed to have collectively decided that getting a boat out of Nanjing was the best option, and by late afternoon, a solid mass of humanity stretched for miles through the city toward the dock areas at Xiaguan. To reach Xiaguan, everyone had to pass through Yijiang Gate. This relatively modern structure had served as the main entry point for visitors arriving in Nanjing by boat in recent decades and now only half of the main entrance was open. A crowd of that size trying to get through such a narrow bottleneck was a recipe for disaster. Those unfortunate enough to be right at the front felt the crushing pressure of tens of thousands of individuals pushing from behind. In that densely packed throng, stumbling and falling to the ground was akin to a death sentence; anyone who went down was inevitably crushed by the oncoming waves of terrified civilians and soldiers. As chaos erupted, discipline evaporated entirely. Officers lost control over their men, leading to infighting among the soldiers. Pushing and shoving escalated into fistfights, and trucks drove directly into the mass of people to force their way through. Tanks, emitting sounds akin to prehistoric beasts, rolled through the mob, crushing many under their weight. Amid the madness, some soldiers, driven by frustration over the lack of movement, began shooting into the crowd at random. To relieve the pressure at Yijiang Gate, some units were ordered to exit Nanjing via the Gate of Great Peace at the northeastern corner of the city wall. Upon arrival, they found the entrance nearly sealed shut. Thick walls of sandbags had been erected around it, leaving only a narrow opening through which one person could pass at a time. Massive crowds fought among themselves to get through; even under perfect order and discipline, it would have taken the entire night and most of the following day for everyone to pass. In the midst of the frantic chaos, it could take a week or more. During the night of the 12th, a select group of Japanese soldiers, chosen for the offensive, stripped their equipment down to the bare essentials: rifles, bayonets, and helmets. They avoided any gear that could produce a metallic noise, alerting the Chinese defenders to their approach. Stealthily, they moved up to the wall, carrying bamboo ladders tied together in threes for added height. Ascending the rungs, they ensured not to make a sound that could betray their position to an alert Chinese sentry. Everything hinged on remaining undetected; even a couple of hand grenades tossed down the wall could halt the attack in its tracks. Reaching the top without being noticed, the soldiers quickly fanned out. Chinese soldiers stationed on the wall saw the swift dark figures and opened fire, but it was too late to thwart the assault. A brief fight ensued; most Japanese soldiers were too close to use their rifles and immediately resorted to their bayonets. The stunned defenders were pushed back, and the successful assault team established a perimeter, awaiting reinforcements from outside the wall. They didn't have to wait long. A massive assault along the length of the 6th Division's front line commenced at dawn on December 13. Japanese artillery concentrated its fire on a narrow section of the city wall, progressively working its way from the bottom up. Gradually, the shells formed a slope of debris that soldiers could use to scale the wall. A short air raid was executed, and after the planes had weakened the remaining resistance, a group of soldiers rushed up the slope. While their comrades provided covering fire, they climbed the last stretch, rolling down a rope ladder. Within minutes, 40 other Japanese soldiers had joined them. By 10:30 am, the Rising Sun flag was flying over the wall. The Japanese invaders were met with a horrific sight at the top of the wall. Beyond lay the grim aftermath of days of shelling. Some houses were leveled, while others burned. The ground was littered with bodies, some decapitated or disemboweled, and pools of blood surrounded them. As Chiang Kai-shek's order to abandon the city gradually filtered down to the troops manning the wall around Nanjing, things began to move rapidly.  By late morning on December 13, all the major entry points into the city had fallen to the Japanese. These included Chinese Gate in the southwest, the Gate of Enlightenment in the south, and Sun Yat-sen Gate in the east. The first thing that struck the Japanese soldiers upon ascending the wall was how starkly different it was from their expectations. They had anticipated a bustling city teeming with people, but instead, the area adjacent to the wall was characterized by farm plots, resembling countryside more than an urban center. The second notable observation was the complete absence of inhabitants. Cautiously, the Japanese soldiers entered the city they had just conquered, their bayonets fixed and rifles at the ready. Yet, surprisingly, very few shots were fired. After weeks of fearing death and injury, once the immediate danger receded, a certain stupor settled in. For most civilians in Nanjing, their initial encounter with the city's new rulers was uneventful. It took several hours for the Japanese to move from the wall into the urban parts of the capital. It was not until around noon that residents noticed the first groups of Japanese soldiers marching down the streets in clusters of six to twelve men. Initially, many met the conquerors with relief, hoping they would be treated fairly. Their optimism was bolstered by Japanese planes dropping leaflets over the city, reassuring residents of humane treatment. 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. On December 9, fierce battles erupted, especially at the Gate of Enlightenment. Despite heavy fighting, the Chinese showed remarkable resilience, turning Nanjing into a symbol of determination. However, the tide shifted as overwhelming Japanese artillery and tactics began to breach defenses. By December 13, as chaos engulfed the city, the invaders claimed victory, but not without significant loss. Civilians, caught amid the destruction, clung to hope amid despair.

George is the cofounder of BUFFs - the world's 1st ever beef puff! https://eatbuffs.co/----Today's show is brought to you by heywell! https://livingheywell.com/The Shane White Show is now proudly brought you by ROUTINE! Head over to yourroutine.com and try their newest product "Morning Routine". Use code "ShaneWhite30" at checkout for 30% off your first order!Today's episode is brought to you by NeuRoast - Mushroom Coffee! Use Code "ShaneWhite" for 30% off your order from Neuroast.comSponsor Links:Routine - http://yourroutine.comNeuRoast - https://www.neuroast.com/Heywell - https://livingheywell.com/----------Helpful Links:Instagram:  @shane.m.whiteTik Tok: @shane.m.whiteNoBul Partners: https://nobulpartners.com/

In this episode, Dr. Xiaofei Zhou, Associate Program Director of Neurosurgery at University Hospitals, discusses her journey into endoscopic spine surgery, her priorities for advancing education and patient care, and how collaboration and innovation are shaping the future of minimally invasive spine procedures.

Daphne and Gina welcome for his fourth time on the podcast Olympic gold medalist Vincent Zhou. The three talk about the 2025 World Championships and the 2025-2026 Olympic season.Follow Vincent on Instagram. ---------------This Week in Skating is hosted by Gina Capellazzi, Daphne Backman and Matteo Morelli is a cooperative project between Figure Skaters Online and Ice-dance.com. New episodes are available every Tuesday.Website: https://www.thisweekinskating.comEmail: thisweekinskating@gmail.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisweekinskatingTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/thiswkinskatingInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinskatingThread: https://www.threads.net/@thisweekinskatingPatreon: patreon.com/ThisWeekinSkatingSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/this-week-in-skating-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Blasian March Founder Rohan Zhou-Lee is an award-winning dancer, writer, speaker, curator, and community organizer. In 2024, they co-curated the Critical Connections exhibit with the Pace University Art Gallery and the George Stephanopoulos photo collection of the Civil Rights Era. In 2023, they became the first mixed race Black Asian admitted to the Open City Fellowship for Journalism at the Asian American Writers' Workshop. They are also a recipient of the 2024 PEN American US Writers' Aid Initiative, 2023 FIYAH Rest Grant, 2023 New Yorkers for Culture and The Arts, 2022 Bandung Resident, they have written for Newsweek, Hyperallergic, Truthout, and more. They have performed poetry and dance as a reflection of their activism in the United States and the 2022 Unite Festival in Zürich, Switzerland. Spotlight features include CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, AJ+, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken at Harvard University, New York University, Yale University, Oberlin College, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, and more.As a performing artist, major credits include:  Julius Eastman's Joy Boy on trumpet (ChamberQUEER, 2021,) and for dance: Lovecraft Country (HBO, 2018) François & The Rebels (Public Theatre, 2023,) Over Here! (Triad Theatre, Off-Broadway debut, 2019) West Side Story (New Bedford Theatre Festival, 2018) and Bluebird from Sleeping Beauty (Victoria Ballet Theatre, 2019.)Zhou-Lee holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Ethnomusicology from Northwestern University. Pronouns: They | Siya | 祂 | Elle, gender identity: Firebird.Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist's duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. Links Cha with Laura and Leah https://open.spotify.com/show/1z194Dm1oJ1U9GzqvJ0dT9?si=b3effad8f6484e57Firebird's Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/diaryofafirebird/Firebird's Websitehttps://www.diaryofafirebird.com/Laura Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/iamlaurachung/Laura Websitehttps://www.laurakchung.com/Laura YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@LaurakchungLeah Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/leahsoojinkim/Leah Substackhttps://leahkim.substack.com/Leah YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@leahsoojinkim⁩  Links Support us on Cha's Patreon https://rb.gy/g6vtbmVenmo: http://bitly.ws/iXCSPaypal: http://bitly.ws/iXCb

Blasian March Founder Rohan Zhou-Lee is an award-winning dancer, writer, speaker, curator, and community organizer. In 2024, they co-curated the Critical Connections exhibit with the Pace University Art Gallery and the George Stephanopoulos photo collection of the Civil Rights Era. In 2023, they became the first mixed race Black Asian admitted to the Open City Fellowship for Journalism at the Asian American Writers' Workshop. They are also a recipient of the 2024 PEN American US Writers' Aid Initiative, 2023 FIYAH Rest Grant, 2023 New Yorkers for Culture and The Arts, 2022 Bandung Resident, they have written for Newsweek, Hyperallergic, Truthout, and more. They have performed poetry and dance as a reflection of their activism in the United States and the 2022 Unite Festival in Zürich, Switzerland. Spotlight features include CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, AJ+, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken at Harvard University, New York University, Yale University, Oberlin College, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, and more.As a performing artist, major credits include:  Julius Eastman's Joy Boy on trumpet (ChamberQUEER, 2021,) and for dance: Lovecraft Country (HBO, 2018) François & The Rebels (Public Theatre, 2023,) Over Here! (Triad Theatre, Off-Broadway debut, 2019) West Side Story (New Bedford Theatre Festival, 2018) and Bluebird from Sleeping Beauty (Victoria Ballet Theatre, 2019.)Zhou-Lee holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Ethnomusicology from Northwestern University. Pronouns: They | Siya | 祂 | Elle, gender identity: Firebird.Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist's duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. Links Cha with Laura and Leah https://open.spotify.com/show/1z194Dm1oJ1U9GzqvJ0dT9?si=b3effad8f6484e57Firebird's Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/diaryofafirebird/Firebird's Websitehttps://www.diaryofafirebird.com/Laura Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/iamlaurachung/Laura Websitehttps://www.laurakchung.com/Laura YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@LaurakchungLeah Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/leahsoojinkim/Leah Substackhttps://leahkim.substack.com/Leah YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@leahsoojinkim⁩  Links Support us on Cha's Patreon https://rb.gy/g6vtbmVenmo: http://bitly.ws/iXCSPaypal: http://bitly.ws/iXCb차 logo designed by grimeninja

Asians and Asian Americans are numerous within the classical music industry, but their identities are often politicized and racialized in this Eurocentric musical genre. For the third episode of Obbligato on APEX Express, Isabel Li discusses this intersection with Mari Yoshihara, Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Professor at the Center for Global Education at the University of Tokyo, Japan; author of many books, including Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music (2007) and Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro (2019). Tonight's episode features music by Chinese American composer Zhou Tian. To learn more about Mari and her work, please visit her website: https://www.mariyoshihara.com/index.html  Musicians from a Different Shore: https://tupress.temple.edu/books/musicians-from-a-different-shore-2 Dearest Lenny: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dearest-lenny-9780190465780?cc=jp&lang=en&  Transcript  Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.    00:00:53 Isabel Li  Good evening. You're listening to KPFA 94.1 FM. My name is Isabel Li and I'm delighted to be hosting a new edition of Obbligato on Apex Express, which is a semimonthly segment specifically about AAPI identities in classical music. Tonight's guest is someone I have been incredibly excited to speak to because her writings have actually very much informed my studies and research. In fact, her books are exactly about the subject matter of Obbligato. I am honored to be speaking to Mario Yoshihara, Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Professor at the Center for Global Education at the University of Tokyo, Japan; author of many books, including Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music, published in 2007, and Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, which was published in 2019. Welcome to Obbligato on Apex Express. Mari, how are you doing?  00:01:55 Mari Yoshihara  I'm doing fine. Thank you for having me.  00:01:58 Isabel Li  Of course, my first question for you is how do you identify and what communities are you a part of?  00:02:06 Mari Yoshihara  Oh well, that's actually a little bit complicated I am. I am a Japanese woman who have spent a little bit over well, maybe not more than a little more than half of my life in the United States. Born in New York but raised in Tokyo, educated mostly in Japan, but also earned my graduate degrees in the United States and most of my academic career has been in Hawaii, so I've been in American academia for almost 30 years now, but I also have a dual appointment with the University of Tokyo in Japan. So I split my time between Japan and Hawaii now.  00:02:54 Isabel Li  Can you tell us a little bit about your work and your books? I had a chance to read Musicians from a Different Shore, but how would you summarize your research to someone who might not have read your book?  00:03:04 Mari Yoshihara  So I am a scholar of American studies, which is an interdisciplinary field that has anything to do with America broadly defined. And within that, my area of expertise is about, well, I would say I'm a scholar of US cultural history. US Asian relations, mostly US, East Asian relations, especially in the cultural dimension, cultural studies, gender studies, Asian American studies, etc. And so I have written a number of books, both in English and Japanese, but the one that you're referring to, Musicians from a Different Shore, is a book that I did research for more than 20 years ago and was published in 2007. It's a study of Asians and Asian Americans and classical music. So it was partly historical in that I examined the ways. which Western music, so-called western classical music, was introduced to East Asia and how also East Asians became have become so successful and prominent in this field that is generally considered a white European elite art form, so it was partly historical, but then the rest of the book was based on my ethnographic field work and interviews among Asians and Asian Americans in classical music looking at how well who these people are in the first place and then also how musicians, Asian and Asian musicians themselves, understand the relationship between their racial and cultural identity on the one hand, and their practice of Western classical music on the other, so that was my study.   And then I also wrote another book called Dearest Lenny. It's about—the subtitle is Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro. It's about Leonard Bernstein's relationship with two very special individuals in Japan. And through that story, I interweave an account of various things. For one thing, how Leonard Bernstein became a world maestro and also the relationship between politics and arts, gender, sexuality, art and commerce, etcetera, etcetera. So that was my most recent book published in English and then, I'm sure we'll talk more about this, but I'm currently doing a follow up research on the on Musicians from a Different Shore, taking into account all the changes that have been taking place in the classical music industry in the United States in the past, I would say five years or so especially so that's my that's the abbreviated version of my research.  00:05:55 Isabel Li  That's really cool, and I also want to ask you about these changes, if you can talk a little bit about the classical music world. I feel like classical music is one of those genres that seems to be unchanging on the outside. But as a scholar of classical music, what types of changes have you observed that has influenced how AAPI identities play into this world?  00:06:18 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah, I think especially in the last, I would say, yeah, 5 to 10 years, especially in the last five years, classical music industry in the United, I mean I say specifically in the United States because I don't see the similar kind of changes taking place in Japan where I'm currently located. And I also don't really know the situation in Europe. But the field of classical music in the US is changing. I think most significantly because of movements like the Black Lives Matter movement and also with the onset of COVID and the rise of anti Asian hate, there's been a lot more heightened awareness about how issues of race and also class shapes classical music. So there's a lot more vibrant conversations and debates about these topics in the industry and also in terms of AAPI community, are the biggest changes, the biggest change I'm seeing is that Asian and Asian American musicians themselves are being a lot more vocal and active in issues of race and racism in the field and there I've encountered many Asian and Asian American musicians who have, for instance, you know organized events or organizations, or taken up various forms of advocacy and activism on these issues. So compared to, say, 20 years ago, 20, 25 years ago, when I was doing the original research, I see a lot more kind of, you know, explicit awareness and awareness and articulation of these issues by Asian and Asian American musicians themselves.  00:08:12 Isabel Li  That's really interesting. Just because classical music is also one of those genres, that doesn't seem like a genre that most people explicitly associate with politics or activism. What are some examples of these, like activist movements that you've observed within the Asian American community in classical music?  00:08:32 Mari Yoshihara  So for instance, some Asian and Asian American musicians are are becoming a lot more vocal about the actual like racism or sexism that they have themselves experienced, or that they witness in the industry, like in in schools, conservatories, orchestras, opera companies, etc. Either through the media or you know their own writing, and also like speaking up within the organizations that they work in. So that's one. There are other kinds of advocacy and activism in that they demand more diverse repertoire, and I think the repertoire is in terms of the industry industry changes. That's the area that's changing the most, the the kind of repertoire that many orchestras for instance perform have become a lot more– I mean overall it's still very white, European centered– but in terms of the actual numbers of pieces that are performed, works by living, composers and composers of color, women composers, etcetera. That is significantly increased in the last 10 years and that is, you know significantly to do with the advocacy and activism on the part of, you know, artists of color.  So yeah, so things like that and then, you know, many Asian, Asian American artists are doing their own programming, for instance, like event organizing programming. So yeah, those are the areas that I see changes. I see things happening that I didn't see 25 years ago.  00:10:20 Isabel Li  Definitely. I remember reading your book, and your book has been published since 2007, so a lot of changes have happened since then. But in general, when you did your research at first, what how would you summarize the dynamic of Asian identities, Asian American identities in this very Eurocentric field, it's a juxtaposition of two different cultures and identities that a lot of people also observe in orchestras. There's a large population of Asian and Asian American musicians, conductors just in general. It's a very large population, but yet this identity is still not quite represented in media. It's not quite seen, so talk to us a bit about this juxtaposition and how you observe these dynamics in your research.  00:11:10 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So. The thing is, Asians and Asian Americans are indeed numerically overrepresented in classical music, in the sense that compared to the general public, the the the proportion of Asians and Asian Americans in the overall US population, the number of Asian and Asian Americans in classical music indexed by things like the student body at major conservatories or membership roster of US orchestras, etcetera, Asians and Asian Americans percentage is higher than the general population, right. So in terms of the numbers, Asians and Asian Americans are, quote unquote overrepresented. But those numbers are not reflected in the actual like voice, power and influence that they have in the industry.   So that was my finding back 2025 years ago and I think that's still true today. Also, the thing about Asian, Asian American musicians is that it's a racialized category. They are seeing and treated as Asian. It's this racial category. But their identities and experiences as Asians is not at all uniform, right?   Some of these Asian musicians are Asian Americans, like multi generational Asian Americans whose parents or grandparents or great grandparents etcetera have come to the United States and they themselves are U.S. citizens. So that's one group.   Many Asian musicians working in the United States are people who were born and raised in Asia, places like China or South Korea, Japan, etcetera, and came to the United States as international students to study music, often at the college level, college conservatory level, so obviously these people have very different sense of identity and experience as Asians compared to say, you know 3rd, 4th generation Chinese Americans or 1.5 Korean Americans.   There are other people who live in the United States because they were very talented, very young musicians, and the whole whole family immigrated to the United States specifically for their music education. So Midori, the famous violinist, Midori is a case, example of this, but there are also a number of other, especially among Koreans and Chinese. There are families, the whole family immigrated to the United States when the child was a very promising musician at age 7 or something. So that's one group. They too have a different sense of identity and experience of Asians than the two former groups that I that I talked about.   There are other people who also came to the United States because not because of the music education, but because of their parents' profession, for instance. And they have transnational kind of family ties and you know, they move, they go back and forth between US and Asia, for instance. And then there are also mixed roots families where one parent is Asian and the other is non Asian.   And then there are also Asians who were born and raised in Europe for other parts of the globe and then came to the United States, for either personal or professional reasons.   So in other words, they're all Asians in terms of their racial identity. But what that means is really quite diverse and their experience as Asian and Asian American musicians is also quite diverse. So it's not as if you know, just because they're Asian, they share some kind of experience and identities around which they coalesce. So that's, you know, that was true 20, 25 years ago. And I think that's still true today.  More and more Asian musicians are coming to the United States to study, study or work in classical music, but especially because of this, like new influence, this Asian category is becoming even more diverse. However, because of the COVID, you know the rise of Anti Asian hate during the COVID pandemic, I think that heightened the awareness of, you know, these different kinds of Asians, the heightened awareness that they are Asians. First and foremost, you know, in, in that in the sense of being racialized in the United States. So I have talked with a number of musicians, Asians and Asian American musicians, who did not really, hadn't thought about their Asianness before. It wasn't at the forefront of their identity before, but during this rise of anti Asian hate it they became they basically became more politicized. You know, they had quite a politicized language and awareness to think about race and racism especially against Asians and Asian Americans.  00:16:31 Isabel Li  Yeah, that's a great point. It is a such a diverse group and there are so many different identities, even within just the Asian American framework AAPI, as a label is very, very diverse. And that applies to classical music as well. But I think there's also this social perception of Asian and Asian Americans as a group that also relates to the model minority stereotype that's historically been present and, for example, a lot of people might think of, like a young Asian or Asian American musician as being like a prodigy because they are technically skilled at their instrument, where like these social perceptions that exist both in media and in the culture around us, why do you think that is?  00:17:15 Mari Yoshihara  Well, that as you said, there is a model minority myth and there is a stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans as being very studious and diligent, but also quiet, right? I mean, they just quietly follow, like, obedient, obediently follow the instructions and that translates in the field of music as the stereotype that Asian musicians are technically very proficient but artistically non expressive. I mean, that's a very common stereotype that yeah, you know, practically any Asian, Asian Americans in classical music have been subjected to, you know, quite regularly and frequently. And I think that, yeah, that just comes with the overall kind of racial stereotype of Asians and Asians and Asian Americans in American society at large. And also the fact that, you know, classical music, especially in terms of instrumental performance, it is an area that is, it's something that is, indeed, technically very demanding, right? You need many, many years of disciplined training and a lot of practice. And there is a myth of merit– well, no, not entirely a myth– but there is this this very, you know, dearly held faith in meritocracy in classical music. The idea that if you have the chops you will be rewarded, you will be recognized and you know, no matter what kind of great artistic idea you might have, if you can't play the notes, you can't play the notes. That kind of ethos of meritocracy is particularly strong in classical music because of the technical demands of the genre, and that and that kind of, you know, goes hand in hand with the model minority methods for Asian Americans.  00:19:20 Isabel Li  Definitely. That's really interesting and another part of your book that was quite fascinating to me when I first read it was chapter 3. You talked about the intersection of gender as well as, you know, racial identity in classical music. The chapter is called Playing Gender and you talk about, I think at large don't necessarily associate classical music with a discipline that provides a stable job. It is an art form and there is kind of an uphill battle for artists in a sense like a starving artist myth there. We're not even a myth. Like if there's a starving artist image, whereas the image of a very successful classical musician there's this duality that you also mentioned in one of your other chapters about class. So what really interested me in for this chapter was that there was this intersection of power in classical music of who would go down the path that might not be traditionally as successful. How do you think gender dynamics play into this and how do you think they might have shifted within the last two decades or so?  00:20:20 Mari Yoshihara  Huh. I'm not sure if it has shifted all that much in the last two decades, but as you said, because music I mean, not just classical music, but music. Like, you know, arts in general is a field that is very like economically insecure in terms of career, right?   But at the same time. Classical music is associated with kind of, you know, bourgeois identity and just kind of overall cultivation and so, many Asian, Asian American parents are very eager to send their kids to, say, piano lessons, violin lessons, cello lessons, etcetera. To, you know, give them a well-rounded education and also because it is considered useful tool, you know, when you're going to college and stuff like, you know being, you know, being able to show that you're very talented violinist, for instance, is believed to help your college application.  So there's this, you know, both stereotype and reality that like, you know, places like Julliard Pre-College, very competitive, you know, school, like music education program for kids is filled with Asian, Asian American, you know, students and their parents who are waiting, waiting for them to come out of school.   So there's that. But how gender plays into this is that while both men and women are do study music at a young age. When it comes to, you know, choosing say, college, like what they would, what they would pursue at the college level, far fewer male students tend to choose music as their college major or go to conservatory and pursue it as a as a career. But I think it's both their own choice. And also especially for Asian and Asian Americans, like parental pressure to not pursue music professionally because of, you know, financial insecurity.   So there's that, and also how that plays into the actual experiences of Asian, Asian Americans musicians who do study music is that I have heard from a number of female Asian musicians that either their peers or especially their teachers are doubtful that they are actually serious about music. There is a stereotype that, you know, say for instance, Japanese or Korean female students at Juilliard School, Manhattan School or whatever, they are there because they, you know, they want to study music and then find a good husband and marry, you know, a lawyer or doctor or engineer or something. [laughs] And and not that that doesn't happen. But that's a stereotype of, you know, that's a racialized and gender stereotype that comes from these, you know, gender and class and racialized dynamics.  00:23:35 Isabel Li  And just for clarification, is the classical music world at large still a male dominated field?  00:23:41 Mari Yoshihara  Yes. Oh yes. Definitely. I mean, it depends on the segment of you know, I mean classical music is itself quite diverse. So if you look at, for instance, the string section, especially the violin section of the New York Philharmonic for instance, you will find that like, I think the majority of those violin players are Asian women, perhaps. But if you look at say for instance, the Faculty of Conservatories or music directors and major orchestras and said, I mean still very male dominated.  00:24:23 Isabel Li  Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I like how your book also has so many different layers for each chapter. So Chapter 3 was about the gender intersection with this, with this identity, and Chapter 4, was it Chapter 4, I believe it was about class, Class Notes, and you've already mentioned a little bit about how class plays into the perception of music, how class influences gender even. But there's a statement in there that you said that, “it's misleading to characterize Asian musicians as just coming from the upper middle class.” And it makes sense that people would think of musicians coming from this economic bracket, because classical music is an in and of itself a very kind of expensive undertaking. You need so many lessons, so many instruments. But tell us why this statement would be misleading.  00:25:15 Mari Yoshihara  Because I mean, first of all, most of the overwhelmed, I would say overwhelming majority of the Asian, Asian American musicians that I interviewed come from middle class backgrounds, many of them from so-called like professional executive class backgrounds in, meaning that their parents hold these professional executive positions, right. And that's why they were able to afford advanced musical studies from a fairly young age. They need, you know, sustained and disciplined and often costly, you know, lessons, you know, competitions, etcetera, auditions, travel, etcetera. So that's for sure, yeah.   At the same time, there are also Asian musicians who come from less privileged backgrounds, you know, immigrant families who have, because quite a few. I mean overall Asian American population, many immigrants experience downward social mobility upon immigrating to the United States because of, you know, oftentimes linguistic barriers or you know, or plain old racism. And so you're not Asian families that immigrate to the United States, like, for instance, if the parents have professional positions back in South Korea, oftentimes they become, you know, for instance, you know, small business owners and they experience downward social mobility. I mean, that's a very common scenario. Yeah, so now all Asian, Asian American musicians grow up in a privileged environment.  00:27:06 Isabel Li  Definitely a great point. Now before we move on to some discussions about Mari's research. First of all, thank you for tuning in to Obbligato on APEX Express, we'll be taking a short music break and as mentioned earlier, a great way to increase diversity within classical music is to uplift works by living composers. If you're listening to my first.  00:27:26 Isabel Li  Episode 2 months ago, you'll know that I featured music by Chinese American composer Zhou Tian. I'm happy to say that coming up next is one of Zhou's compositions inspired by a trip to Italy. This is a piece called Hidden Grace performed by the Formosa Trio.  27:45 – COMP MUSIC – Hidden Grace  00:35:34 Isabel Li  That was a piece called Hidden Grace, composed by Zhou Tian for a fascinating instrumentation of flute, Viola and heart coming up for our second piece. In this interview, break another movement by Zhou Tian, the third movement of his double concerto for violin and Viola, called Rendezvous.  35:58 – COMP MUSIC – Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, III. Rendezvous  00:41:09 Isabel Li  Noah Bendix-Balgley on violin, Shanshan Yao on viola, and the Hangzhou Philharmonic, playing the third and final movement of Zhou Tian's Double Concerto for violin and viola. So back to the conversation with Professor Mari Yoshihara.  00:41:25 Isabel Li  As you also mentioned before, you're working on an updated version of Musicians from a Different Shore. Can you talk–I don't know how much you can talk about your, like upcoming projects, but are you using similar research methods to what you've done before using ethnographic field work? You've mentioned the new changing dynamics of classical music in the United States with new waves of activism and awareness. What are some new topics of your chapters that you might focus on? So for your 2007 publication, you talked about your gender and class and how these intersect with identity. Are there any new things that you're drawing upon here?  00:42:02 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So I'm using basically the same research method. I'm interviewing actually some of the same people that appeared in Musicians from a Different Shore. Some people kept in touch with over the years, I've gone back to them and interviewed them to see the trajectories of their careers since the first time I interviewed them. But then I've also interviewed a bunch of other, you know, new musicians that I'm speaking with for the first time. So it's essentially an interview and ethnographic fieldwork-based research.  I told you earlier about I think one of the biggest changes is, as I said before, the activism and advocacy on the part of Asian, Asian American musicians themselves. So I have one chapter about that. Like, what? How? What kinds of advocacy and activism they're engaged in.   Another big change that I'm seeing is that compared to 20 years ago, there are a lot more Asian musicians in the field of opera.  00:43:01 Isabel Li  Ohh yeah.  00:43:02 Mari Yoshihara  Uh. Both as singers. Yeah, many of them singers, but also in other, you know, like for instance opera, you know, pianist for opera or be opera directors, et cetera. There are many more Asians in this particular field than what I saw 20 years ago. And I talked about this a little bit in my first book, but opera is a very particular kind of field within classical music.   How race plays into opera is very different from other areas of classical music because it's a theatrical art form. It's visually oriented, you know art form. And because singers have to be cast in order to, you know, sing on stage. So the racial politics in opera, you know, unfolds very differently from, say, for pianists or cellists or conductors or or composers.   So I now have a whole chapter about opera, especially Madame Butterfly, that this very fraught work, you know, opera that many Asian and Asian Americans have love hate relationships. A lot of pigeon-holing that happens in that through that opera. But also, production of new opera by Asian and Asian American artists, composers, directors, singers, etcetera. So I have a whole chapter about that.   And then I also will have another chapter about, you know, what it means to, you know, sit at the table, basically. Like stand on the podium and sit at the table, stand on the podium. Not only, I mean I will, I will have a whole discussion about Asian and Asian Americans conductors, but not only in that literal sense of, you know, standing at the podium, but like being at the table like in other words, not only, Asian and Asian American musicians playing music that are given to them and they are assigned to them that they're hired to play, but also having a real voice in the organizational and institutional dimensions of classical music industry. So the kinds of people, Asians, who are in these positions more executive positions with decision making power what their experiences are like. I'm going to have a chapter about that.   So those are some of my ideas. I'm still in the middle of the project, so I can't. I can't see the whole picture, but those are some of my current ideas.  00:45:48 Isabel Li  I see. And do you have an idea of when this book will be published or an updated version?  00:45:54 Mari Yoshihara  Well [laughs], my goal rather ambitious goal is to have it published in 2027, because that would be 20 years since Musicians from a Different Shore, so that would be ideal if I can make that.  00:46:08 Isabel Li  Well, yeah. Nice. That's really exciting, definitely. I will also kind of bridge, I guess my part of the research into this part of the interview, since I'd love to talk to you a little bit more about how classical music in general is portrayed in media.   So as I've introduced myself before, I had a back, I have a background in media studies as well as music history and theory. And what was really interesting to me in my senior thesis while I was doing research for that was I coined this term and it could just be loosely associated with the genre of film. But it's the “classical music film.” So think of any narrative fictional film you can think of with a classical musician in there. So it could be like Amadeus, where I think of like Tár. If you watch Tár like a lot of these depictions are quite understandably white and European, but they my senior thesis I've never really seen any depictions of Asian American or Asian classical musicians? I was wondering if you have ever watched a film like that, or could maybe talk a bit about maybe the lack of representation in media, how media plays into how people perceive classical music as a genre as a whole.  00:47:23 Mari Yoshihara  That is a very interesting question. I think you know, because of the stereotype of Asian and Asian American model minority and model minority stereotype often is associated with, you know, violin or piano-playing Asian American kids, I think. Asian, Asian American characters who are, you know, these kind of musical classical music geniuses appear here and there. But the ones that center on such a character as the main, you know, like the protagonist, come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've seen. I mean, I've seen several Korean dramas, you know, character, but those are Korean dramas, not Asian American, so more American works with Asian classical musicians…  00:48:21 Isabel Li  And I think also classical music as a genre is. It's interesting because classical music is also kind of underrepresented. It's not quite in the mainstream. And then one of my final questions for you is I do also want to take a second to acknowledge that your book was actually one of the only books that I could find about this topic. I think there are not that many other books about Asian and Asian Americans in classical music. I think there are a few other books and a few and definitely some papers that talk about this, but what got you interested in this field? And I don't know if you think there's a scarcity of information, but do you think there's relative scarcity of information about this topic?  00:49:01 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So how I got into it is. So I was a pretty serious student of piano when I was a child. That's like, yeah, that really kind of preoccupied my childhood and adolescence. But then I, for various reasons I ended up not going to a music Conservatory and became an academic.   And then once I entered academia and became a scholar of American studies, all I was studying was like race, gender, class. I mean, that's what  we do in American studies. And my first book, which was originally my doctoral dissertation, was a cultural history of orientalism and white women. So that was a study of the intersections of race and gender and to some extent class in American history.   So once I finished that book, I was thinking about what projects to work on next. And I happened to turn on the TV, and it just so happens that the Vienna Phil New Year's concert, conducted by Seiji Ozawa was playing on the TV and that was sort of my “aha” moment because I had always known or, you know, kind of generally aware that Asians and Asian Americans are, if not necessarily overrepresented, but, you know, they're quite numerous, you know. They're present. Their numerical presence is quite notable in classical music that is often associated with white, you know, European culture, elite culture.  So I was kind of curious about that phenomenon, but I hadn't really thought too much about it until I watched Seiji Ozawa were conducting the Vienna Phil. And that's when I thought, well, maybe I can kind of combine my classical music background and my academic training in studies of race, gender, class into this project. So that's when I decided to work on. You know, this topic of Asians and Asian Americans, classical music.  I think the reason that there hadn't been at least a book-length study on the topic until my book is that for one thing, classical music is considered to be kind of a very abstract absolute form of music. This ethos that it is kind of transcends– that it is a universal, transcendental kind of genre, that is sort of above things like politics or race or gender. Like it shouldn't matter that these, you know, individual identity, racialized gender identity shouldn't matter vis-à-vis the universalism of classical music. I mean that kind of ethos is very strong in this particular genre of music. I think that has a lot to do with it.   And also the study of classical music until rather recently, like musicological study of classical music, really tended to be focused on the study of composers and their works, right? It was the textual that, like it, was an analysis of Beethoven Symphony or, you know, Bach Fugues, etcetera. Yeah. It was really focused on the study of the score, the study of the composer's ideas, as reflected in the score, I mean that was the centerpiece of musicological approach to classical music.  And so sort of more sociological anthropological study of the musical practice is a relatively new approach in in the field of musicology. I'm not a musicologist. So that's not how I'm trained. But I think the academic approach to classical music was not very, kind of, open to the kinds of topics that I raised in Musicians from a Different Shore.  00:53:12 Isabel Li  Definitely. I see. And my very final fun question for you is can you name three of your favorite classical music pieces for any recommendations you have for the audience who might be listening, who might be wondering what they will listen to next?  00:53:27 Mari Yoshihara  Well, OK well. Pieces well, because I wrote a book about Leonard Bernstein. I mean, I ended up– I wrote a book about Leonard Bernstein. Not necessarily because I was an avid fan of Bernstein. It just kind of happened this this project. But nonetheless of while I was doing research and writing the book I did listen to a lot of Bernstein. I and I have come to really love Bernstein music and so. And you know, of course, everybody knows West Side Story, but he actually wrote many other pieces that may not be as well known.   Well among the pieces that I like, I like…which one should I choose? I will choose. Ohh well, I'll choose a piece that I learned myself as a pianist.  I learned the piece called “Touches” that he wrote. It was a commission piece for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and it's kind of yeah, it's a chorale and variation. So that's very interesting and very interesting and very Bernstein-esque so well.   I'll OK, as an American study scholar. I'll, I'll stick with American pieces. I like someone Barber a lot. I like Barber “Excursions,” which I also learned to play.  00:55:04 Isabel Li  Yeah.  00:55:09 Isabel Li  Tough question.  00:55:11 Mari Yoshihara  Umm, Mason Bates piece that I also learned, “White Lies For Lomax.” This one was also, I believe…was it commissioned by the Cliburn? But no, maybe it wasn't. Yeah, I think it was commissioned. But anyway, I played it at the Van Cliburn International– the amateur competition of the Cliburn competition.  I did all these. So like Bernstein, Bates, Amy Beach piece I also played. Yeah, I'll stop there. I I wish you had prepped me for that then [laughs]–  00:55:42 Isabel Li  Oh my gosh. Great responses.  00:55:46 Mari Yoshihara  Hard to think on the spot.  00:55:47 Isabel Li  Yeah, I totally get that. Whenever people ask me for my favorite composer, I never have an answer. No, so I totally get it.   Well, thank you so much for your time, Mari. And thank you for your wonderful insights. I'll put the link to your books so that people can learn about your works on APEX Express on kpfa.org. So thank you so much for your time, Mari.  00:56:07 Mari Yoshihara  Thank you.  00:56:09 Isabel Li  As mentioned, please check our website kpfa.org to find out more about Mari Yoshihara, her scholarship, and links to two of her books. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important.  00:56:31 Isabel Li  APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Swati Rayasam, and Cheryl Truong. Tonight's show was produced by Isabel Li. Thanks to the team at KPFA  for their support. Have a great night.  [OUTRO MUSIC]  The post APEX Express – 09.04.2025 – Obbligato with Mari Yoshihara appeared first on KPFA.

In this episode, Dr. Xiaofei Zhou, Associate Program Director of Neurosurgery at University Hospitals, discusses her journey into endoscopic spine surgery, her priorities for advancing education and patient care, and how collaboration and innovation are shaping the future of minimally invasive spine procedures.

In this episode, Dr. Xiaofei Zhou, Associate Program Director of Neurosurgery at University Hospitals, discusses her journey into endoscopic spine surgery, her priorities for advancing education and patient care, and how collaboration and innovation are shaping the future of minimally invasive spine procedures.

With the end of the Jinshin War, Oama, posthumously known as Temmu Tenno, came to the throne.  And though they would need a new Great Council of State, they continued to build up and bolster the Ritsuryo state.  They were imagining a new Yamato based on continental models of what a state should look like, but also influenced by tradition.  This episode we take a look at that reimagining in broad strokes, asking a few questions--what was Oama's relationship with his brother, and touching on the relationship of Nakatomi no Kamatari and his brother, Nakatomi no Kane.  We also take a look at some of the literary propaganda that also helped to codify this new imaginary--the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki.  We also touch on other sourcesof information, like the Fudoki and Man'yoshu. For more information, check out our blog:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-133   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 133: Reimagining Yamato As the bells of Houkouji tolled, Ohoama and his wife, Uno, surveyed the construction on going in the Asuka valley.  Hordes of workers had been called up, and now they were working furiously towards the deadline of the new year.  Where once stood the later Wokamoto palace of Takara Hime, aka Ohoama's mother, Saimei Tennou, now the land was being prepared for a palace on a much grander scale.  And just as the palace was being remade, Ohoama's thoughts went beyond the valley, to the entire archipelago.  His brother, Naka no Oe, had started something profound.  Now here he was, helming the Ship of State, and Ohoama had plans of his own, built upon his brother's ideas.  He would build a new state, ensuring that the reforms that started back in 645 would continue for generations. Greetings everyone and welcome back.  As we dive back in, let's recap where we are. The year is now 673, and the fighting from the previous year—the Jinshin war—is over.  Prince Ohoama and his Yoshino forces were victorious and he is now poised to ascend the throne in the recently built Palace of Kiyomihara, in Asuka.  He will be known to future generations by his posthumous name:  Temmu Tennou. Ohoama would go ahead and continue to centralize the government under the continental model.  That said, he also would pay a not insignificant amount of attention to local tradition as well.  His reign would lead to the establishment of the first permanent capital city: Fujiwara-kyo.  He is also credited with initiating the projects collecting various historical records, which culminated in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, the very chronicles on which this podcast is based – and both of which seem to have been designed specifically to promote the authority of the throne, specifically Ohoama and his descendants. Those descendants—the Temmu dynasty—would rule for almost a century, including four of the eight official female sovereigns (those eight become ten if you count the unofficial Himiko and Okinaga Tarashi-hime, aka Jingu Tennou).  This dynasty would reign from the end of the Asuka period up through to the Nara period, and it would see the evolution of the Yamato state into the kingdom of Nihon—which is to say the kingdom of Japan. The politics of this period were also quite something.  It is during this coming period that we see the rise of the famous Fujiwara family, who would come to dominate the political landscape.  We also see the continued contact with the mainland, with numerous trade goods coming over, many of which would be included in the famous Shousouin storehouse of Toudaiji temple, in Nara. Buddhism would also thrive, with Kokubunji, or provincial temples, being set up in a network around the archipelago.  There was also the building of the famous Daibutsu, or Giant Buddha statue, of Toudaiji. Art would also flourish.  The Man'yoshu would be published at this time—a collection of around 4,500 Japanese poems, or waka.  Meanwhile, the court would also focus on continental styles as well.  From this point on, not only do we have more evidence of what was happening through the written record, but the writing itself changed.  Different Sinitic characters were borrowed solely for their sound to help spell out Japanese words.  These would eventually be simplified, and known as “kana”.  The earliest use of these characters is known as “Man'yo-gana” because so many are traced back to the Man'yoshu itself.  They would eventually be standardized and simplified, becoming the hiragana and katakana we know and use today. But in 673, all of this is still on the horizon. So this is a great time to pause for a bit in our journey through the chronicles and set the stage for this next, incredibly transformative period in the archipelago by going over these larger patterns in some depth, so that, as we start to go through this period we get a better idea of just what was happening, and perhaps why.  That's what we'll do this episode. To start with, let's go back to the relationship between Naka no Oe and Ohoama.  As far as we can tell, these brothers were fairly close to one another.  Not only was Ohoama married to one of Naka no Oe's daughters, Princess Uno, he had actually taken as consort at least four of Naka no Oe's other daughters—all of which were Ohoama's nieces.  In turn, one of Ohoama's own daughters, Princess Touchi, had been married off to Ohotomo, aka the ill-fated Koubun Tennou.  On top of that, Naka no Oe and Ohoama both had taken as consorts daughters of Soga no Akaye, and both Ohotomo and Ohoama had consorts from Nakatomi—or Fujiwara—no Kamatari.  This demonstrates just how interrelated everyone was at court, presumably as a means of strengthening the ties between them.  Of course, as we've seen time and again, those ties were more symbolic than anything else, and certainly did not prevent the occasional use of violence, nor did it protect the fathers of those women from political repercussions when they found themselves on the wrong side. On the other hand, beyond the initial mention of their births, we don't see the two brothers together until Naka no Oe came to the throne.  Why?  Well, to be fair, we don't see much of anyone but the sovereign in the Chronicles unless there is a specific thing they are called out for—like an embassy, presenting something to the throne, etc.  Even Naka no Oe often isn't mentioned directly, even when he was the Crown Prince and supposedly helping run the government.  So that could be it. There are two apparent counter arguments to the idea that Naka no Oe and his brother, Ohoama, were tight.  First is a mention in the Toushi Kaden, the Family History of the Fujiwara Family, about Ohoama thrusting a spear into a board, which rattled Naka no Oe enough that he was apparently wondering if he needed to have his own brother taken out.  Then there is Ohoama's resignation at the time of Naka no Oe's death, presumably because he was warned that a plot was afoot, and that if he accepted Naka no Oe's offer to take the reins of the state in his own two hands then something—we aren't told what—would unfold. I can't rule out the idea that neither of those accounts is quite accurate either, however.  It is possible that the Toushi Kaden account is embellished to heighten Fujiwara no Kamatari's own role as peacemaker between the brothers.  I also have to wonder if the warning to Ohoama around Naka no Oe's death wasn't so much about Naka no Oe, but about his ministers.  After all, they seem to have had no problem supporting the much younger—and likely more malleable—Prince Ohotomo.  So it seems to me entirely possible that there were other threats that Ohoama was concerned with. That brings me to one of those ministers:  Nakatomi no Kane.  We talked about him before and during the war.  He first showed up participating in ritual and speaking on kami matters.  He would later rise to be one of the Great Ministers of State, and was one of the six ministers who had pledged themselves to Prince Ohotomo.  At the end of the Jinshin War, he was put to death and his family was banished.  That said, in period leading up to all of that,  we spent a good amount of time with another Nakatomi: Nakatomi no Kamatari. He was the head of the Nakatomi clan and the Naidaijin, the Interior Minister, a special position placing him on par, or even above, the Ministers of the Left and Right, but which did not have a well defined portfolio noted in the literature.  Interestingly, this position also doesn't seem to have survived Kamatari, at least in the short run.  From the time of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou, to the time of Ohoama, aka Temmu Tennou, it seems that the office of Naidaijin fell out of favor, possibly due, in part, to Prince Ohotomo being raised to a different post, that of Dajou Daijin, placing him in charge of the Great Council of State. The Naidaijin role wouldn't be revived until 717 for Kamatari's grandson, Fujiwara no Fusasaki (interestingly,  only three years before the completion of the Nihon Shoki). Nakatomi no Kane was, as far as we can tell, the brother to Kamatari.  When Kamatari passed away, Kane seems to have taken on the role as head of the Nakatomi family and he was also made Minister of the Right.  This mirrors, in its way, the relationship between Naka no Oe and Ohoama, and the common system of inheritance that would often go brother to brother.  And yet, while Kamatari was a hero of the Taika era, Nakatomi no Kane was executed for his role in the Jinshin War.  So in the context of the rise of the Fujiwaras to greater prominence later on in Ohoama's reign, it is significant that Kamatari's line would be set apart from the rest of the Nakatomi to the extent of giving it the new Fujiwara name.  Although the Chronicles claim that the “Fujiwara” name was actually granted by Naka no Oe, there is a thought that this was granted posthumously, and may have even been retconned by later members of the family, possibly to distance themselves from Nakatomi no Kane and his role on the losing side of the Jinshin War, and tie themselves clearly to Kamatari and his founding role in Naka no Oe's and Ohoama's new vision, instead.  This all brings me to my next point: the creation of the national histories.  The projects that culminated in what we know today as the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki are said to have been started under Ohoama's reign, though they wouldn't be finished until much later, well into the 8th century.  A lot of what went into them was work under Ohoama's wife Uno, who succeeded him as Jitou Tennou, as well as her successors.  Prince Toneri, one of Ohoama's sons, is said to have overseen the Nihon Shoki's compilation. Prince Toneri was son of Ohoama and princess Niitabe, one of Naka no Oe's daughters, and while he never sat the throne, himself, one of his sons would eventually do so.  As such, we can see a strong royal hand on the project, even though the actual composition was probably by several teams of Chroniclers—we touched on this briefly back in Episode 131. The Kojiki, on the other hand, is said to have been written by Oho no Yasumaro based on the oral history that had been maintained by Hieda no Are.  We don't know much about Hieda no Are—there are some that believe they may have been a woman, since a passage in a later work, the Seikyuuki, suggests that they were a member of the Sarume no Kimi family, descended from Ame no Uzume no Mikoto, who is said to have danced and helped lure Amaterasu out of the rock cave.  And so they were particularly known for their role as shrine maidens—a particularly female role.  That said, Are received the title of “toneri”, which is often assumed to be male, and there is nothing else that explicitly says they were not. Either way, Hieda no Are is said to have been commanded by the sovereign, Ohoama, to memorize the history of the nation, presumably to then perform it as needed, for the court.  Only later was Oho no Yasumaro asked to write it down in what became known as the Kojiki. Both of these chronicles were attempts to organize the history of the nation and to put together all the stories in a way that would establish a foundation for the new state that was evolving out of ancient Yamato.  A large part of that effort was going to be to justify those who were in power at the time—including both the royal family and the various noble houses at the time, including the powerful Fujiwara. Now, when we talk about how these histories were created to bolster the state, I want to be careful.  It may not have necessarily been the case that the chroniclers were actively and consciously promoting a fictional account.  From what we can tell, the chroniclers drew from a collection of stories, some written down in diaries and court records, works like the Baekje annals and continental histories, and some that were likely just memorized tales that were part of the general culture.   There were a couple of existing histories—we are told, for example, that there was a Teiki and a Kyuji floating around, both attributed to the legendary Shotoku Taishi, and both supposedly including the royal lineage at least to Toyomike-kashikiya-hime, aka Suikou Tennou.  However, the copies that were being passed around were apparently suspect, and we are told that there were inconsistencies.  Which probably means that the way they told the story did not conform to the way that Ohoama and the royal family wanted it told, though it could also refer to the fact that different accounts had slight variations on the stories, many of which had probably started as oral traditions that were only later written down.  It is also likely that there was only so much detail in those ancient texts, but we can't know for sure.  The Sendai Kuji Hongi purports to be the text of the original Kyuuji, or Kyuujiki, but that claim is dubious, at best, though it may have used an older, no longer extant history to crib its own notes from. So there were probably some writings, already, but there was also so much more.  There were stories from various familial records, stories told by various shrines about their kami and their histories, and stories passed down as local history that had never been captured, previously.  All of this was good material for the project of creating an official national history that aimed to tell the whole story. To get an idea of what the Chroniclers of that time might have been going through, imagine that you have some 2,000 random facts about the United States, or any country of your choice, in no particular order—stories of heroes, presidents, wars, etc.  On top of that, only a few of them ever give you any kind reference dates, and when they do, those dates are only in relationship to the presidents in office – the third year of the presidency of Roosevelt, for example - or maybe they reference another event.  In addition, some of the facts have been lost, or they come from history books with a slightly different format.  Or they come from diaries with different perspectives and takes on the same event.  And then, without the aid of the Internet or any other reference material, you are asked to put all of that together into a coherent narrative. In all likelihood you would be able to generally construct many of the broad strokes.  You would leverage what you know to be true and do your best to put things in place, but there is no guarantee that everything would be in the right order.  And in places where there wasn't any clear through line, you may have needed to come up with your best, most plausible explanation and write that down. Also, imagine you had, in the interests of completeness, thrown in some of the more, shall we say, apocryphal stories.  George Washington cutting down a cherry tree, for instance, or the story of Johnny Appleseed, or even the more fantastical stories of Davy Crockett.  Without other reference points, would you know where they went, or how true they actually were? Add to all of that the lack of a referential calendar.  The sexagesimal system helps for units of 60 years, but there was nothing comparable to a western calendar in use at the time.  Instead, everything was based on the number of years in a given reign.  So instead of thinking about it as “did this happen in 584 or 524?” it was more like “Did this happen in the years of the sovereign reigning from X palace or Y palace?” Now that said, there do appear to have been individuals whose job was to memorize the stories and the histories and recite them.  We have, for example, the Kataribe, the guild of storytellers.  It may have been out of this tradition that we get the eventual commission of the previously mentioned Hieda no Are, who was to memorize all of the historical events and recite them back, which I can only imagine would have been a kind of performance for the court, helping to reinforce the narrative.  But still, as Are was putting everything together, what were the assumptions and guidelines they were working under? After all, there were no doubt certain truths, whether factual or not, that were pushed by the court.  Things like the idea of an unbroken line of sovereigns going all the way back to the mythical founding, just like in continental stories.  Or, the idea that worship centered from the beginning around the sun goddess, Amaterasu. There is plenty of evidence that while the early Wa people practiced various forms of sun worship, with traces found in their language as well as stories, cultural traditions, etc., it was not necessarily Amaterasu who was the primary deity of worship.  Back in the Age of the Gods we talked about the creator deities, Izanagi and Izanami, and about the High god of Heaven, Takami Musubi, who seems to at one point been the most prominent central deity, but who had since been eclipsed, if you will, by the likes of Amaterasu. We also see evidence that there were other sun deities.  The language around Sarutahiko no Ohokami suggests that he may have once been worshipped as a sun deity as well.  And there is the early primacy of Mt. Miwa as a place of worship, and the spirit of Ohomononushi.  This is to say nothing of Ohokuninushi, and all of his stories, up in Izumo. Furthermore, it seems telling that Amaterasu is not even central to the rituals conducted in the palace itself, which likely went back to an even earlier period.  If Amaterasu were central, and the ancestral kami of the royal family since its inception, one would expect that Amaterasu would also be central to the rites carried out by her descendants in the royal palace.  And yet most of her worship appears to have continued to be set apart from the palace ritual, and conducted out of Ise shrine (albeit after a certain point ceremonially led by a designated female member of the royal line). Even Ise shrine itself isn't the primary shrine in the Ise area—the Ichi-no-miya, or most important shrine, of Ise is actually said to be Tsubaki shrine, worshipping Saruta Hiko no Ohokami and Ame no Uzume. So how did Amaterasu come to be so central in Ohoama's vision? There are stories that say that worship at Ise Shrine—and worship of Amaterasu—was specifically conducted by Ohoama's wife during the Jinshin campaign.  This is to say Ohoama's wife, primary consort, eventual queen and then queen regnant, Uno, later known as Jitou Tennou.  Remember, Uno had fled with Ohoama and had been on the trail with him at first, but had stayed behind in Ise.  Worship towards Ise seems to have later been counted as foundational to Ohoama and Uno's victory, and many suspect that they themselves may subsequently have encouraged greater worship of Amaterasu and placed her in the central position of sacral authority amongst the various kami. If so, that could explain why their histories focus so much on Amaterasu and her Heavenly descendant, from which the royal line claimed direct lineage.  It might also be around this time that the story of Iwarebiko, aka Jimmu Tennou, and the conquest of Yamato from Himuka may have been introduced: telling how Iwarebiko justifiably took away the land from the descendants of Nigi Hayahi, and then connecting Iwarebiko, in an extremely loose fashion, to Mimaki Iiribiko no Mikoto, aka Sujin Tennou. Another influence on all of this was likely the continental concept that time is a circle, and history repeats itself.  Chroniclers seeking to place events in a narrative context would have likely seen reflections of more recent events and used that to help order their compilation.  And of course, if there were events that seemed to run counter to the truth as known by the court, well, those could be smoothed over.  In this way, co-rulers were probably serialized, inconvenient interim rulers may have been excised altogether, and different dynasties, which may have only had tenuous connections, at best, were written down as direct lineal descendants.  It also seems telling that the Chroniclers may have reduced the role of what appears to be matrilineal succession to a more patriarchal and patrilineal determination of legitimacy.  Similarly, connections could be made for families to ancient ancestors through whom they were able to claim a certain proximity to the royal family.  Likewise, rules for legitimacy could be imposed—or perhaps just assumed—for previous reigns, doing their best to bring them into harmony with the social norms and the cultural imaginaries of the late 7th and early 8th centuries. So that's the general context the Chroniclers were working under. But at this point it's illuminating to take a look at the two histories and how they differ, to see what we can understand about where those differences came from. The work of Hieda no Are, eventually recorded and written down as the Kojiki, seems to have dealt with history that was far enough back that it was likely hard to argue with—it isn't like there was anyone alive who could counter with their own facts.  And the Kojiki reads as a fairly straightforward narrative, relatively speaking. The Nihon Shoki, on the other hand, is a different beast.  While the Kojiki may have captured the official narrative, the Nihon Shoki seems to have been designed to include more—including some of the competing accounts.  Thus you'll get a lot of things like “another source says…” with a different take on the same event.  This is much more prevalent in the Age of the Gods, but still pops up occasionally throughout the rest of the text.  Nonetheless, it is still very much focused on the royal line from Amaterasu down to Naka no Oe and Ohoama.  Even their posthumous names, Tenji and Temmu, specifically reference Ten, also pronounced Ama, at the start of their names, in what appears to be a bid to further connect them to the sun goddess of Heavenly Brightness--Amaterasu. Both of these works have their own character, and while the dates they were presented to the throne—713 for the Kojiki and 720 for the Nihon Shoki—suggest that they were published in succession, there are those that argue that the Kojiki is largely a reaction against the Nihon Shoki. In all likelihood the contents of the Nihon Shoki were known to many people before it was presented.  There were groups of Chroniclers involved, after all -- which meant teams of scribes pouring through sources, seeking out myths and legends, and generally trying to bring everything they could to the table.  And there is no indication that this was done in secret.  So it is quite possible that the writers of the Kojiki had seen some of the early drafts and cribbed from those notes. Some of the ways that the the history differ are in their portrayal of certain accounts.  For example, the Kojiki presents Iwarebiko and the pacification of Yamato and archipelago more generally in terms of that mythical sovereign conversing with the spirits.  And so he converses with, for instance, Ohomononushi, the deity of Mt. Miwa, a spirit whose name might be translated as the Great Lord of the Spirits, or “Mono”.  This idea places the sovereign as an intercessor between the mortal and the spirit world.  It hearkens back to earlier systems of sacral kingship, where power and authority came, at least in part, from supposed power of one's sacred sites and protective spirits. The Kojiki is also written in a much more vernacular style, using kanji and what we know of as man'yogana, the kanji used for their sound, rather than meaning, to provide a syllabary with which to write out Japanese words.  This may have been done for similar reasons to why it was also used in the Man'yoshu itself—because the Kojiki was meant to be recited aloud, not just read for meaning. The Nihon Shoki, in contrast, is clearly attempting to emulate the continental style.  It relies much more heavily on not just the characters but the grammar of Chinese, though not without its own idiosyncrasies.  The Nihon Shoki incorporated classical references that mirrored the references found in the histories of the Tang and earlier dynasties.  I suspect, for instance, that this is one of the main reasons that Naka no Oe and Ohoama are given the posthumous names of “Tenji” and “Temmu”.  Tenji means something like the Wisdom of Heaven while Temmu is more like the Martial Virtue of Heaven.  This immediately brings to mind, for me, the continental concepts of Wen and Wu—Culture and Warefare, or Bunbu in Japanese.  This even mirrors the founding Zhou kings, King Wen and King Wu.  Later, in the Han dynasty, you have Emperor Wu of Han, the grandson of Emperor Wen of Han, and Wu was considered to be one of the greatest emperors of the Han dynasty.  And so I can't help but think that there was a similar attempt at mythmaking going on here, connecting these two reigns with the reigns of famous emperors of the continent.  Of course, “Wu” was a popular name amongst the imperial dynasties from that period onward, with emperors of Jin, Chen, Liang, and others all being given the same name. This all accords with the way that the sovereign in the Nihon Shoki is less of a sacral king, interceding and speaking with the kami, and more along the continental model of an absolute ruler who ruled by divine right and heavenly mandate.  The lands outside of Yamato are subdued and, except for the occasional uprising, stay subdued—or at least that is what the narrative would seemingly have us believe. Now, I would argue that these distinctions are not absolute.  The Kojiki contains plenty of concepts of imperial trappings, and the Nihon Shoki contains plenty of examples of the sovereign playing a more traditional role.  But it is something to consider in the broad strokes of what they are saying, and I would argue that it also speaks to the duality of what was going on in this period.  Clearly the Ritsuryo State was built on the continental model, with an absolute ruler who ruled through a Heavenly mandate.  And yet at the same time, we see Ohoama patronizing the traditional spiritual sites and kami worship, like the emphasis on Amaterasu and Ise shrine.  Besides the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, we have one more set of official records that were compiled just as the major histories were beginning to be finished.  These were the Fudoki.  Fudoki were texts about the various provinces, and they include information on the various places, population, soil quality, as well as various local myths and legends attached to such things.  Rather than supporting the royal lineage, the Fudoki were more geared towards supporting the process begun under Karu and Naka no Oe with the Ritsuryo system whereby knowledge of the archipelago was being centralized such that the State could know about its territories.  Still, there are many times that the various Fudoki refer to different sovereigns, often to help situate a given event roughly within the historical narrative. The Fudoki were commissioned in 713.  At least 48 chronicles were said to have been compiled, but only a handful of them remain extant today.  Most are only partial texts, though even those can still contain significant information.  We also have purported text from certain fudoki that were reprinted in later histories.  The Shaku Nihongi seems to have been one such work, expressly commissioned to try and compile various older records that were likely aging and in danger of being lost altogether.  However, there is a concern regarding just how faithful those later transcriptions might have been, meaning that we cannot rely on them, entirely.  Still, they are an invaluable addition to our study of the history of this period. I mention all of this because much of this period seems dedicated to remaking the nation of Yamato into what we know as Japan.  This evolution didn't happen overnight, and it seems clear that it started gradually, but had now come to a head.  There is some consideration, though, that many of the things attributed to earlier reigns—the work done by Shotoku Taishi, for example, or even that of Naka no Oe—may have been embellished in this period.  After all, consider the difference between Ohoama trying to institute something entirely new versus pointing back to a previous sovereign and claiming that he wasn't innovating, he was just following tradition. But there are still unmistakable signs of innovation in the following reigns.  The creation of the first permanent capital city, for one.  There was also the blending of Buddhist and local kami-based traditions.  While Buddhism had been ascendant for a while, now, we see Ohoama seemingly paying equal homage to Amaterasu and the local kami.  Even while instituting new fangled continental ideas, he is also hearkening back to traditions that I can only imagine helped assuage some of the fears of any traditionalists who saw the rapid speed at which the archipelago was adopting at least the trappings of continental imperial culture. Speaking of culture, there was one other work that we should probably mention, and that is the famous Man'yoshu—the collection of 10,000 Leaves.  I mentioned this briefly earlier in the episode, but I do want to discuss it a bit, because as much as we may glean from the official histories, as well as the various fudoki texts, the Man'yoshu provides an invaluable view into the minds of the people of the time, and contains some incredibly useful tidbits of information that, when put together, help give us a better idea of what was happening during this period. The Man'yoshu is a collection of more than 4500 poems attributed to various historical figures, from sovereigns, such as Ohoama and Naka no Oe, to common soldiers.  It is remarkable in that the poems are largely in native Japanese and are not using the Sinitic poetry styles that were popular with scholars of the time. These poems are waka, Japanese verse, which typically follows a pattern of repeating verses of 5-7-5 syllables or morae, ending with two lines of 7-7.  The most simple of these are tanka—one top verse of 5-7-5, and one bottom verse of 7-7.  However, the poems in the collection can vary quite a bit. They are also remarkable in that they are written in what we know as Man'yogana.  That is to say they use Sinitic characters—kanji—but for their sound rather than their meaning in many cases.  This practice allowed for much more nuanced writing, such that the author could be more certain that the correct meaning could be taken away, since Japanese grammar differs greatly from various Chinese languages, and leverages particles and suffixes that are non-existent in Sinitic script.  Often times, when reading something like the Nihon Shoki, one has to infer the Japanese word order, particles, and suffixes from the text as a whole.  This is common with any kanbun—a very Japanese style of Chinese writing that often requires its own study to fully understand. Meanwhile, the Man'yogana allowed someone to more easily sound out the letters in the Man'yoshu.  This must have been important when morae or syllable count was important to the art form.  Furthermore, it gives us tremendous insight into how spoken Japanese may have sounded  back in the 8th century. And of course it is great that we have all of these poems, but almost more important is the other information contained in the collection.  Most poems not only are attributed to a particular author, but they often give a brief introduction to lay out the circumstance in which the poem was composed.  These poems are, in many ways, more straightforward than many later poetic styles, which relied much more heavily on so-called “pillow words”, poetic allusions, or callbacks to previous poems—not that they were completely devoid of such references, especially to other, often continental, works. Some poems are actually paired—a type of call and response.  A man would often be expected to send a poem to a lady with whom he had recently had assignations, and she would often respond.  Through such correspondence, preserved in the poetic record, we can see connections that might not be as clear in the various historical texts. Now, 4500 is a lot of poems and I'll be honest, I'm probably not going to be researching all of them for historical tidbits, but it is nonetheless important to understand.  One should also be careful—while the poems are often attributed to various artists and famous persons, this may sometimes be misleading.  The attribution may have been garbled or forgotten, and recreated. Most of the poems in the Man'yoshu are presented with at least some amount of framing around them.  They are grouped loosely by various themes.  We are then told, for each poem, the composer and the occasion for which it was created.  Sometimes this may be as simple as “when they were out hunting”, but that still gives us some context on which to go by as for why the author was writing the poem in the first place. The poems themselves vary in size.  There are short poems, or tanka, but also longer form chōka poems, with multiple verses.  Some may allude to previous poems, but many of the poems are just about the author's feelings.  Unlike haiku, they were not quite so proscribed in terms of “pillow words” or requisite seasonal descriptions. And yet these poems, just as much as the histories, were important in capturing some part of the cultural zeitgeist from that time.  We can see what was considered popular or important, and it was there for future generations down until today. Ultimately the Kojiki would largely be overshadowed by the more comprehensive and prestigious seeming history in the Nihon Shoki.  The Nihon Shoki would become the official history, inspiring future historical records, such as the Shoku Nihongi, the continuation of the records.  The Man'yoshu, likewise, would be emulated, with future compilations like the Kokinshu. These, in turn, would impact the cultural imaginary of the time.  They would shape people's ideas about the past, about art, and even about the nature of the kami themselves.  During this period it is hard to understate just how much they were setting in place a new system.  It is even difficult to tell how much of that system had actually been instituted by previous sovereigns, even though it's hard to tell how much that actually happened as opposed to simple claims by Ohoama and, later, Uno, to justify what they were doing.  Up to this point, the Ritsuryou State and the various reforms had been an experiment, but under Ohoama we truly see that the new government upgrades would be fully installed.  At the same time, we also see a shake up in the court.  Those who had been loyal to Ohoama during the Jinshin conflict of 672 received various rewards—increased rank and stipend, for one thing.  As famous individuals passed away, they were also granted posthumous rank, which might not seem like much, but it increased the family's prestige and that of the individual's descendants without actually handing out a higher level stipend that would be a drain on the coffers.  All of this also continued to build up the elites' reliance on not just the court, but on the throne itself for their status, wealth, and position.  Thus they had a vested interest in seeing that the project succeeded. And that is the world that we are about to dive into.  Thank you, I know we didn't get into too much of the immediate history, and some of this is spoilers—after all, this took time and in the moment it could have turned out quite differently.  What if Ohoama had gotten sick and died?  What if there had been a rebellion?  What if Silla or Tang had attacked?  While we know what happened from the safety of our vantage point, far in the future, it is important to remember that at the time the people in the court didn't know what would happen next, so please keep that in mind. Next episode, we'll start to get into the actual events of the reign, starting with Ohoama's ascension to the throne at the newly built Kiyomihara palace in Asuka. Until then, if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

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