419 episodes

Since 2010, The China History Podcast, presented by Laszlo Montgomery brings you over 300 episodes of curated topics from China's antiquity to modern times.

The China History Podcast Laszlo Montgomery

    • History
    • 4.8 • 1K Ratings

Since 2010, The China History Podcast, presented by Laszlo Montgomery brings you over 300 episodes of curated topics from China's antiquity to modern times.

    Ep. 345 | Howqua

    Ep. 345 | Howqua

    Once dubbed "the richest man in the world" back in his day, the first half of the 19th century, Wu Bingjian 伍秉鉴 was a leading figure in the pre-Opium War world of foreign trade. He's best known as someone who epitomized the "bad old days" of The Canton System. He's a well-known name from this period in Chinese history. but like many prominent names, little is known about his life story. He was quite a fascinating character in his day.
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    • 47 min
    Laszlo discusses historical novels with author, Janie Chang

    Laszlo discusses historical novels with author, Janie Chang

    It must have been three or four years ago that I started bouncing this idea off Janie about a discussion regarding historical fiction rooted in Chinese history. Janie, being a successful writer of this genre, was perfect to have this discussion. Today the historical fiction genre is quite substantial and new authors are publishing new content online and in print every day. Many of these novels are set against the backdrop of Chinese history (in China or Overseas). The way historical novelists present this history to life can be very engaging and relatable. I hope you enjoy this CHP Special episode as much as I did. This is such a huge topic to discuss
    Janie's list of books & Buy links at her website: https://janiechang.com/books/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanieChangWriter | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janiechang33/
    TIME Magazine article: The Risky Journey That Saved One of China’s Greatest Literary Treasures: https://time.com/5852229/saving-chinese-encyclopedia/
    RACE THE RISING SUN: A CHINESE UNIVERSITY’S EXODUS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Chiao-Min Hsieh and Jean Kan Hsieh https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/race-the-rising-sun-chiao-min-hsieh/1123966361 or https://www.amazon.com/Race-Rising-Sun-Chinese-Universitys/dp/0761841482
    TEACHING IN WARTIME CHINA: A PHOTO MEMOIR 1937 – 1939 by Edward Gulick: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Wartime-China-Photo-Memoir-1937-1939/dp/0870239120
    Amitav Ghosh – Opium War Trilogy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis_trilogy  https://amitavghosh.com/
    Lisa See Author Page -- https://lisasee.com/
    Yangsze Choo -- https://yschoo.com/about/
    Weina Dai Randel -- https://weinarandel.com/
    Barry Hughart series -- https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/barry-hughart/

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    • 45 min
    Ep. 344 | James Hong

    Ep. 344 | James Hong

    With the 18-part History of Chinese Philosophy series finally out of the way, we're back with all new CHP content. Here's one that introduces the life of one of my favorite Hollywood legends, Mr. James Hong. He's someone with a great Hollywood story who thrived as an actor, despite all the well-known challenges faced by Asian American artists throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood. This episode looks at his life and work. To call him a prolific actor and voiceover artist is quite an understatement. James Hong, 壽比南山!
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    • 26 min
    S9E10 | Finished behind the last place guy

    S9E10 | Finished behind the last place guy

    Firstly, hats off to Emma and her 团队 at the CYZ for all their hard work, all season-long. We close out the season 9 with an amusing story from a source, as yet never featured on this long-running educational program, called the Guòtínglù 过庭录. The author was Song literary figure Fàn Gōngchēng 范公偁 who had the misfortune to be born during the exact time when the Northern Song ended and the Southern Song began. In this tale, our young hero Sūn Shān 孙山 heads off to the capital to take the imperial exam. Another villager tagged along who also registered to take the test. One passed the test and the other was Míng Luò Sūn Shān 名落孙山. It's a nice little story infused with some of the best of Chinese culture and a dollop of human decency. That's it for Season 9. I may post a few director's cuts of previous CSP episodes during the off-season. All these CSP episodes will soon be published in the Summer catalog of Earnshaw Books. There will be vocabulary lists, tone marks, and characters. Just sayin. Thanks, everyone and drink plenty of water this summer. Keep yourself hydrated!
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    • 8 min
    The History of Chinese Philosophy (Part 18)

    The History of Chinese Philosophy (Part 18)

    For this 18th and final episode in the series, we'll focus on the rival philosophies of Lu Xiangshan 陆象山 and Zhu Xi 朱熹。 We'll also look at more of the philosophy of Wang Yangming. Then we'll end it with a few loose ends and mentions of The Five Elements and Zou Yan’s 邹衍 Alchemy. I'll also recommend a book called “The Path.”
    My deepest thanks to all of you who endured all 18 episodes. I hope you found that it was useful and beneficial for your own further study of Chinese Philosophy. Onward to all new material next time.
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    • 33 min
    The History of Chinese Philosophy (Part 17)

    The History of Chinese Philosophy (Part 17)

    We're almost at the end. We continue on in Part 17 with Zhu Xi and his philosophy. There will be more discussion about Qi, Han Studies (Han Xue) and the pushback against Neo Confucianism. We begin looking at the final philosopher in this series, Wang Shouren (a.k.a. Wang Yangming). Then we look at the primary difference between the Cheng-Zhu School vs. the Lu-Wang School.
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    • 21 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
1K Ratings

1K Ratings

brian485 ,

An absolutely brilliant podcast

As a long time student of Chinese history and philosophy Lazlo’s “the history of Chinese philosophy” is without the best discourse on the subject I’ve ever listened to. All eighteen episodes in the series are pure gold. The fact that there’s eighteen episodes dedicated to this important subject are welcomed and rare.

Every episode is well researched and presented by someone that clearly has both great knowledge and great love for the subject of Chinese history. I can not recommend this podcast enough. Hands down my favorite podcast.

ShanghaiLion ,

Fun, informative and expansive

As a Modern Chinese History major (with a focus on the May 4th Literary Movement), that graduated 1 million years ago, I’ve mostly “given back to my teachers” any real knowledge from my champagne and caviar education. Well, the gaps are filling. I started out listening to the “modern stuff” and related political history on the CHP, but Laszlo is so good at explaining the topics and presenting in such an excellent manner, I’m going back and enjoying “the old stuff” as well. My two boys (11 and 9) and I listened to the episodes on Eunuchs and they really enjoyed it. Lots of palace intrigue and betrayals and Laszlo presents it so that even the younger listeners are hooked.

watchmedtime ,

The best podcast if you like Chinese history

Long-running podcast featuring the erudite and charismatic Lazlo Montgomery. I appreciate his coverage of less mainstream topics. I especially enjoyed his podcasts on different overseas Chinese communities such as the Hakka, Hokkien, and the Teochew (of which my maternal grandfather was one). Always entertaining and educational, it is a joy to listen to this podcast

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