The Crying Students

Hannah & William
  • 2.7 (3)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

The Crying Students is a podcast initiated by students in the humanities and social sciences who can never find a job.

  1. 07/14/2025

    School of English and the English School 英文系生存指南

    Introduction 数年前曾有一位英文系毕业生向我指出School of English中school一词的双关：英文系的学术训练具有如此强大的解释力，以至于它似乎能借助帝国的力量穿透民族主义，形成一个School（学派）。在我和Fan即将从英文系毕业之际，我们回顾了我们的英文系之旅，并盘点了在英文系可以做的学术与学术之外的各种事情。 为了避免不必要的争议，William在节目中保留了他一贯的观点“英文系学士学位是人类可以获得的最好的学士学位”。 A few years ago, an English graduate once pointed out to me the double meaning of the word school in School of English: the academic training in the School of English is so powerful in its interpretive capacity that it seems capable of penetrating nationalism through the force of empire(s), thereby forming a School (in the sense of a scholarly school of thought). As Fan and I are about to graduate from the School of English, we look back on our journey through the program and take stock of the various things—both academic and beyond—that one can do in a School of English. Host William, School of English Guest Fan, School of English BGM Bloody Mary Girl - She Her Her Hers

    1h 5m

  2. 07/09/2025

    University Campus as Heterotopia 作为异托邦的大学校园

    Introduction 自20世纪以来，大学应如何定位其与社会及个体的关系这一问题始终位于公共讨论的核心。作为身处教育机构之中的主体，学生对大学教育的运行逻辑与制度性环境拥有最直接的感知，但也常常承担着失权的处境。在这期播客中，我们通过回望我们在不同地域的高等教育经历，在吐槽和回顾之余，试图进一步拨开那些功利主义、优绩主义和象牙塔的粉红色泡泡，以直面幻像之下那些暗流涌动的日常化的压迫与隐形的权力剥削。 Since the 20th century, the question of how universities should position themselves in relation to society and individuals has remained central to public discourse. As key stakeholders within these institutions, students have the most direct understanding of the logic and norms of higher education, yet they frequently experience disempowerment. In this episode, we reflect on our experiences across different higher educational settings across countries. Beyond venting and nostalgia, we aim to confront the undercurrents of normalised oppression and invisible power dynamics that flow beneath the illusions of utilitarianism and meritocracy.   Hosts William, School of English Hannah, Communication Studies   Guests Fan, School of English Joey, Communication Studies Qingmeng, Journalism and Communication   BGM Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

    1h 43m

  3. 06/01/2025

    Memory, Beliefs, and Burial Rituals 记忆、信仰与葬礼仪式

    Hosts Hannah, Communication Studies William, School of English Introduction 死亡是每一个人终将面对、无可避免的人生课题。但是在死亡降临之后，往往是生者而非死者本身成了事件的核心。泉台青磷黯，人间笑语如常。如何应对亲人的离世，这种哀思如何被演变为一种仪式，仪式下魂灵又如何自处？在不同人的经历中我们或许可以管窥一些属于生者的空域：祖先崇拜的代际划分，亡者与生者的时空界限，不同信仰下的仪式差异、记忆的建构与维系，以及在记忆的有限时间尺度内人与自然的动态互动。 Death is an inevitable reality that every individual must eventually confront. Yet when it arrives, it is often the living, not the deceased, who become the focal point of the event. The grave’s embers glow dim, but the world’s laughter and chatter carry on unchanged. How do we grapple with the loss of a loved one? How is grief transformed into ritual? And within these rituals, where does the soul reside? Through diverse human experiences, we may glimpse fragments of the living’s existential realm: the generational layers of ancestor worship, the spatiotemporal boundary between the dead and the living, variations in rites across beliefs, the construction and preservation of memory, and within memory’s finite horizon, the dynamic interplay between humanity and nature.   Hannah’s References in APA Batairwa Kubuya, P. (2018). Meaning and Controversy within Chinese Ancestor Religion. Springer International Publishing : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan. Hamilton, G. G. (1990). Patriarchy, Patrimonialism, and Filial Piety: A Comparison of China and Western Europe. The British Journal of Sociology, 41(1), 77. https://doi.org/10.2307/591019 Harrell, S. (1979). The Concept of Soul in Chinese Folk Religion. The Journal of Asian Studies, 38(3), 519–528. https://doi.org/10.2307/2053785 He, B. (1995). 江浙汉族丧葬文化(Funeral Customs of the Han Chinese in Jiangsu and Zhejiang). China Minzu University Press. Hu, A. (2016). Ancestor Worship in Contemporary China: An Empirical Investigation. China Review-an Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China, 16(1), 169–186. Soothill, W. E. (1907). A Mission in China. Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. Zhang, C., Lu, Y., & Sheng, H. (2021). Exploring Chinese folk religion: Popularity, diffuseness, and diversities. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 7(4), 575–592. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057150x211042687   William’s References in MHRA Bynum, Caroline Walker, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336, 2nd edn (Columbia University Press, 2017) Chen, Jack W., ‘On Mourning and Sincerity in the Li Ji and the Shishuo xinyu’, in Memory in Medieval China: Text, Ritual, and Community, ed. by Wendy Swartz and Robert F. Company (Brill, 2018), pp. 63–81 Heiniger, Anna Katharina, ‘On the Threshold: The Liminality of Doorways’, in Paranormal Encounters in Medieval Iceland, ed. by Ármann Jakobsson and Miriam Mayburd (De Gruyter, 2020), pp. 109–127 Puett, Michael, ‘Ritual and Ritual Obligations’, Journal of Value Inquiry, 49 (2015), 543–550 Seligman, Adam B., Robert P. Weller, Michael Puett, and Bennett Simon, Ritual and Its Consequences (Oxford University Press, 2008) ‘The Saga of the People of Eyri’, in Gisli Sursson’s Saga and the Saga of the People of Eyri, ed. and trans. by Vésteinn Ólason (Penguin, 2003), pp. 71–199

    1h 19m

  4. 04/14/2025

    A Café of Our Own 广场之外

    Hosts William, School of English Hannah, Communication Studies Guest Joey, Communication Studies KEYWORDS 女性与多元群体艺术空间，国内外queer空间观察，读书会 INTRO 传统的和改良型的马克思主义观点都认为，1871年的巴黎公社是1848年法兰西内战以来阶级斗争的继续（如Castells 1983; Harvey 1985）。但是顾尔德认为，工人阶级意识的确在1848年法兰西内战的动员中起有很大作用，但是到了1871年时，巴黎群众的动员基础已不是阶级意识，而是社区意识。他把此现象归因于巴黎在1852-1870年进⾏的大规模城市改造活动（该城市改造计划由郝思曼（Haussmann）主持，因此又通常被称为郝思曼计划）。郝思曼的城市改造计划有很多目的，其中之一就是因为老巴黎贫民窟多，街道细⼩弯曲，这种地形给法国军队在镇压经常发⽣的城市暴动时带来了不便。在研究中顾尔德发觉，郝思曼计划导致大量的市民移居，打乱了原有的城市住宅布局，促进了巴黎市民认同感的变化。这就是为什么在法兰西内战时，动员巴黎市民起来⽃争的基础是阶级意识，⽽到巴黎公社时，动员巴黎市民起来参加斗争的基础成了新的社区意识。这里，顾尔德的研究涉及以前社会运动专家不曾深入涉及的一个问题：人群的空间分布、居住及其活动形式，以及⼈对某一空间赋予的意义，在社会网络形成和社会运动动员中的作用。 空间的赋予性意义和社会行动的关系本身......是⼀个十分重要的课题。 ——赵鼎新 《社会与政治运动讲义》，社会科学与文献出版社，2012 BGM Forbbiden Color - David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1983, recomposed by Rin 忘记他是她 - Tat Ming Pair

    1h 21m

  5. 04/14/2025

    No Comment, or the Necessity of Violence 无可奉告，或暴力之必要性

    Hosts William, School of English Hannah, Communication Studies ...Systematic inequalities that are ultimately backed up by the threat of force can be seen as a form of violence in themselves. Systems of structural violence invariably seem to produce extreme lopsided structures of imaginative identification. - David Graeber, 2007, Revolution in Reverse (or, on the conflict between political ontologies of violence and political ontologies of the imagination) For China is so unaccustomed to popular government and has so long been subject to personal rule that it would be useless to expect that the country could at one bound successfully advance to the stage of representative and popular government […] A serious attempt should be made, however, at once to offer to the classes of the people which are conscious of common interests and have intelligent aspirations the opportunity to participate more widely and influentially in the government of the country than they have up to the present time enjoyed. Otherwise the country will continue to be under the blight of absolutism and, so long as it does not have the security which comes from the determination of the question of succession by inheritance in a particular family, will possess probably the worst form of government which has yet been devised-namely a military dictatorship. - Frank Goodnow, 1915, Reform in China In the spring of 2024, as I walked through the students and staff rallying and protesting for the liberation of Palestine in the plaza in the middle of campus, my friends and I were also paying a huge cost in time and energy for an activism. About a month later, this activism of ours against sexism ended in silence and threats of symbolic violence, and did not reach the demands we wanted, even an apology. All the while, as the Israeli-Palestinian war escalated, student protests around the world were repressed, with university management attempting to deploy armed police on campus and even taking students to court. In this episode, William and Hannah look back at the silence and symbolic violence we experienced in the movements of spring 2024. These issues are not new, but are universal dilemmas that we have been always facing. They make us reflect on what the power of language really means, how symbolic violence is produced and circumscribes our everyday lives, and why, no matter how strategically language is chosen, the power of language is distorted and powerless in the face of institutional power underpinned by violence. Materials Mentioned William's Debord, G., & Jenkins, Martin. (2012). Society of the spectacle. 2nd ed. Eastbourne: Soul Bay Press. Graeber, D. (2011). Revolution in reverse. London: Minor Compositions. Ito, S. (2021). Black box: The memoir that sparked Japan’s# Metoo movement. New York: Feminist Press at CUNY. Solnit, R. (2014). Men explain things to me. Chicago: Haymarket Books. Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hannah's Frank, T. (1997). A Cultural Perpetual Motion Machine: Management Theory and Consumer Revolution in the 1960s. In: The Conquest of Cool Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. University Of Chicago Press, pp.1–33. Goodnow, F.J. (1915). Reform in China. American Political Science Review, 9(2), pp.209–224. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1944611. Kabakov, I. (2018). Art Has No Unloved Children. In: On Art. Chicago ; London: The University Of Chicago Press, pp.218–225. Kang, J. (2017). Contemporary Korean Political Thought and Park Chung-hee. Rowman & Littlefield. Li, H. (1973). 學鈍室回憶錄 (Xuedunsi huiyi lu; Memoirs of the Xuedun Study). Zhuanji Wenxue (Biographical Literature). Roszak, T. (1995). The Making of a Counter Culture : Reflections on the Technocratics Society and Its Youthful Opposition : [with a New introduction]. Berkeley: University of California Press. BGM 風は吹いている-AKB48

    56 min

  6. 03/03/2025

    Exploring Queer Temporalities in Video Games 逃离线性时间：酷儿时间与游戏

    Host William, School of English Guest Joey, Communication Studies   在顺性别异性恋社会规范下，时间的感知与再生产冲动密切相关——及时进入一对一的浪漫关系、及时步入婚姻、及时生育。然而这种线性时间（chrononormativity）和与其相关的里程碑往往和酷儿们的生命体验相悖。当机构并不认可酷儿们的身份认同或亲密关系模式时，当他们得不到家庭保障和领养权时，他们当然也就无法与线性时间靠近；当酷儿们走进自己的社群，或在舞池中被环绕，看见有关自己的真实正在不停生长和绽放，他们也便选择主动离开线性时间；而当艾滋污名和恐慌的阴霾笼罩在自己朋友爱人的头顶时，又如何能够焦虑明天呢？当下性（nowness）对酷儿们因此更加珍贵。 游戏总能用特殊的方式阐释时间，或者说，游戏本身就是一种或多种替代性时间。暂停、重置、时限、回溯、平行时空……在一次文本游戏的制作过程中，我发现，游戏对时间的应用也有着多样化地表现酷儿生命体验的潜力。在那里，“失败”是我们必然的经历，明知必然会失败仍不断尝试是我们对世界和爱的无尽探索。在那里，世界末日即将来临，我们仍在漫无目的地游荡。——Joey   Materials Mentioned Game: Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013) by Anna Anthropy Life is strange (奇异人生, 2015) Film: I Saw the TV Glow (2024) by Jane Schoenbrun Literature: Anthropy, A. (2012). Rise of the videogame zinesters : how freaks, normals, amateurs, artists, dreamers, dropouts, queers, housewives, and people like you are taking back an art form (1st ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press. Chang, E. Y. (2017). Queergaming. In Ruberg, B. and Shaw, A. (Eds.), Queer Game Studies. pp. 15–24. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Freeman, E. (2010). Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories. Duke University Press. Halberstam, J. (2005). In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. NYU Press. Hanson, C. (2018). Game Time: Understanding Temporality in Video Games. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Irvine, R.D., McPhee, J., Morgan, B., Tate, A., Davis, R., Enns, A., Evans, J., Hazelhurst, E.T., Joy, B.T., Keck, S. and Mercier, S. (2024). Digressions in Deep Time: Ecocritical Approaches to Literature and the Arts. Rowman & Littlefield. Knutson, M. (2018). Backtrack, pause, rewind, reset: Queering chrononormativity in gaming. Game Studies, 18(3), 1-15. Nitsche, M. (2007) Mapping Time in Video Games. Proceedings of DiGRA2007: Situated Play. Tokyo: U of Tokyo, pp. 145-151. Ruberg, B. (2017). Permalife: Video games and the queerness of living. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 9(2), 159–173. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.9.2.159_1

    1h 6m

  7. 01/16/2025

    Échos des Années 1920 : Le Nationalisme, la Nation et la Modernisation 1920s的回声：国家主义、民族与现代化

    Introduction le nationalisme 国家主义 Mouvement politique d'individus qui prennent conscience de former une communauté nationale en raison des liens (langue, culture) qui les unissent et qui peuvent vouloir se doter d'un État souverain. Le nationalisme a incité les peuples à former des États souverains ou à revendiquer leur indépendance. Larousse Dictionary. - Larousse Dictionary 个人的政治运动，他们意识到由于团结他们的纽带（语言、文化）而形成了一个民族社区，他们可能希望拥有一个主权国家。民族主义鼓励人们建立主权国家或要求独立。- Larousse Dictionary   Narrative is not only a form of power but also a crucial practice of state sovereignty. In contemporary China's dominant master narrative, reflections on the early 20th century and modernisation often place 'national humiliation' and 'anti-imperialism & anti-colonialism' at the core of nationalism. However, the nationalism that prevailed in the 1920s—represented by the Young China Party/Chinese Youth Party’s political theory—offered a sociological response to the nationalisms of Europe and Japan, Liang Qichao’s nationalism, and the late Qing dynasty’s ethnic nationalism. By revisiting significant social events and conditions of the early 1920s (the Paris Peace Conference, imperial powers' condominium of China, and the Work-Study Movement in France), we attempt to explore how young people of that time reflected on the disengagement and reintegration of politics. In doing so, we seek to draw upon certain theoretical insights beyond the mainstream CCP-KMT narrative to create, reflect upon, or challenge the established discourses, which allows us to search for a hidden 'third party'. 叙事不仅是一种权力，更是国家主权实践的重要方式。当代中国的主导性叙事在回顾二十世纪早期及现代化议题时，常将“国耻”与“反帝反殖”置于民族主义核心。然而，1920年代盛行的国家主义——以中国青年党为代表的政党理论——则从社会学视角回应了欧洲与日本的国家主义、梁启超的国家主义以及晚清的民族主义。我们希望通过回望1920s初的重要社会事件、社会状况（如巴黎和会、列强共管、勤工俭学等等），探讨彼时青年人对文化与政治剥离及再融合的反思。借此，在主流叙事之外，汲取些许理论，以创造、反思或者对抗某些固有叙事。进而在主流的二元对立的体系外，寻找所谓的“第三方力量”。   Host Hannah, Communication Studies William, School of English   References 陳正茂 (Ed.). (1993). 中國青年黨史料叢刊第一輯 醒獅週報. 國史館印行. 方庆秋 (Ed.). (1988). 中国青年党. 档案出版社. 李璜. (1934). 国家存在论 . 上海中國書局. 李璜. (1979). 學鈍室回憶錄. 明報月刊社. 少年中國學會. (1925). 國家主義論文集. 上海中華書局. 左舜生. (1954). 萬竹樓隨筆. 自由出版社.   BGM 春光曲 - 白光 魂牵旧梦 - 白光

    48 min

  8. 01/15/2025

    Contemporary? British? Fiction? 当代英国小说

    In Introduction to 21st Century Fiction, Peter Boxall discusses three preoccupations of contemporary fiction: first, temporality, encompassing the speeded, slowed, stalled, or fragmented time, as well as a fascination with fleeting moments; second, ‘the real,’ referring to the emergence of new forms of realism and mechanisms for capturing the new reality, with these forms themselves becoming the material substrate of our existence; and third, embodiment. One consequence of the suspension of temporality and the real in ‘our time’ is a sense of estrangement in how we experience our own bodies, with the boundaries of the body, its materiality, and its relationship to forms undergoing fundamental changes. In this episode, William and Raven discuss contemporary British fiction, inspired by a module we did together of the same name. By the end of the module, we realised that the three words in its title aligned with these three preoccupations: temporality refers to the contemporary, ‘the real’ addresses the nature of fiction, and Britishness is something embodied by individuals living in ‘our time’, within or outside of Britian. From the Irish civil unrest, Caribbean migration, and the Battle of Culloden, to espionage activities across the Europe and the UK-US transatlantic alliances, our focus shifts from defining Britishness to examining what is subtly excluded from it or selectively incorporated into it. The module begins with Rachel Cusk’s London-centric perspective and gradually moves toward the edges of Britishness, challenging and rethinking its boundaries. Peter Boxall在Introduction to 21st Century Fiction中论述了当代小说的三个关注点。一是时间性，时间的加速、减速、停滞、失衡，和对流逝瞬间的迷恋。二是“真实”（the real），或者说，一种新的现实主义的生成，一套捕捉“真实”的形式机制，这种形式本身成为我们存在的物质基础。其三是具身性。时间性和真实被悬置在“我们的时间”中造成的后果之一是我们在体验自己身体的方式上产生了某种疏离；身体的界限、其物质性和身体与形式的关系正在发生根本变化。在这期节目中，William和Raven讨论了当代英国小说。这来源于我们共同参与的一门同名课程，而直到课程结束我们才意识到，在这门课名字中的三个单词中，时间性是对当代的指涉、真实是对小说本质的回应，而英国性则是由生活在“我们的时间”中的人具身感受的（无论是否身在英国）。从爱尔兰内战、加勒比移民、卡洛登战役，到间谍活动、跨大西洋联盟，重要的不是什么是英国性，而是哪些领域以微妙的方式被排除出了英国性，哪些又被选择性地收编了。这门课从Rachel Cusk这样非常伦敦中心的视角开始，逐渐走向英国性的边界、挑战它的边界、重思它的边界。 Host William, School of English Guest Raven, School of English Materials Mentioned Cusk, Rachel, Outline: A Novel (London: Faber & Faber, 2018) Closure: Contemporary Black British Stories, ed. by Jacob Ross (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2015) Kelman, James, You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free (London: Penguin, 2005) Jacques, Juliet, Variations (London: Influx Press, 2021) Burns, Anna, Milkman (London: Faber & Faber, 2018) McEwan, Ian, Sweet Tooth (London: Vintage Books, 2013) Oyeyemi, Helen, What is Not Yours is Not Yours (London: Picador, 2017) Smith, Ali, Spring (London: Penguin, 2019) Kunzru, Hari, Red Pill: A Novel (New York: Vintage Books, 2020) BGM Danny Boy - Bill Evans

    1h 20m
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2.7
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Crying Students is a podcast initiated by students in the humanities and social sciences who can never find a job.

Information

  • Creator
    Hannah & William
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Hannah & William
  • Show Website
    The Crying Students