Lijia Zhang's Blog, page 12

Chinese food culture

Food, Glorious Food! I had the great pleasure of interviewing Fuchsia Dunlop, a top expert on Chinese food and its food culture.

https://nuvoices.com/2024/02/14/nuvoices-podcast-episode-111-a-conversation-with-fuchsia-dunlop-about-her-book-invitation-to-a-banquet/

Podcast on feminism

Feminist activism in China then and now: here’s a link to our NuVoices Podcast hosted by Jessie Lau and myself,interviewing journalist Wanqing Zhang who had recently written an in-depth piece on the topic.https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n%C3%BCvoices/id1413970298?i=1000643677428

my oped on China’s labour tension

As someone who has slaved for ten years at a factory, I take a keen interest in labour relations. Sadly outrageous things such as sacking workers on the spot still take place in China today. Here’s why.

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3249531/so-sue-me-why-china-not-doing-more-protect-workers-rights

the link to the British Library event: the Chinese in the UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h-u3Rkq4vQ

The Incredible Transformation of Prominent Chinese Dissident Chen Guangcheng

"Dissident at the Doorstep," is a fascinating new podcast created by award-winning filmmaker Alison Klayman, (her debut feature is artist Ai Weiwei), her husband Colin Jones, and Yangyang Cheng, a super-smart Chinese academic living in the US. It tells the remarkable journey of the blind lawyer Chen Guangchen, from his poor village in Shandong to a barefoot lawyer, fighting rural injustice, to his heroic escape from house arrest to the American embassy in Beijing and finally into pro-Trump Republican. (He famously spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2020.)

I must say that I played a role in Chen’s life. I was the first journalist ever to interview him and made him famous. And in 2012, I helped Newsweek to work on a feature about China’s barefoot lawyers – the self–taught lawyers, borrowing Mao’s idea of the ‘barefoot doctors’, with Chen on the cover. The article attracted plenty of attention from around the world and sent him to America where he met a distinguished legal professor Jerry Cohen, who later helped him to get a place at NYU.

How did this remarkable Chinese dissident become a passionate Trump supporter? You’ll find out from the podcast.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xiIPb2lt1pDZRtnV3YQIQ?si=03670b6c3aa54212&nd=1&dlsi=d011c95a2aa64ad6

Dissident at the Doorstep, a fascinating podcast about the blind lawyer

"Dissident at the Doorstep," is a fabulous new podcast created by award-winning filmmaker Alison Klayman, (her debut feature is artist Ai Weiwei), her husband Colin Jones, and Yangyang Cheng, a super-smart Chinese academic living in the US. It tells the fascinating journey of the blind lawyer Chen Guangchen, from his poor village in Shandong, to a barefoot lawyer, fighting rural injustice, to his heroic escape from house arrest to the American embassy in Beijing and finally into pro-Trump Republican. (He famously spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2020.)

Here’s the link to episode 2 https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F0xiIPb2lt1pDZRtnV3YQIQ%3Fsi%3D03670b6c3aa54212%26fbclid%3DIwAR1gNS7hbBmD7BTo2JGhAinbCg55j7jhEOY-5wsRyILzQ26dTqLWKZ9erto&h=AT1H34Xi1yjmZiD5CpiHTQUXPiRcdwRw_FjjmlOILs26593uqQx0IGkofl9TJQ1qACXQpvdgrEl44dXQ5TdpmiRbCuKJgdYE_Op-1pKX-kxRltjGrY2j5EMQs-Cn3I0ufgN7Dao8fOTY

BBC guest

Being a Guest on the BBC

I didn’t mean to compete for glory with my actress daughter – I don’t imagine seeing a big poster of myself anywhere in the world anytime soon. However, I did have a small badge of honour to boast. This morning, I was a guest on BBC World Service radio’s Weekend program from 6.30 to 9 am. I’ve been on the program many times before. Still, I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation, the attention and the excitement. There are always two guests. Today the other guest is David Robert Grimes, an Irish physicist and science writer who seems to have opinions – thoughtful ones – on everything. The program was brilliantly presented by Julian Worricker. I was invited I guess because the producers wanted me to talk about Taiwan’s election, on which I didn’t have plenty of things to say but didn’t have enough time to say on the program.

Here’s a link to part of the program.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172z37nl07h4mw

Miss Julie

My actress daughter Mei is heading to HK today to take the lead role in a Swedish classic “Miss Julie”, by August Strindberg. Last night, I took her to dinner in Soho – to give her a good send-off. This morning, a friend sent a giant poster of the play, featuring Mei’s face – three storeys high. It certainly made my day.

Here’s the link to the play as part of the HK arts festival: https://www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/programme/Miss_Julie

Peace

The Process of Peacebuilding in the World

With the arrival of the New Year, people often say: wish you a happy and peaceful year. Unfortunately, for millions of people peace seems unattainable for the moment: the war is raging in the Middle East; in Ukraine; in Africa and in other parts of the world

How peace is achieved? What is the process of peacebuilding? For those who are interested in war and peace, here’s an illuminating interview with Jonathan Cohen, the Executive director of the peace-building organization Conciliation Resources. A veteran peacemaker, he is also the Chairman of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office. In this show, he shares stories from their work in Ethiopia, in the Philippines, and in the Caucasus. I found the story from Nagorno-Karabakh fascinating: journalists from Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two warring parties, made films about each other. He also discusses the challenges they are facing: when the wars take place, military spending tends to go up and the funding for peacebuilding goes down. Yet it is inspiring that there are people like Mr. Cohen and organizations like Conciliation Resources that are dedicated to peace work.

https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org/podcast

The passing of John Pilger

I am saddened to hear that renowned filmmaker John Pilger has just passed away. He was 84. Originally from Australia, he made England his home. A campaigning journalist, writer and film maker, he was a vocal and sometimes controversial critic of Western foreign policy. His best -known works include Year Zero, The War You Don’t Sea, the Secrete Country and Utopia. I was one of the talking heads in his 2016 documentary The Coming War on China. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6197028/

John won Britain’s Journalist of the Year award in 1967 and 1979.

It is hard to believe that he has died. In September, I had the pleasure of having afternoon tea with him at his house in London. He seemed fit and healthy then.

The world needs diverse voices. He will be sorely missed.