Chinese Characters Audiobook Libro.fm

Description

Twenty audio portraits telling the story of China through key personalities plus a bonus edition of In Our Time

Awardwinning author and historian Professor Rana Mitter introduces us to some of the remarkable individuals who have shaped the arc of Chinese history Selecting men and women from ancient times to the modern era some rich and powerful others poor and unknown he explores their sensational life stories from Mongol emperors to 19thcentury factory girls

Here is Chinas only female emperor Wu Zetian whose path to the top was littered with elite corpses Mao Zedong the man who revolutionised China but at the cost of millions of lives and Deng Xiaoping who enabled Chinas economic miracle but crushed protests with ferocity in 1989 Alongside them are numerous other extraordinary characters including celebrated philosopher Confucius Muslim sailor Zheng He Jesuit mathematician Matteo Ricci global film star Bruce Lee and a pioneering TV documentary series River Elegy that started a national debate about regeneration and democracy

What can Ding Lings lustful literary creation Sophie teach us about 1920s China What role would kidnapped monk Kumarajiva play in the future of Chinese chanting And how did Chiang Kaishek and Soong Meiling become Asias first power couple Rana Mitter reveals the answers in this engrossing series which ranges across time and geography to zoom in on the people and ideas that have made China what it is today Insightful stimulating and superbly researched it shows the astonishing diversity and complexity of Chinese society painting a multidimensional picture of the worlds most populous nation

Also included is an episode of In Our Time in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chinas Warring States period of 400 BC200 AD examining how this turbulent epoch sparked a Golden Age of intellectual and cultural productivity and laid the foundations for the first Chinese Empire

Production credits
Presented by Rana Mitter
Edited by Hugh Levinson
Produced by Ben Crighton
Researcher Elizabeth Smith Rosser

Contents
1 Wu Zetian The Female Emperor
2 Chiang KaiShek and Soong Meiling Asian Power Couple
3 Kumarajiva Translator Monk
4 Matteo Ricci Jesuit and Geometrist
5 Ding Ling Sophie Sensation and Sex
6 Sima Qian Grand Historian
7 Kublai Khan Cosmopolitan Conqueror
8 Confucius Becoming the Sage
9 Li Qingzhao Patriotic Poet
10 River Elegy River and Ocean
11 Zheng He The Admiral Goes to Africa
12 Robert Hart Chinese Customs
13 Lu Xun Compassionate Cynic
14 Wang Jingwei Revolutionary Renegade
15 Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan The Duellists
16 Cixi Ambivalent Empress
17 Factory Girls Modern Girls Modern Dreams
18 Mao Zedong The Man Who Made Modern China
19 Bruce Lee Screen Warrior
20 Deng Xiaoping Black Cat Yellow Cat
21 In Our Time Chinas Warring States Period

2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
p 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd