I don’t know if this is already well-known in communist circles or people don’t care at all and have never heard of this podcast lol, but here is my advice: if you want to learn the history of china, don’t waste your time with this podcast.

Basically Chris Stewart, the host, is an anti-communist American living in China. He teaches at an American school in China. That is already sus.

In episode 38, he called the marxist analysis of class conflict ahistorical (class conflict that is) without elaborating. Talking about the battle of Guandu during the 3 Kingdoms period, he said the nationalist (Chiang Kai Shek’s) analysis was through the personalities of the commanders (as was customary) whereas Mao’s analysis was on the stratagems used that led to victory. He then went on to rant that to “Maoists” (I doubt he even knows what that means), this battle was part of the class struggle “even though both were warlords”, and that it was a “very ideological analysis”. What I think he meant to say was that Mao made this analysis in a specific context and made a marxist analysis of the battle. Not that “maoists” (I think he meant marxists in general) uphold Cao Cao as some great champion of the people lol. Or in other words, what Mao thought of Cao Cao was his business only and Chris would not even have ranted about it if China was not the PRC today.

(Also, remind me who won the civil war Chris?)

I thought it would be a cool series to learn about the lengthy and sometimes complicated history of China, and it works on that regard, but just think: if he can drop stuff like that without substantiating, where else did he mislead us? Where is he going to mislead us?

But above all I want to say, who cares what the KMT and CPC thought of this battle that happened 2000 years earlier. Cross that bridge when you get there on episode 600 or whenever.

I saw a later episode, completely out of topic but released to commemorate the Tian An Men colour revolution, was titled “UK cable on Tiananmen square massacre”. You know, the cable from an overlord diplomat in colonial Hong Kong, who heard what happened in Beijing and relayed that in a cable (without naming his sources). Despite nobody else who was in Tiananmen relaying the claims in that cable lmao. And yes, Chris reads the whole cable and then has the gall to claim he is doing a history podcast 😂

His podcast is currently at the Ming dynasty, which was followed by the Qing dynasty and then the Republic of China, so he is slowly moving towards contemporary history and, inevitably, Mao and the PRC. What is he going to say about it?

I don’t want to character-assassinate this guy I barely know but wow, finding his pasty white face online shattered any illusions I had about this podcast finally finding some sense and stop with the anti-communist slant. I thought he was at least ethnically Chinese but no, he’s just an “expat” in China using a VPN to sell us his Patreon and Audible lol. Dude you can probably just ask the chinese gov to subsidize your show, I’m sure they would love teaching the world about the history of their own country.

On the history side of things, I find the podcast very bourgeois and oriented towards the dynasties. It’s all about court intrigues so it’s not entirely groundbreaking either. It’s the kind of history lessons you got in high school. It is not a marxist analysis of China, nor is it about cultures, technology, mores, or civilisation. It’s kinda hard to follow too, as we don’t have maps over the audio format and he rarely reminds of the dates – though I find it got better after the timeline switched to CE.

Yes Chris, there is such a thing as ideological readings, no matter what you think about it. And your ideological reading is the one of the noble dynasties close to the emperor that wrote this history down.

Is there anything better than this drivel to learn the history of China?

  • Thebeyond1
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    3 years ago

    Sounds a lot like the China History podcast. White guy living in China who does nothing but highlight every thing Mao got wrong and minimize the great things the CPC has done.

  • Sojik
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    3 years ago

    It is tough to find an exhaustive resource in English on the subject of Chinese history. Nathan Rich is working on one on YouTube but he is currently stalled while trying to find people to help him finish the project. He is a hobbyist historian so I don’t know how he stacks up to this Chris guy in that department but he is definitely not anti-communist or anti-Mao.

    • CriticalResist8OPA
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      3 years ago

      From what I understand Chris’ qualifications are just as him being a history teacher in high school.

      This isn’t the first time he talked about communism in his podcast btw lol, earlier on he said (though it was more light-hearted) “in a move that seemed ripped straight off the communist manifesto, the emperor introduced sweeping land reforms”. He would have never talked about the manifesto if the PRC did not exist today and he should just stick to relaying history without adding in his personal slant.

      Thanks for the recommendation!

  • mauveOkra
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    3 years ago

    Have you checked out Carl Zha’s silk and steel podcast? I’ve only listened to his episodes with Xiangyu on Taiwan and an interview about US black radical’s relationship with China, but he has a lot more on Patreon I think. Only issue is that his audio quality is bad. I don’t know what his political views are but he usually defends China, and Xiangyu is ML.

    There’s also the War Nerd podcast which isn’t ML but has interviewed Carl Zha about the Tang dynasty invading three kingdoms Korea (if I remember correctly), China’s involvement in WWII, and the rise of the Mongol Empire in addition to many other good interviews. I have that link somewhere if you’re interested.

  • DongFangHong
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    3 years ago

    I can recommend the China History Podcast from Laszlo Montgomery. I don’t know if he is a tankie but it definitely seems to me he is at least sympathetic to the CPC, and has a good understanding of the nuances of the party politics. He has an old episode on Xi Jinping that was overall very positive if you want to get a taste of his perspective. I listened through his multipart series on the Cultural Revolution and Zhou Enlai, and both were very well researched and presented. He kind of jumps around to all kinds of different topics instead of going in chronological order though, so that might be a problem for you.

  • CaptCalhounA
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    2 years ago

    That show was on my future list. I still need to finish the History of Rome podcast . Lol

      • CaptCalhounA
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        2 years ago

        That should be a different podcast all together.

        Mike Duncan has been great from his Rome stuff. I haven’t listen to his Revolutions series.

  • InvertedMussolini
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    2 years ago

    I doubt that it would be the same but From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History is a really good starting place for the broad brushstrokes of Chinese history.

    Kenneth Hammond is a comrade too.

    • CriticalResist8OPA
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      2 years ago

      That looks cool, do you have a link for free courses or should I google it myself? hahaha.

      I checked the overview of your recommendation online and yeah compare to the podcast in the OP; it barely even explains Chinese philosophy, it glosses over Confucianism, just name-drops Daoism here and there, and he tried explaining Buddhism but conceded he was not a Buddhist and so you should take him with a grain of salt. Like I said, History of China is a very bourgeois account that just looks at the dynamics and movements at the level of the emperor and his betraying nobles and very little else.

      edit: found this magnet link. bitrate is a bit low for my taste but at least it’s not too heavy and definitely listenable.

      magnet:?xt=urn:btih:779543475b45cf57c9db870999aefc90124aeb18&dn=TTC%20-%20From%20Yao%20to%20Mao%20-%205000%20Years%20of%20Chinese%20History&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.dler.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fopentracker.i2p.rocks%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2f47.ip-51-68-199.eu%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2f9.rarbg.to%3a2920%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.pirateparty.gr%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.cyberia.is%3a6969%2fannounce
      

      edit 2: I’m only on episode 3 and it’s already so much better than the podcast. Definitely scratches that archaeological itch I had. More explanations instead of just glossing over topics or civilisations too. Also he outright lifted from Engels when he talked about food surplus and how that allowed groups of non-farmers to proliferate lol