The Little Red Podcast

14/07/2025

What does Marxism mean in today’s China? How can the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology be described in 2025? Professor Xu Chenggang of Standford University attempts to answer this question in this excerpt from our latest episode.

For the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/the-garbage-time-of-history-is-china-still-marxist

04/07/2025

With China's rare earth strategy proving significant to ongoing trade wars, we reflect on a 2023 episode exploring the topic. Beijing's 2023 ban on the export of two rare metals represented the latest front in the global battle to control chipmaking technology. There were fears China could block the export of rare earths, over which it has a stranglehold. How close are we to that nuclear option? To find out, Louisa and Graeme were joined by Martijn Rasser, a former senior intelligence officer and analyst with the CIA, who is now the managing director of the Netherlands-based Datenna, and Jon Hykawy, the director and president of Stormcrow Capital in Toronto.

Image: c/- NASA. The Baiyon Ebo Rare Earths Mine, Inner Mongolia.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/gone-to-ground-china-s-rare-earths-strategy

27/06/2025

In the latest in our series on belief, we’re looking at China’s official belief system—Marxism. In recent years, netizens have argued China has entered the ‘garbage time’ of history, a phrase borrowed from the dying minutes of a basketball game, which now references a crisis of trust in the Communist Party and its official ideology. To ask whether Marxism still exists in China, and how Marx influences the Chinese state, we’re joined by two guests: Alison Sile Chen Zhao, a University of California political analyst and the author of Her Battles, and Professor Xu Chenggang, a senior research fellow at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, and the author of Institutional Genes: Origins of China’s Institutions and Totalitarianism.

Episode art: Portrait of Karl Marx. c/- Wikimedia Commons.

To listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/the-garbage-time-of-history-is-china-still-marxist

20/06/2025

With news of Boys’ Love authors being arrested this month, we rewind to an episode from 2021 which discussed the growing popularity of BL and the politicisation of the genre. Angie Baecker and BL author Huangxiang Zhenghuanzhe reflect on the downsides to the commercialisation and public attention of BL.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/fandom-untamed-the-business-of-boys-love

13/06/2025

Back in 2021, we delved into boys’ love or BL fiction. From niche online novels to TV shows such as the Netflix fantasy epic The Untamed, their storylines revolve around male relationships with a tinge of sexual tension. But there’s a quirk. It’s not gay fiction; the stories are often written by women for women. This genre is incredibly popular in China, making BL fans an intimidating political and economic force, creating and destroying celebrities and the brands they endorse. To unravel the drama behind BL drama, Louisa and Graeme were joined by Hong Kong University’s Angie Baecker and boys’ love author Huanxiang Zhenghuanzhe 幻想症患者.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/fandom-untamed-the-business-of-boys-love

11/06/2025

On the theme of Boys' Love this week, read host Graeme Smith’s 2021 article about the growth in popularity of BL and the censorship backlash, as published on The Intepreter.

As a genre, gay fiction has leapt from words to the screen with enormous popularity, but not beyond the censor’s reach.

10/06/2025

With recent crackdowns on Boys' Love (BL) authors in China, we reflect on an episode from back in 2021 exploring the genre. We hear from guests Angie Baecker and Huangxiang Zhenghuanzhe 幻想症患者 about the appeal of consuming and writing BL and how it explores masculinity and taboos in Chinese society.

For the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/fandom-untamed-the-business-of-boys-love

06/06/2025

Episode Rewind: June 4 marks the anniversary of the deadly crackdown ordered by Deng Xiaoping, which killed hundreds – maybe thousands – of people in Beijing and Chengdu. While the campaign to erase all memory of the event continues, explosive new information emerged in the lead up to the anniversary in 2019. It revealed new details about resistance to the crackdown among the military and how the Communist Party managed the aftermath of Tiananmen. Former student leader Zhou Fengsuo as well as the publisher of The Last Secret, Bao Pu and Joseph Torigian of American University joined us in this episode from 2019 to discuss these revelations and what life is like in exile for the student leaders.

For the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/tiananmens-final-secret

04/06/2025

In our 2019 episode “Tiananmen’s Final Secret”, Joseph Torigian and Zhou Fengsuo discuss what newly discovered materials about June 4 revealed about party allegiances at the time and the extent of popular support for the protestors. Torigian examines the perspectives of Politburo members in the lead up to and aftermath of the government's decision to crackdown on protestors. Meanwhile, former student protestor Fengsuo considers who supported the protestors and reasons behind the events of June 4.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/tiananmens-final-secret

28/05/2025

In September 2018, the Vatican and China struck a landmark deal about the appointment of Catholic Bishops, but the political symbolism was far greater. The Holy See and Beijing effectively cut off relations in 1950 in the intervening years, around 12 million Chinese Catholics were forced to choose between worshipping at a state sanctioned church under the auspices of the Patriotic Association, which did not answer to the Vatican, or worshipping at unregistered churches. In this episode rewind, former Catholic priest and researcher Jeremy Clarke discusses what this looked like on the ground for China's Catholics and what the new deal meant for the future.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/keeping-the-faith-xis-deal-with-the-holy-see

16/05/2025

With a new Pope in the Vatican, we reflect on China's relationship with the Holy See in an episode from way back in 2018. Six years ago, the Vatican and China signed a deeply controversial agreement on the appointment of bishops, ending the cold war that has frozen ties since 1950. That deep freeze led to schisms between the official and underground churches, with some clergy persecuted for decades and the church refusing to recognise Beijing's handpicked bishops. But the new agreement divided the faithful yet again, with some fearing Catholicism is facing calamity as President Xi Jinping tightens control over religion. To explore what’s behind this sudden rapprochement and what it could mean for China’s 12 million Catholics, Louisa and Graeme were joined by Jeremy Clarke, a former Catholic priest who has researched China's historical relations with the Holy See.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/keeping-the-faith-xis-deal-with-the-holy-see?in_playlist=podcast

16/05/2025

Prefer reading to listening? The transcript for our second-latest episode "Let's Get Spiritual: State, Digital Spirituality and Feng Shui in China" is available now! Hear from guests Tristan Brown and Haoyang Zhai on the China in the World website: