China [The Invention Of...]

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

The First Emperor

20240422

20240428 (R4)

Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from.

The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been.' The opening lines of a fourteenth century novel about the rise and fall of China's multiple dynasties, history explained in a couple of brilliant lines. But what is China and where did it come from?

This is episode 55 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, recorded on location and opening in Taiwan. 'The reunification of the historical motherland is an inevitability,' said the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on New Year's day. China is an empire, and this is a president asserting central control - in Xinjiang, in Hong Kong, and now Taiwan appears to be in his sights. Control has been the ambition since the rule of the First Emperor in 221 BCE, but areas on the periphery continue to resist.

With contributions from Frances Wood, author of The First Emperor; Steve Tsang, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping; Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst for the Crisis Group; Nathan Law, exiled activist, Hong Kong Umbrella Movement; Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent of the New York Times now based in Taiwan; plus Paul French, Linda Jaivin, Tania Branigan and Ian Johnson, author of Sparks.

What we do is is explain where countries come from, and then unpick the stories governments use to stay in charge. They weren't always there, those lines on the map - everything keeps changing. And China has surged and collapsed, expanded and shrunk, as much as anywhere we've been.' Misha Glenny

Presenter Misha Glenny is the author of McMafia and a former Central Europe correspondent for the BBC. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Further reading:

Frances Wood, the First Emperor of China and No Dogs and Not Many Chinese

Tania Branigan, Red Memory

Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, The Political Thought of Xi Jnping

Linda Jaivin, The Shortest History of China

Ian Johnson, Sparks - China's Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future

Paul French, Midnight in Peking and City of Devils

Misha Glenny on where China came from and what it is now.

How to Invent a Country travels east to tell the story of China - although some may dispute this and say the Middle Kingdom is at the very centre of the world.

What we do is explain where countries come from, and then unpick the stories governments use to stay in charge. They weren't always there, those lines on the map - everything keeps changing. And China has surged and collapsed, expanded and shrunk, as much as anywhere we've been.' Misha Glenny

Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping

To Kowtow Or Not Kowtow

20240429

20240505 (R4)

Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British envoy did or did not kowtow to the Chinese Emperor. So began a fractious, ultimately shameful century for Anglo-Chinese relations. Travelling to Hong Kong, taken by the British following the First Opium War, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde find a city still marked by its colonial heritage, but also increasingly under the thumb of its new masters in Beijing.

Contributors include Hong Kong activist, Nathan Law; Henrietta Harrison, author of The Perils of Interpreting and Professor of Chinese history; and Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese History: Treaty Port Life in China

This is episode 56 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds and is a BBC Studios production

Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde head to Hong Kong.

How did the world's greatest civilisation find itself dragged into two Opium Wars and a century of humiliation? Misha Glenny heads to Hong Kong to find out.

Imperial Collapse

20240506

20240512 (R4)

You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp.' Paul French

Beijing means capital of the north, and was first used by the Ming to distinguish it from Nanjng, capital of the south. Home to the Forbidden City where the emperors lived, the centre had a tortuous relationship with many other parts of China. By the end of the Qing dynasty this relationship had totally broken down, but what was going to replace the old system? Step forward Dr Sun Yat-sen, professional republican revolutionary.

Contributors include Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South China Post and author of the Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power; Professor Julia Lovell, whose books include The Great Wall and Maoism: A Global History; and also Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, and Paul French, Midnight in Peking.

This is episode three of The Invention of China and episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds.

The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde.

Misha Glenny on the end of the Qing, and what happened next.

Misha Glenny investigates the histories and the people that make nations what they are.

When the last emperor, a boy called Puyi, was forced to abdicate in 1912, two millennia of imperial rule came to an end. What followed was chaos.

The Life And Times Of Chairman Mao

20240513

20240519 (R4)

Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from.

'Twentieth century China is the most extraordinary place, and Mao is at the heart of nearly all of it.'

With the help of Tania Branigan, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution; plus Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent of the New York Times, Frances Wood, Paul French, Ian Johnson, the author of Sparks, and Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South China Morning Post.

The producer for BBC studios is Miles Warde.

Misha Glenny completes our travels round China with the story of Chairman Mao

Misha Glenny investigates the histories and the people that make nations what they are.

Born in 1893, Mao lived through the end of the Qing, the birth of the republic, two World Wars, one Long March, civil war, the Korean War with the US, famine, failure, revolution

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
01	The First Emperor	20240422	20240428 (R4)	Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been.' The opening lines of a fourteenth century novel about the rise and fall of China's multiple dynasties, history explained in a couple of brilliant lines. But what is China and where did it come from? This is episode 55 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, recorded on location and opening in Taiwan. 'The reunification of the historical motherland is an inevitability,' said the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on New Year's day. China is an empire, and this is a president asserting central control - in Xinjiang, in Hong Kong, and now Taiwan appears to be in his sights. Control has been the ambition since the rule of the First Emperor in 221 BCE, but areas on the periphery continue to resist. With contributions from Frances Wood, author of The First Emperor; Steve Tsang, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping; Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst for the Crisis Group; Nathan Law, exiled activist, Hong Kong Umbrella Movement; Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent of the New York Times now based in Taiwan; plus Paul French, Linda Jaivin, Tania Branigan and Ian Johnson, author of Sparks. What we do is is explain where countries come from, and then unpick the stories governments use to stay in charge. They weren't always there, those lines on the map - everything keeps changing. And China has surged and collapsed, expanded and shrunk, as much as anywhere we've been.' Misha Glenny Presenter Misha Glenny is the author of McMafia and a former Central Europe correspondent for the BBC. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde Further reading: Frances Wood, the First Emperor of China and No Dogs and Not Many Chinese Tania Branigan, Red Memory Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, The Political Thought of Xi Jnping Linda Jaivin, The Shortest History of China Ian Johnson, Sparks - China's Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future Paul French, Midnight in Peking and City of Devils Misha Glenny on where China came from and what it is now. How to Invent a Country travels east to tell the story of China - although some may dispute this and say the Middle Kingdom is at the very centre of the world. What we do is explain where countries come from, and then unpick the stories governments use to stay in charge. They weren't always there, those lines on the map - everything keeps changing. And China has surged and collapsed, expanded and shrunk, as much as anywhere we've been.' Misha Glenny Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping
02	To Kowtow Or Not Kowtow	20240429	20240505 (R4)	Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British envoy did or did not kowtow to the Chinese Emperor. So began a fractious, ultimately shameful century for Anglo-Chinese relations. Travelling to Hong Kong, taken by the British following the First Opium War, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde find a city still marked by its colonial heritage, but also increasingly under the thumb of its new masters in Beijing. Contributors include Hong Kong activist, Nathan Law; Henrietta Harrison, author of The Perils of Interpreting and Professor of Chinese history; and Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese History: Treaty Port Life in China This is episode 56 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds and is a BBC Studios production Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde head to Hong Kong. How did the world's greatest civilisation find itself dragged into two Opium Wars and a century of humiliation? Misha Glenny heads to Hong Kong to find out.
03	Imperial Collapse	20240506	20240512 (R4)	You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp.' Paul French Beijing means capital of the north, and was first used by the Ming to distinguish it from Nanjng, capital of the south. Home to the Forbidden City where the emperors lived, the centre had a tortuous relationship with many other parts of China. By the end of the Qing dynasty this relationship had totally broken down, but what was going to replace the old system? Step forward Dr Sun Yat-sen, professional republican revolutionary. Contributors include Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South China Post and author of the Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power; Professor Julia Lovell, whose books include The Great Wall and Maoism: A Global History; and also Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, and Paul French, Midnight in Peking. This is episode three of The Invention of China and episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds. The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde. Misha Glenny on the end of the Qing, and what happened next. Misha Glenny investigates the histories and the people that make nations what they are. When the last emperor, a boy called Puyi, was forced to abdicate in 1912, two millennia of imperial rule came to an end. What followed was chaos.
04	The Life And Times Of Chairman Mao	20240513	20240519 (R4)	Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. 'Twentieth century China is the most extraordinary place, and Mao is at the heart of nearly all of it.' With the help of Tania Branigan, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution; plus Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent of the New York Times, Frances Wood, Paul French, Ian Johnson, the author of Sparks, and Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South China Morning Post. The producer for BBC studios is Miles Warde. Misha Glenny completes our travels round China with the story of Chairman Mao Misha Glenny investigates the histories and the people that make nations what they are. Born in 1893, Mao lived through the end of the Qing, the birth of the republic, two World Wars, one Long March, civil war, the Korean War with the US, famine, failure, revolution