In this episode we look at love, marriage and divorce in contemporary China, from the perspective of two female filmmakers. These are topics with a political as well as personal significance — the Chinese government is keen to boost the birth rate to tackle the problem of an ageing population, but the marriage rate has fallen sharply, while the divorce rate has grown significantly over recent decades. Elizabeth Lo’s remarkable new film Mistress Dispeller looks at a growing industry in China — people you can hire to intervene if your spouse is having an affair, and who promise to help save your marriage. Luo Tong’s documentary Shanghai Girls, meanwhile, is an intimate depiction of the experiences of a group of women in their early fifties, and their lives and loves over the past thirty years. They join us to discuss changing attitudes to relationships in China.

Photo credit: Ariela Ortiz-Barrantes / CC BY-SA 4.0

For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
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SOAS China Institute (SCI)

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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

Relations between China and Japan — never smooth, given the legacy of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s — are currently at their tensest in years. This follows the new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in Japan's parliament last month that if China were to use military force against Taiwan — which Beijing claims as part of its territory — Japan would view this as a threat to its survival, and could deploy its own military in response. China has denounced Ms Takaichi's comments as crossing a red line, and warned that they hint at a revival of militarism in Japan. It has warned its citizens against travelling to Japan, leading to mass cancellations of bookings and flights; concerts by Japanese pop stars and screenings of Japanese films in China have also been cancelled, and seafood imports halted. The tension comes amidst rising Japanese nationalist sentiment, much of it directed at a recent influx of immigrants, including, by some estimates, more than a hundred thousand middle class migrants from China. Rupert Wingfield Hayes, for more than two decades a BBC correspondent in first Beijing, then Tokyo, and most recently Taiwan, joins us to discuss the significance of these developments, and the historical resonances that lie behind them.

Photo credit: Official Website of the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan

For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)

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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

While young people around the world face growing difficulties finding work and coping with the cost-of-living crisis, the situation confronting China’s youth seems particularly acute. Years of pandemic disruption, economic slowdown and mounting social pressure have created a sense of fatigue and frustration for many. This has given rise to a new language of despair and dark humour. ‘Nei Juan’ (内卷) — or ‘involution’ — describes the exhausting, endless competition where everyone works harder yet gains less, a race to the bottom with no finish line. In contrast, ‘Tang Ping’ (躺平), or ‘lying flat’, signals quiet resistance: choosing to step back, do less, and let go of society’s impossible expectations. But is this realistic in a country with a limited social welfare safety net? Guest host Howard Zhang speaks with Dr Yuan Zhong from SOAS about her recent research in China, exploring what these buzzwords reveal about a generation under strain — and the country’s future.

Photo credit: leoon liang / Unsplash

For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)

• SCI Blog
• SCI on X
• SCI on LinkedIn
• SCI on Facebook
• SCI on Instagram

________________________________________

Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0