Wo Men Podcast: Recent Episodes
Wǒ Men Podcast
The latest mass outbreak of COVID-19 in China has impacted people's lives, with over 5000 new cases reported each day this week. While the numbers are small compared with what other countries have experienced during the pandemic, the most recent outbreak is the largest in China since 2020. Many residents in major cities like Shanghai and the tech hub of Shenzhen have been told to remain in their homes, and officials in several jurisdictions have given orders for full or partial lockdowns. After feeling safe and protected for the past two years by China's Zero Covid Policy, Chinese people have, for the first time, started to question whether this policy is effectively dealing with the new omicron variant. Our Co-Host Yajun is now on her 16th day of being forced to stay inside her apartment complex due to a case of COVID being reported in the same compound. Co-Host Karoline was just released from mandatory quarantine after returning to China from a trip overseas. In this episode, Yajun and Karoline shared their personal experiences and observations of how public opinion has started to shift regarding China's Zero COVID strategy.
When people feel confused or uncertain about their lives, some turn to fortune-tellers or psychics for guidance and advice. China has a long tradition of fortune-telling, soothsaying, and even exorcisms and shamanism.
Those living in the Northeastern part of the country consult people known as Daxian (大仙), which can be translated as “spirit mediums” or “spirit possessors”). Daxian are the representatives of a local religion, combining shamanism and animal worship (including weasels, foxes, mice, snakes, and hedgehogs). According to legend, once these animal spirits possess their bodies, the daxian can cure disease or predict the future.
We talk to Vicky, a native of Northeastern China. She describes her personal experiences of consulting a daxian for help when she had difficulties maintaining a long-term relationship. She also shares her recent discovery about the extent her family was involved with this local religion.
It's an annual tradition. Yajun, Jingjing, and Karoline, the three cohosts of the Wo Men Podcast, got together virtually to discuss their experiences in 2021 and share their memories of the year that was. They also talked about what they were looking forward to most in 2022. Spoiler Alert: They would like to see each other and are hopeful that China will open its borders soon so that family and friends can finally be reunited. Fingers crossed!
In China, there have been generations that “stood up” (站起来 zhànqǐlai) and generations that “jumped into the sea” (下海 xiàhǎi), but many young people in China today are choosing instead to just “lie down and chill.”
The term “Lying Flat” (躺平 tǎngpíng) became popular following a blog post entitled “Lying Flat is Justice” (躺平即是正义 tǎngpíng jíshì zhèngyì) went viral earlier this year. This call to inaction inspired many to choose a lifestyle that rejected the social pressure to work hard and conform. Why bother striving if the “Chinese Dream” of a high-paying job, buying a house, and checking all the boxes for success seem impossible?
Many young people are also turning their backs on the corporate grind and risky start-up jobs to find a stable gig with China’s biggest employer: the government. Why are young people lining up for “less competitive” jobs in the civil service? After 30 years of standing up and another 30 years of jumping in the sea of entrepreneurship, why are so many young people choosing a life of less struggle?
To answer these questions, we talked with Kailai, a student at one of China’s top universities, who explains to us why the growing gap between expectations and reality is causing young people to question assumptions about what is the meaning of a successful life and why when the going gets tough, sometimes the best thing you can do is take a step back, lie down, and chill.
2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks carried out by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda against targets in the United States. Over 3000 people died as a result, and the world was forever changed. Since then, the United States has faced many challenges, including a long-running military occupation of Afghanistan, which ended only this year. The past two decades have also seen a steadily rising China seeking to challenge US hegemony and disrupt the existing international order. What did 9/11 mean for China and the US-China relationship? How did people in China understand and react to the news that the United States had been attacked?
In this episode, Karoline and Yajun share their personal stories of hearing about 9/11 and how those experiences have affected their later careers as cultural intermediaries between the world and China. They also reflect on how their careers have been affected by the complicated US-China relationship and consider how they can contribute to improving mutual understanding between the world’s two largest economies.
When most people think about China in the 21st century, they picture the big coastal megacities like Beijing or Shanghai. But that’s only a small part of the picture. For this episode, we traveled out west to Qinghai Province, which has an area the size of France but a population of just six million people. The region where Qinghai and southern Gansu Province meet has long been a frontier zone, a point of contact for many different ethnic groups, including people who still live a nomadic lifestyle. Today it is one of the poorest regions in China and has been the focus of intensive development even as many people who live there try and preserve their traditional lifestyle and distinctive culture.
We talk to Gombo, who was raised in a Mongolian nomadic family and went on to be the first in his area to graduate from college. Gombo describes his life growing up in a nomad camp, how Tibetan Buddhism continues to be a significant part of his life, and how he pursued his education and career in modern China. Today, Gombo works in the travel industry with the company Elevated Trips based out of Xining.
Gombo is also a very talented musician and he shared with us some of his songs which you can hear as part of the episode.
Are you tired of big city life? Ever think of escaping the noise, dust, and exhausting pace of life for a slice of the country? For many young people in China, work means 12-hour days, six days a week, with a long and crowded commute to and from work. No wonder so many people are considering trading urban living for a rural lifestyle. In recent years, Dali has become a magnet for writers, musicians, artists, painters, and people looking to simplify their lives. In this episode, Karoline Kan talks to Feather, who moved to Dali from Beijing, about her lifestyle change.
The Medical Aesthetics industry (what your grandmother calls “plastic surgery”) is booming in China. According to Deloitte, China's aesthetic medicine market grew from 65 billion yuan (US$10 billion) in 2015 to 175 billion yuan in 2019. That’s three times faster than the global industry average.
Why are Chinese women -- and men -- so crazy about beauty treatments? Don’t they worry about the risks and possible side effects? Today we talked to Guli Ai, a consumer with ten years of experience using aesthetics treatment. Guli explains her journey in pursuit of beauty and why she’s not afraid to take advantage of the benefits of medical science in her quest for perfection.
While many companies have felt the impact of Covid-19, some courageous entrepreneurs in China are still willing to take risks and launch new ventures in this time of global economic fluctuations.
Our guest today, Lysa Wei, is one of them. In 2020, Lysa started her own company bringing hard seltzer to the China market. Low-calories and sugar-free, hard seltzers have become one of the world’s hottest (or coldest, depending on how you like drinks served) alcoholic beverages in the world.
In this episode, Lysa explains the opportunities and the challenges of starting a company in the Covid era. She also shares how to introduce a new alcoholic beverage to Chinese millennials who like to get their buzz differently from their parents or older siblings.
The LGBTQ+ community in China is largely out of sight, and awareness of ideas relating to sexual equality is still very low.
Ying, who calls herself Iron, is a feminist, activist, and director of the Beijing LGBT Center. She is one of the most prominent activists promoting LGBT rights in China and has played a vital role in arranging mental health services for the LGBTQ community. For the first time, a national survey has been conducted to look at the lives of the LGBTQ community in China.
Ying joins our show today to discuss her personal experience as a member of this community and how she developed her passion into a career. She also shares with us her views on the progress – and remaining challenges – for activists promoting LGBTQ rights in the PRC.
Many people have thought about quitting their 9-to-5 job to travel around the world, but few people carry out their plan. One couple made it happen and found a new career inspiration and life direction along the way.
Faye and Celyn live in Beijing. Faye worked at a Chinese agricultural company. Celyn (celynbricker.com) was an artist who had always been interested in using art as a lens to look at social issues. They quit their jobs, left Beijing with just two backpacks, and arrived in Africa as the first stop. They planned to travel along the human migration route and record the highlights of their journey as a documentary. They didn’t have a clear agenda in terms of what stories they were going to collect, but it did not take them long before they found that climate change was a term that frequently appeared in conversations with local communities.
Climate change interrupted people’s agricultural routines, caused conflicts between different groups of people, and threatened local religions' survival. It even contributed to the rise of the HIV infection rate in certain areas as climate change affected the kinds of economic opportunities that had previously been empowering women.
Along the way, they also learned the wisdom to live harmoniously with nature.
After returning to China, the couple decided to focus on climate-related art projects and founded Celu Studio to provide a public platform to learn more and take positive action.
In this episode, Karoline Kan sits down with Faye and Celyn to learn more about their journey and their new platform for tackling one of the world’s most important and pressing issues.
How do you do it? Where do you find the time? Women in leadership positions are frequently asked how they balance family life and their career. Which makes us wonder: why don’t we ask the same questions of male executives? Is it less of an issue for men, or are they just more reluctant to talk about work-life balance, fearing that it might not conform to the expectations of a strong boss focused on his work and leading his team? Perhaps what is needed is a safe space for male leaders to challenge these stereotypes and talk about their challenges juggling family, marriage, and a successful career.
You wouldn’t think that the high-wattage conclave of World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos would provide that kind of cozy safe space, but that’s exactly where a group of “Davos Dads” gathers to share their family struggles and swap parenting tips.
In this episode, we talked to David Aikman. David is the Chief Representative Officer of Greater China for WEF. This year, the annual meeting is hosted virtually, but David talks about organizing the “Dads group” at past meetings. David also shares with us his views on leadership and the experiences he has learned from nearly two decades working with some of the world’s top leaders.
Schools all over China have signs and banners exhorting students to hao hao xuexi, tiantian shang shang ("Study hard and make progress every day"). Being a kid -- or a parent! -- in China means a lot of pressure to compete and succeed and the educational system is built around the college entrance exams. Students sacrifice their childhood and freedom for hours and hours of homework and after-school programs to “win the game at the starting point” and secure a promising future.
But are exams and homework the purpose of education?
Quite a few people in China have been exploring alternative solutions and approaches. In this episode, we talked to Chen Zishu, a Harvard-educated student who brought her ideas and actions back to China. She tells us about her academic and professional journey and shares her observations about China’s education-industrial complex.
It seems like every email we have received recently begins with “In this challenging year…” Well 2020, your time is almost up. You only have a few days left before we turn the page to 2021.
Every year at this time, we look back on the year that was and talk about our plans for the future. In this episode, Yajun, Jingjing, and Karoline discuss surviving a global pandemic, their thoughts on a new global order while also talking about their personal highlights (and low-lights) of 2020, including new babies, family health emergencies, lockdown blues, and the challenge of staying motivated while the world seems to be falling apart. Finally, the ladies share their new year resolutions because 2021 has got to be an improvement over 2020, right? Right!?!?!?
Over the past few weeks, the US election has dominated the news worldwide, even in China. Chinese people have been fascinated to watch an odd political soap opera unfold in the United States beginning with the election of Donald Trump back in 2016. Four years later, despite harsh rhetoric and aggressive policies directed at China, Trump still has supporters here. Today we ask the question: Why is Donald Trump still so popular in China?
Joining us for this episode is Patricia, a Chinese lawyer who works in a multinational tech company. She Chinese. She is a woman. And she is a Trump supporter. If you’re wondering why, well…so are we. So we invited Patricia on our show to tell us her views about how she came to support Donald Trump and why she is still a fan.
China’s economy is getting back to normal. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 still changed many people’s lives forever. Some of them were fired while others spent months job hunting, and many more used the crisis to re-value the things they used to take for granted.
Life almost one year after the first case of coronavirus is permanently different for many people. How has this changed their view of the world and their future?
Karoline Kan speaks with Song, a 29-year-old man who used to work at some top international financial consulting firms and never met a challenge in his career. Song quit his job a few years ago to enroll in an international MBA program, hoping that experience would help him further develop his career. He was always confident in his educational background and working experience. Song never imagined an unprecedented public crisis would change his career path and how he feels about so many things in life and career.
What to do now? Join a multi-national company or China’s state-owned system? Should he prioritize ambition or stability?
In this episode, we look at the fragility of life for China’s middle class. How has the Covid-19 crisis changed people's hopes, fears, ambitions, and worries?
For many people worldwide, the protests in Hong Kong have been a news story in a year full of news. But the demonstrations and political crisis have deeply affected Hong Kongers dividing the city and even families. Michelle is from Hong Kong but living in Japan and has been arguing with her girlfriend – who is from mainland China – about the protests. What happens when different backgrounds, viewpoints, and media consumption starts to come between a couple?
In our latest episode, Michelle explains to us why the Hong Kong issue is so complicated. Even in her own family, her parents, brothers, and Michelle all have different takes on the situation. Meanwhile, Michelle and her girlfriend try to communicate their different beliefs with patience, open minds, and open hearts. Michelle also shares the challenges a same-sex couple faces in Hong Kong and on the mainland and how she and her girlfriend have used persistence and wisdom to navigate a range of family obstacles as they build a future together.
2020 has been a challenging year. Many families experienced an incredible sense of loss, sadness, and desperation as they lost family members to Covid-19. Meanwhile, other families welcomed new life who brought love and hope during a difficult time.
Our co-host, Jingjing, and our close friend, Annie, each gave birth this year and it was not easy. They suffered from both physical and psychological challenges that a new mother would not face in a typical year, including labor without an epidural due to a shortage of maternity staff in the hospital and risking exposure to the COVID-19 virus. They worried about how to ensure the safety of their new babies during a global pandemic. In this episode, Annie and Jingjing share their personal experience of giving birth in the year of COVID-19.
Even though porn is legally prohibited in China, such restrictions don’t stop many people from looking for adult content, most of the time by using a VPN to bypass the country’s internet censorship.
We talked to Annie Huang, who shares why she uses pornography as a healthy entertainment option to help relieve stress. She also explains why women should consider their sexual desires as normal needs, rather than something to be ashamed of.
As a part of the generation that had taken supercharged economic development for granted and had never worried about financial stability, the potential impact of Covid-19 on the economy also requires us to rethink our finances.
In this episode, we have invited Jackie You, a former investment banker, to share her insights and experiences with us. Jackie shares how people in China are adapting to a new economic reality, as well as some lessons that can be applied universally.
News assistants’ responsibilities can include research, looking for interviewees, arranging interviews, translating, and some “researchers” even interview and write the stories independently — but with no byline.
The Chinese government has rules prohibiting Chinese nationals from being full-time journalists for foreign publications, but many writers have managed to take advantage of regulatory oversights to grow into experienced journalists and talented — and hugely important — storytellers.
As China continues to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, some experts expected to see a strong consumption rebound in recent weeks. However, it didn’t happen. Instead, the amount of saving in the first quarter of 2020 surged in China. Many Chinese, including the post-’90 and post-’00 generations who are used to living paycheck to paycheck, have started to save money. Seemingly, the global pandemic has changed many families’ and individuals’ consumption habits and lifestyles — at least in the sho
While the world is suffering from the global pandemic of novel coronavirus Covid-19, Jingjing talks to Donna, a Chinese student studying in the UK. In this episode, Donna shares her perspectives on life under lockdown overseas, including how she ended up getting military food and her experience with racism in the UK.
When her hometown went into lockdown, Yuli Wang decided to help send messages of hope and support from around the world to Wuhan citizens.
She and a group of volunteers translated encouraging Twitter and Facebook messages sent from all over the world to the people of Wuhan published them on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
(This interview was conducted a week ago the podcast and things have changed in just seven days. Many countries have started to employ lockdown measures as well.)
For this episode, we talked to Benjamin Devos, the owner and CEO of the first French bakery in Beijing, Comptoirs de France Bakery. He shared with us the perilous challenges his business is now facing with the Coronavirus/Covid-19 outbreak and some of the tough decisions he has had to make after 15 years of running a business in China.
A small community in Beijing has launched a campaign to support the Comptoirs de France Bakery. If you want to contribute, please hit that link for more details.
The novel coronavirus Covid-19 has taken hundreds of lives and caused disruption and psychological damage throughout China and — increasingly — across the world.
With millions still under lockdown and self-imposed quarantine within China, and many Chinese unable to return home at an important time of year due to travel restrictions, Wǒ Men hosts Jingjing, Yajun, and Karoline discuss their personal experiences and perspectives of life during the virus.
Last week, before the break out of the coronavirus, much of the world’s attention focused on Davos, a little European ski resort town in Switzerland where this year the World Economic Forum celebrated its 50 year anniversary and welcomed more than 3,000 political, business and other leaders.
Jingjing and Yajun, the two co-hosts of Wǒ Men Podcast, met up there and shared their experiences and highlights at the summit from both a participant and organizer’s perspective, respectively.
Podcast hosts Yajun Zhang and Jingjing Zhang come together at the start of 2020 to discuss their hopes, aspirations, and resolutions for the New Year.
This year more than 220,000 Chinese people sent online endorsements of gay marriage to China’s top legislative body, arguing for a same-sex marriage amendment to be made to China’s marriage laws.
For the system to change in China, the LGBTQ+ community needs allies. Olivia Wang explains to us how she takes action to support the LGBTQ community by attempting to influence both China’s legal system and the people around her.
China dominates global headlines right now — and few of those headlines are positive. But is fear of the country justified? How to separate the people, the government, and the Party? And what impact is the breakdown in dialogue between China and the English-speaking world having on Chinese living and travelling abroad? Hosts Jingjing, Karoline, and Yajun share their perspectives from around the world.
Is Singles Day still a culture phenomenon in China where if you have not participated, you feel you would be left out? I have heard some people have started to lose interest this year as they feel the shopping rules have become quite complicated. Do you feel the same? Do you use shopping as your retail therapy? This is an encore episode in which Yajun and Jingjing discuss the "buy buy buy" culture in China.
This week, we have a special guest who came forward to share her deeply personal experience of being a victim of sexual assault when she was just 4 years old.
Through discussing this horrendous experience, we look at the underlying problems in some rural and undereducated areas in China, where gender inequality is a manifest of some purportedly “patriotic” values. It also examines how some criminals can take advantage of “面子 mianzi” (face) and a culture of “family shaming” culture to cove
Life is not always fair, particularly in a dramatically changing society such as China. While many children from one child families in China enjoy the undivided attention of their parents, others need to fight for themselves to achieve a better future.
Cai, our anonymous guest for this episode, was given a faulty vaccine shot as a small child in rural China that caused her to contract polio. For a while she was in critical condition and half of her body was paralyzed.
What are the costs of coffee plantations in the world? How is climate change affecting coffee growing in the Mekong region? What does coffee mean to people in that area?
Karoline Kan shares her experiences reporting in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and China’s Yunnan province, where some harbor ambitions of the area becoming Asia’s coffee production capital yet numerous coffee farmers are struggling to make ends meet.
Annie recently changed her Chinese given name from Yating (雅婷) to Yiling (奕绫) based on the instruction of a part-time fortune telling master. A new name, the theory goes, could potentially free her mind and soul and allow her to be a “free horse” (she is born in the year of the horse) to pursue what she wants.
In an encore episode of the podcast, Annie talks about her name changing experience and how it has fed into a process of self-discovery.
Zhang Leilei’s journey as an activist began when she was in university. Now aged 26, she has been a prominent figure in China’s rising feminist movement. One of the most influential campaigns she led was using her body as a moving advertisement on metro trains in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, after her requests for public educational posters on public transport were repeatedly rejected by the authorities.
Jocelyn Ford, a reporter, filmmaker, and educator, has dedicated her life to covering rarely-covered female-centric stories.
She was one of the first reporters in Japan to cover the topic of WWII comfort women and forced the Japanese government and the public to face up to this issue. She was the first bureau chief of Marketplace in China and has shed light on rarely-discussed Tibetan gender issues by producing the documentary Nowhere to Call Home.
“Choose the battle and win it!” as she puts it.
The teaser trailer for Disney’s live-action movie Mulan has sparked a lot of discussion on Chinese social media since it was released in early July.
So what do Chinese audiences care about most when it comes to a Hollywood-produced China story? Why are people especially sensitive over the appearance of the actors who play the leading Chinese characters in overseas films? And what skills could China’s film industry learn from Hollywood to attract young audiences to traditional stories?
Slut Walk is a movement calling for an end to rape culture, including victim blaming and slut shaming of sexual assault victims.
Slut-shaming is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. When China’s #MeToo movement was at its peak last year, there were several high-profile cases (including one involving an influential author, Zhang Wen) that forced everyone to take a long, hard look at the culture of shaming women.
Would you be able to ride a bicycle for eight months along the ancient Silk Road through 13 countries, while interviewing tech companies and hosting workshops along the way? Eva Yoo, an international cyclist and writer, just accomplished exactly this feat.
Born in Korea, Eva has worked in five countries and speaks four languages. Rather than enjoying a nice job in Shanghai, she decided to challenge herself by taking a bike trip from Shanghai to London.
What’s at the root of the perception that China is afraid engaging of in difficult conversations? What’s going wrong with China’s so-called soft power project? And is there a better way to tell a good China story?
In the latest Wǒ Men Podcast, Jingjing and Karoline share their own experiences and observations regarding China’s attempts at storytelling and soft power and how these have evolved in recent years.
Carrie Yu, the co-founder of The Bulk House, has a solution: living a zero waste life. Carrie dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and came to Beijing by herself. When she was then kicked out of her rental house, it made her rethink her whole lifestyle. She is now not only living a zero waste life in Beijing, but she has also started her own company to promote a sustainable lifestyle.
Today, she shares her life experience with us.
In late March, the Chinese tech world was rocked by protests from workers against startups’ “996” work culture. In this Wǒ Men Podcast episode, we take a different approach to discussing 996 by inviting Cynthia He, a senior executive of a number of US-listed technology companies, to look at the underlying societal rationale behind this working culture.
The international community in China is changing.
Chinese still stereotype expatriates as hanging out in bar districts, commute on an old fashioned bicycle and live in a traditional neighborhood such as Beijing’s hutong alleyways.
But how do the younger generation of overseas students and expats live in China and immerse themselves in Chinese culture?
In the latest Wo Men Podcast, Jingjing and Yajun sit down with Katharina Kempf to learn about her amazing journey in China.
After nearly two years producing the Wo Men Podcast, Yajun and Jingjing are excited to announce that author and former New York Times researcher and writer Karoline Kan has joined the Wo Men podcast team.
Karoline was a guest on our previous episode discussing her new book Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China. With Karoline, we are expanding our coverage and our ability to present a China to the world from the perspective of Chinese women.
Karoline Kan is a second child born among the one-child generation in 1989. In order to give birth to her, her mother hid from local officials for almost ten months. But the challenges didn’t end there — to her paternal grandparents, she was an unwanted girl, an idea that shadowed her whole childhood.
Recently, she published Under Red Skies, widely touted as the first English-language memoir written by a Chinese millennial.
As a member of the Global Programming team of the World Economic Forum, Wǒ Men Podcast host Yajun helped design and select the speakers for some of the 300 public sessions. She takes us inside Davos, shares her observations and interviews some of her colleagues who try to move the needle in a positive direction on major international topics. She also shares her view on perceptions of China at the conference and how China can better engage on the international stage.
Before we even realized, 2018 has reached its end. It is the time to take a break and look at what we have accomplished or missed in the last year and make a resolution for the new year. In 2018, both Jingjing and Yajun have experienced some ups and downs. We are using this episode to reflect on our lives and to share our thoughts with you. Hopefully, it can provide some perspective for our audience who may have similar experiences.
Six years ago, after witnessing a woman in an English debate by chance, Lysa Wei became deeply fascinated by the nature of debating. She became determined to be a debater. At that time she could barely present an argument in English. Today, she is the holder of numerous debate championship titles. Lysa joins the show to share her experience of English debating and how debate has helped her and opened doors in her professional life.
Sunny Sun, co-host of her own Chinese-language podcast, is an online dating veteran. Today she shares her observations on the differences between Chinese and English online dating and how she wound up on a Tinder date with an undercover FBI agent.
11.11, also known as Singles’ Day, is a relatively new holiday. Originally founded to celebrate single life in the face of huge societal pressure to marry, the holiday has evolved over the years. Today, Singles’ Day is better recognized as the world’s biggest online shopping festival.
Jingjing and Yajun talk about the fascinating buy, buy, buy culture behind the holiday. Let’s take a look at what’s in their shopping cart.
What’s in a name? For Annie Huang, potentially a new lease of life.
Annie recently changed her Chinese given name from Yating (雅婷) to Yiling (奕绫) based on the instruction of a part-time fortune telling master. Even though Annie has a well paid and highly regarded job and is in a loving marriage, she was bothered that this may not be what she wants and felt confused as to where her life was going. A new name, the theory goes, could potentially free her mind and soul and allow her to pursue what
As an Asian female psychologist who just graduated from college, Yang Yi had no idea what was waiting for her in prison in a foreign country. She was whistled at and intimidated by inmates. She was also questioned and challenged. However, she managed to overcome all the fears and difficulties and eventually win the trust of the inmates who later benefited from her sessions.
In this episode, Yang Yi discusses her extraordinary experiences and why she continues to be an idealist.
In April 2018, we interviewed Gu Xi, a Chinese coder and founder of Techie Cat, an online community that teaches Chinese women to code. Earlier this year, she joined Apple’s “Behind Mac” campaign as a Chinese female innovator in this global initiative with her face gracing billboards in London, LA, and Beijing. Today we will present a re-edited version of that episode and learn how she built a tech community and while fighting against the strict and rigid Chinese education system to pursue her mis
In this episode, we talk to a collector of Chinese antiquities, Mr. Zang Nuo (pictured above, right), who is our guide into the world of the Chinese collectors. We visited Mr. Zang’s home, and he shared with us not only his collection of carvings and textiles but also his observations and insights into why the antique trade is booming in China and why people today are more interested than ever in the country’s past.
Imagine not being allowed to take a shower, leave your house, or even open a window for an entire month. It’s called “sitting the month” (坐月子 zuo yuezi in Chinese) and, so traditional Chinese medicine would claim, it is an essential part of the childbearing process. We sit down with new mother Kaijing Xiao (pictured right) to hear about her “hybrid” experience, combining elements of traditional Chinese post-natal practices with a more modern approach.
Over the past month, a somewhat belated #MeToo campaign has finally sprouted in China. Over three dozen sexual harassment cases mushroomed in universities, media organizations, NGOs and the private sector in China. Why has it started in the academic arena, rather than the entertainment industry like in the US? Can the campaign last or have a long-term impact? We invited Shi Xiaoqin, a former military officer, a feminist and now a professor to share with us her insights and observations.
Our new episode features Ivy Yu, an editor of international news at a major Chinese news portal, who gives us a rare peek inside a Chinese media organization and see their daily operations, story angles, and how they deal with censorship.
On Saturday 7 July, the RADII-sponsored Wǒ Men Podcast celebrated its first anniversary at The Bookworm in Beijing. It was an entertaining afternoon of thoughtful discussion – all recorded live.
For this episode of Wǒ Men Podcast, we sit down with author Lijia Zhang (Socialism is Great!, Lotus) to discuss her life and to examine just how much China has transformed over the generations. As a social commentator, Lijia shares her views on the changes and constants in China over the last few decades. We also discuss her latest book Lotus and the core social issues demonstrated by China’s prostitution industry.
Today, on International Children’s Day, Jingjing and Yajun open their memory boxes and discuss their childhoods growing up in a rapidly changing China.
How do you know whether your partner agrees with the sexual engagement or not? What kind of signals can be considered as a “yes”?
These are the questions we all kind of know, or think we know, but don’t necessarily understand as clearly as we might like to think. we invited Yuan Yang (Beijing Correspondent, Financial Times) to discuss what consent means under different circumstances. Yuan Yang has been leading workshops on consent since her time at university in the UK.
In this episode, Enoch Li, founder and CEO of Bearapy, shares her own personal journey in fighting depression along with tips on how to constructively engage with people who suffer from mental illness.
We also discuss the social and cultural elements in China that create a lot of burden on young people and ways to deal with it.
Wall Street Journal reporter Dominique Fong discusses her search for her family’s roots in Guangdong and the fascinating stories she uncovered along the way.
Gu Xi built one of the first Chinese tech communities for women when she was 18-year-old. In this community, she worked with a team to provide online courses and offline conferences for girls who were interested in tech but felt they couldn’t get the support they needed in a male-dominated industry.
In this episode, Gu Xi shares her experiences on how she developed the idea of building a tech space for women coders and how she needs to keep fighting to pursue her mission.
Black Panther has become a global phenomenon, smashing through box office records and preconceptions about the performance of black actor-fronted films, while triggering a worldwide celebration of African culture and spirit in the process.
For our latest podcast, we welcome Kassy Lee, an African-American writer and poet who has lived and worked in Beijing since 2014, to share her personal experience of living in the Chinese capital.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, Jingjing and Yajun were invited to two different panels to discuss women’s issues and how men can better support their wives or girlfriends. They both learnt a lot and were inspired by the debate.
On this episode, they share key takeaways from the panel discussions.
A former officer People's Liberation Army officer, Shi Xiaoqin puts women’s rights issues into a complex social context, influenced by many cultural, economic, and historical elements. Her understanding of women’s rights is comprehensive and in-depth, moving beyond topical issues like sexual harassment in universities and urban working environments. Her perspective is deeply rooted in women’s livelihoods in the rural areas of China and considers the broader social and economic structure of Chinese soc
China has transformed greatly over the last few decades, and Chinese New Year has also come to mean very different things from generation to generation — Yajun and Jingjing explore the customs and superstitions that have changed with the times.
Our guest for this episode says the fact that he went to an “unconventional, edgy” school that doesn’t give homework and sends students off to build dens in the woods has fundamentally shaped his perception about children’s education. Now 30 years old, Kit Harford, an educator and serial entrepreneur, has spent the majority of his adulthood in China exploring innovative ways to teach Chinese children the skills they need to thrive in today’s world.
For most women in China, Mu Lan probably lives only as an on-screen character. But our guest today, Lila Stange, feels related to this figure in a very personal way.
2017 was an amazing year. With so much support from our family, editors (Josh and Anthony, we mean you) and friends, we finally launched our Wǒ Men Podcast, a program that we have been thinking about doing for years.
It has been a magical journey. Every single guest was so generous and kind to open up and share their thoughts and lives with us. In that small studio, we had many deep conversations, touching the part of our hearts that we usually only keep it to ourselves. We feel we know each us so much better, even though many of the guests have been long-term friends.
We also really appreciate all the feedback and support we honorably received from our audience. Whenever we heard how our program helped them to know China better or inspired by the thoughts from the guest speakers, we just feel so happy and encouraged. This is what keeps us going!
Our editors Anthony and Josh are so amazing. Anthony introduced our program to the platform Radii and Josh gave us helpful feedback and provided all the support that we needed.
We also want to thank our lovely husbands who have been our biggest supporters behind the scene since day one. Yajun’s husband Jeremiah came up with the brilliant name of the podcast and also was our CTO and IT advisor (unpaid). Jingjing’s husband Nick contributed many great ideas on titles and was the source of ideas for many discussion topics. More importantly, both of them bore the noise during the editing on many days and nights. Nick once mentioned that he could only handle our loud laughter so many times on each night.:)
Last but not least, despite being friends for years, we have never been so close ever since we started planning for this podcast. We continuously brainstorm and feed ideas to each other, we discover similarities and differences between each other and keep each other encouraged and inspired.
God, this blurb turns into a long list of appreciation and becomes so cliché. However, if you don’t show your gratitude to the people you care during such a warm holiday season, when is a better time?
So to celebrate this wonderful time of the year, we issued our special Christmas episode of Wo Men podcast and shared our personal magical Christmas experiences. Hope this installment will bring some joy and laugh on this beautiful Christmas Eve.
Happy holidays and see you in 2018!
Along our career paths, we face so many challenges and choices.
How can I make the best decisions for myself? This is a question that bothers us for the majority of our youth. Growing up in the ’70s, ’80s or even ’90s, we don’t have role models for career development.
Looking back, our parents’ generation — who received professional training under China’s planned economy — was very much used to the idea of going to work from 8 am to 5 pm, and believed in doing the assigned job diligently. They were not aware of the difference between a job and a career.
In addition to that, working overtime was an alien idea to them: why should one work so hard for their employers, as it is the employer who benefits, not each individual?
Our generation grew up in a reformed China, where more job opportunities had been created, new industries were developing, and Western values like “career development” had flooded in. However, we are pretty much on our own to navigate these changes, and learn how to build our careers.
Jackie You
Without realizing it, we’ve stepped on a career development treadmill, where we believe the only direction to go is forward. As we march ahead and grow older, we accumulate more and more baggage — families, mortgages, and children’s tuition all become factors dominating our career choices. Is that the only path we’re destined to take? Is there another option?
Jackie You’s response to this questions is clear and sound: No, don’t let these factors affect your choices. You should follow your heart!
Jackie is an ex-investment banker, former CFO of a US publicly listed company, and an entrepreneur. On our latest episode, Jackie uses her personal experience to explain why your heart knows better than your mind when it comes to certain life choices — according to her, when your heart points you in one direction, you should just go with it.
Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.
Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at womenpodcast@outlook.com.
Over the last few months, many sexual harassment cases in the US have come out one by one. Many women have stepped out from the dark to speak about what has happened to them, bravely challenging the powerful figures that they used to be afraid of. It is time to say “NO.”
On the other side of the world, some Chinese women who have more exposure to international affairs have started to raise awareness of this issue, and look at what’s happening to themselves. China’s society as a whole, however, remains quiet. In fact, there is rarely any public discussion about sexual harassment here. An op-ed published shortly after the Weinstein scandal broke by China Daily, the government’s mouthpiece, argued that sexual harassment is a Western issue, one that doesn’t exist in China due to “Chinese traditional values and conservative attitudes.” (That op-ed has since been removed from China Daily‘s website.)
We disagree! There IS sexual harassment in China, and it is quite common.
We talked with our friends, and share some of their personal stories on today’s podcast. We also argue that there are several reasons why, when compared with the US on the issue of sexual harassment, Chinese society still has a long way to go:
• Severe lack of sex and gender education
• No legal and regulatory execution or environment to protect women who speak out
• Government control of the media limiting open discussion of the issue
So, as girls in the US enjoy newfound support, here in China we need to stand by each other, share our stories, raise awareness, and, most importantly, bravely say “No.”
Any self-respecting beer drinker who has lived in Beijing has heard of Great Leap Brewing.
As northern China’s first ever craft brewery, Great Leap Brewing consigned to history the days when beer in Beijing meant Tsingtao, Yanjing, or nothing. Sourcing about 80% of its ingredients from China, Great Leap aims to make world-class beer that showcases the finest aspects of Chinese culture. Arguably the institution that brought true pub culture to Beijing, it is now the go-to place for beer-loving Chinese and expats alike.
Today, we have the honor of speaking to Liu Fang, perhaps the lesser known half of the husband-wife duo that founded GLB. She shares what inspired her and her husband, Carl, to build what has become one of Beijing’s best-known small businesses.
Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.
Dating is hard for a Chinese girl. Not only because it’s difficult to find Mr. Right, but also because the window for you to date is short.
Before college, parents and teachers forbid you to date lest it distracts from your studies. Right after college, if you’re still single, parents and relatives start to become anxious. God forbid you turn 25 and are still single, and get labeled a “leftover woman.” At that point, finding a so-called “perfect husband” suddenly becomes the top priority not only for you but the whole extended family. Seriously.
You will find yourself overwhelmed by blind dates set up by your parents, your third auntie, your fourth uncle. Even your grandma’s random friend, who hasn’t talked to her for years, will worry about you and provide all kinds of dating tips.
Pleeeaaase, just give us a break! Swamped with blind dates, we realize that we don’t actually know what kind of person we want. Some of us have decided to turn a blind eye to the whole process and just carry on, while others have started to ask questions: What is a healthy relationship? How to love? Where can we learn this?
Our parents are not good examples. They either never show their emotions or use arguments to express their frustration rather than having a calm discussion. Our peers are having the same problems, so there is no way to count on them either.
Maybe turn to TV and film? It sounds ridiculous, but it works. Friends and the Sex and the City became the relationship textbook for many of us.
So we grow up and teach ourselves how to navigate relationships. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, the relationship works out, but other times we hit the wall badly.
Today we invite Jia Hailan, a single girl in Beijing, to chat with us. The three of us shared our dating experiences and discussed how we’ve learned to love, and the impact our families have had on our relationships.
Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.
Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at womenpodcast@outlook.com.
Not long ago, “going to the gym” was not very common among working Chinese — traditional gyms, which tended to be overcrowded and lacking in modern, functional equipment, were pretty much the only option for exercising in China. In recent years, however, “getting fit” has suddenly become popular, and many boutique fitness centers seem to have mushroomed in China overnight. There are many options now, including spin class, HIIT, yoga, boxing, and dancing. Today, many of us are motivated and encouraged by one another to embrace this new fitness craze.
What’s even more interesting is that “getting fit” is no longer just a topic, but rather an entire lifestyle. You can pick up on the change by gauging the conversations people have after coming back to work on Monday: instead of asking What did you do over the weekend?, people are asking Did you go to the gym? If you don’t do any kind of exercise, you might feel a little bit left out.
How popular has the fitness trend become in China? Apparently, it’s become popular enough to attract Michelle Obama’s spin instructor to come to China to teach.
Durell E Brown, known as “Edward” to members of the Gucycle spin club in Beijing and Shanghai, shared his experiences teaching America’s former First Lady, as well as his observations of China’s emerging fitness trends.
Durell E Brown, known as “Edward” to members of the Gucycle spin club in Beijing and Shanghai, shared his experiences teaching America’s former First Lady, as well as his observations of China’s emerging fitness trends.
We are re-releasing the early episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast on iTunes. This was our third podcast (and we were still trying to figure out the technical aspects). In this episode, we talk to Ailin Guo, a young, intelligent and passionate woman who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur. This episode originally aired on the Radii China network on August 11, 2017.
People used to call China the copycat nation, but now China is known for its innovation and entrepreneurship — from e-commerce to the sharing economy, from Alibaba to Mobike.
Unlike their parents, who followed the orthodox path of holding an “iron rice bowl” (铁饭碗; a phrase meaning guaranteed employment) in a State-owned company for their entire life, the aspirational generation of young Chinese people today are chasing the exciting “startup” culture, and trying to build something of their own. They keep challenging themselves and are driven to create products and services that will “make the world a better place” (as they say in the TV show Silicon Valley).
Six years ago, as a rising star in a multinational company, Ailin left her job and started her adventure with her then-boyfriend as entrepreneurs. Many people were surprised by her decision, as it doesn’t seem to be a path that a straight-A student with a bright future in the corporate world would take.
Ailin shared why she chose this path and her stories on what it takes to be an entrepreneur in China.
Ailin has now emigrated to the United States but continues to pursue her entrepreneurial dream. Supported by her work and life partner, William, she is in talks with venture capital firms to fund their next big idea.
Are you comfortable with the idea of breastfeeding in public? Do you think it’s a totally natural thing, as Jingjing does? Or are you, like Yajun, someone who feels that breasts are too private to expose in public, no matter the purpose? What would you do if you and your child were out, and he or she needed to be fed?
Many Chinese mothers face this kind of situation every day, and for working mothers, the situation gets even trickier when you factor in business trips.
Today Grace Zhang, a communications expert for a well-known investment bank and mother of a two-year-old, shares her story with us through the lens of breastfeeding and discusses her experience of juggling raising a baby with excelling in a highly demanding job.
We are re-releasing the early episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast on iTunes. This was our second podcast (and we were still trying to figure out the technical aspects) with Kiki Zhao, formerly of the New York Times Beijing Bureau.
For China, Donald Trump is one of the most dramatic and unusual US presidents in recent memory. His bold statements — sorry, Twitter posts — and capacity for courting controversy have made him popular fodder for the Chinese media. What do people in China think as they watch this American political tragicomedy unfold across the Pacific?
On our podcast today, we have invited Kiki Zhao, a former researcher for the Financial Times and New York Times Beijing bureaus. Zhao has reported on a variety of topics in China, including politics, business, foreign policy, social issues, and many others. She recently moved on from her journalism career and is headed to New Haven in August to pursue a Master’s at Yale University’s East Asian Studies.
This episode was recorded a few months ago when Kiki was still working for the New York Times. She explained to us the thinking behind her organization’s so-called “failing” coverage of Trump and shared her personal observations on what her Chinese friends, including friends from the Chinese Christian community, thinks about the Trump phenomenon.
What’s life like when you move to a new country with a completely different language and culture?
How do you achieve a balance between work and family?
How do you make sure your young children can adapt to the new environment?
On today’s show, Jingjing and Yajun sit down with Handan Bao, a mother with two children who has lived in three different countries over the past eight years. Based on her unique experience, Handan shares her life stories, insights and challenges from living in China, Germany, and the United States.
Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here.
Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at womenpodcast@outlook.com.
Soundcloud embed (if you’re in China, turn your VPN on):