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Cape No. 7 (海角七號, Hǎijiǎo Qī Hào) by Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖, who also directed Warriors of the Rainbow) is a romantic comedy about two intercultural couples (Taiwanese and Japanese) in the 1940s and the 2000s. In this episode, we again examine the fraught history of Japanese imperialism on the island of Taiwan, which was a colony of imperial Japan from 1895 to 1945. We are very excited to be joined on this episode by Dr. Fang Yu Hu, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. 

We recorded this episode in response to the March 16, 2021 Atlanta Massacre. We discuss the importance of understanding and confronting the history of anti-Asian racism in the United States, as well as current anti-Asian racism and racist violence. 

Shigeru Mizuki's Showa is an epic four-volume graphic novel series about the Showa era of Japan (1926-1989) and a semi-biographical account of Mizuki's own life during that period. It's funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, beautiful, and complex, and it shows why graphic novels are such a powerful and important medium. We talk with Dr. Maryanne Rhett about using graphic novels in the classroom and some of her favorites. 

Park Chan-wook set his 2016 film The Handmaiden in Korea under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). Colonial Korea proves to be the perfect setting for a romantic crime story that explores sexuality, deception, and power. Park is known for his gorgeous—and gory—films like Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters's 2002 novel The Fingersmith, set in Victorian-era Britain and shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize. Professor Kelly Y. Jeong of UC Riverside joins us to discuss the film. 

Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem is a wildly popular Chinese science fiction novel, and it's easy to see why. It opens during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, setting the tone for a multigenerational, universe-spanning story that careens between missing scientists, a mysterious video game, and an exploration of the nature of humanity and the cosmos itself. In this episode, we situate Liu's novel within the history of Chinese science fiction and also bring in Dr. Colin West, a theoretical physicist from the University of Colorado, to help us understand the science in the The Three Body Problem.

"Principal, call me if you want to get a room. Leave the students alone." This was the sign that Ye Haiyan, a Chinese activist better known by the nickname Hooligan Sparrow, held up during her protests over the handling of the kidnapping and rape of six girls in Hainan province, China. In this episode, Prof. Gail Hershatter joins us to talk about Hooligan Sparrow, Wang Nanfu's 2016 documentary about Ye Haiyan and her activism. 

Do you love wuxia (martial arts) films, Chinese history, Jet Li, the gorgeous 2002 film Hero, or all of the above? This is the mini-episode for you! We talk about Zhang Yimou's Hero, the historical narrative it tells about Qin Shihuang — best known as the first emperor of unified China, the concept of tianxia, and much more!  

We originally planned for this episode to focus on the 2014 film The Interview, but we ended up talking about the Olympics, U.S.-North Korean relations, the Korean War, and even a Korean folk story about the war! If you want some perspective on all the recent developments in North Korea, listen to this episode, featuring an interview with Christine Hong, professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Tampopo, Juzo Itami's "noodle western," came out in 1985, back when most Americans had never even heard of ramen. Join us for a discussion of this hilarious film as well as the history of ramen in Japan and the U.S.

ACRUSH, a popular new boy band, is also one of the most recent examples of gender-bending in China. Join us for a discussion of ACRUSH and a whirlwind tour of China's long history of women who refuse to be limited by their gender.

We're talking about Chinese TV-viewing habits in this mini episode about the Simpsons in China and bullet subtitles. Did you know that the Simpsons, often considered a quintessentially American television show, is popular in China? And have you ever heard of "bullet subtitles" (danmu), a live-chat function on many Chinese streaming websites?  We discuss all this and more! 

This mini episode has it all! We play the board game "Home Play," discuss the history of LGBTQ people in Taiwan, and respond to a listener question with help from Prof. Chia-rong Wu. 

Two urban Chinese youth are sent to live in the countryside during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a film based on the novel of the same name. In our fifth full episode, we discuss the film, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and more, with help from Profs. Chris Connery and Emily Honig.

Our fourth full episode features a discussion of Warriors of the Rainbow, Wei Te-sheng's 2011 film about the 1930 Wushe Uprising in Taiwan. We brought in Dr. Leo Ching to help us discuss the movie, Taiwan's history of colonization, and Taiwanese identity formation. 

This mini episode features Chinese memes about North Korea, censorship of those memes in mainland China, and a brief history of the division of the Korean peninsula to help explain the current political situation. 

Our third full episode features a discussion of Ghost in the Shell, a long-running Japanese pop culture franchise, as well as issues of whitewashing, gender, and technology in the Japanese and American popular imaginations. Dr. Noriko Aso came in to help us discuss all these issues and more.

Our second episode features a discussion of Japanese writer/politician/singer Nosaka Akiyuki and two of his works, Grave of the Fireflies and "American Hijiki." We brought in Dr. Alan Christy to help us discuss Nosaka's works, World War II in Japan, and the postwar American occupation. 

This mini episode features a discussion of fascism: What is it? Did Japan have it? Do we have it now? This episode's investigation of fascism will give you some background for our upcoming episode on Nosaka Akiyuki's Grave of the Fireflies and "American Hijiki."

Our first episode features a discussion of Chai Jing's documentary Under the Dome, about the pollution crisis in China. We also talk about Chai Jing's career, censorship, and how we dealt with air pollution when we lived in China