The Little Red Podcast

18/08/2025

In our most recent episode, guests Gareth Fisher and Chien-Peng Chung contemplate the intersection of Buddhism and power in both China today and in the past.

Listen to the full episode here: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/karma-chameleon-the-ccp-turns-to-buddhism

08/08/2025

What does President Xi Jinping really think about Buddhism? With the rise of Buddhism in China, this question looms large. Back in 2014, Xi gave a speech at UNESCO speaking to the impact of Buddhism on China, the first time a PRC leader had given a pro-religious speech. In our latest episode, guests Chien-Peng Chung and Gareth Fisher speculate as to what Buddhism means to China's leader.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/karma-chameleon-the-ccp-turns-to-buddhism

01/08/2025

Looking for a new way to catch up on the Little Red Podcast? We are now on YouTube, where you can stream our episodes for free.

Bringing you China from beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Louisa Lim and Graeme Smith, with support from the Australian Centre for China in the World at the ANU.

29/07/2025

In our latest episode, we examine Buddhism's adoption by both China's people and the state. Shaolin Temples have been built across the world as a vehicle for promoting Buddhism overseas authorised by its leader Shi Yong Xin. Yet Shi has caught international media attention this week with news that he is under investigation for corruption. Host Graeme Smith and guest Gareth Fisher ponder how Shi Yong Xin has maintained his role until now in spite of scandals.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/karma-chameleon-the-ccp-turns-to-buddhism

23/07/2025

Continuing our series on belief in China, we look at the revival of Buddhism, which is being embraced by citizens and the Chinese state. While temple visits increase, the state is funding temples and martial arts academies from Nepal to Tanzania. As Xi Jinping extols Buddhism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese state is leveraging Buddhism diplomacy to its advantage. To find out more, Louisa and Graeme are joined by anthropologist Gareth Fisher from Syracuse University, the author of From Comrades to Bodhisattvas, and political scientist Chien-Peng Chung from Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Image: c/- Bitter Winter. Weibo image of Xi Jinping visiting Hongjue Temple, 18 June 2024.

Listen to the full episode: https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/karma-chameleon-the-ccp-turns-to-buddhism

16/07/2025

From our latest episode a different opinion on the status of ideology, specifically Marxism, in today’s China. Alison Sile Chen Zhao questions how prominent Marxism ever was to the PRC to start with.

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

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