Live from London | Yasheng Huang on the Origins of Modern China

This was fun!

Last Wednesday saw the first-ever live recording of On Humans. The event was held at the London Business School, courtesy of the LBS's China Club. My guest was MIT Professor Yasheng Huang, familiar to regular listeners from the China trilogy published earlier this fall.

In this new episode, we keep tackling the origins of modern China. This time, we draw insights from Huang's two upcoming books: Revisiting the Needham Question and Statism With Chinese Characteristics. The conversation is structured around five themes: 1) the "Needham Question"; 2) Keju exams; 3) Scale; 4) Scope; and 5) The Eighties. Expect juicy insights to questions such as:

• Why did the rise of Buddhism concide with rise of ancient inventions in ancient China?
• How does footbinding relate to China's technological decline?
• Has China's GDP growth stopped serving Chinese workers?

Towards the end of the conversation, Huang also shared his memories of working in China during the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

Enjoy!

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