We have enough favorite writers on China that we've had to develop a sophisticated classification system just to keep track of everyone. That said, one of our hardest to place somewhere in the long-form taxonomy is Chris Beam, who you may have heard on past episodes talking about his experience in Chinese ping-pong bootcamp, or maybe his account of the birth of American football with the saga of the Chongqing Dockers.

If you liked those shows as much as we did, you'll be delighted to hear that Chris is back this week to talk about his latest essay, an entertaining and surprisingly sympathetic look at the international Cruise Industry and its attempts to romance one of the least sea-faring countries on the planet. And considering the phenomenal timing of this show -- taking place almost exactly as Jeremy Goldkorn "goes native" in America and enjoys his very first mega cruise -- we hope you enjoy the show as much as we enjoy bringing it to you.

Enjoy Sinica? Add our show to your favorite RSS reader using our customer feed. We also welcome all listeners to write us at sinica@popupchinese.com with suggestions on guests you'd like to hear from and topics you'd like to hear us cover. And feel free to download the standalone mp3 file of this show to share with friends and colleagues.
 said on
June 17, 2015
I really enjoyed this show. My favourite Beam essay has to be his ping pong piece for GQ though. Sharing below in case anyone hasn't read it:

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201209/ping-pong-china-christopher-beam

 said on
June 22, 2015
Here's the link to the China Rhyming post referred to in the show:

http://www.chinarhyming.com/2015/04/25/hipster-ex-pat-hutong-dwellers-are-you-a-mrs-mascot-of-a-philip-flower/

The BBC Documentary about Standup comedy in China

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nlwjf

Mark Lesson Studied