Hey thanks, that's right, Rob Riggle. Doh!

@rizzo,

The credit is pretty much all Kaiser's actually. As he says, we're pleased to host the show and be able to take care of some of the recording and editing legwork. That said, I'm delighted that we're able to host it. Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Cheers,

--dave

I'm really digging your podcast. Keep it up.

Thanks to all involved. Excellent overview of lots of the major focus points of Chinese soft power issues. I think many of these points could serve as a topic for a 40 minute podcast of their own as time allows in the future. Other soft power issues I'd like to hear more about are tourism and the rapidly increasing numbers of westerners learning Chinese.

Thanks again for the great discussion!

Somewhat on topic here -- I actually spent an afternoon at the annual Confucius Institute conference earlier this year and got to see some pretty ineffectual soft power in action. The impetus for this was an email Popup Chinese received inviting us to pay them for the privilege of running a booth at their convention. We passed on the offer but I headed down to check out the conference on its first afternoon: the only attendees were Hanban-funded organizations and a few publishers.

So for all the fuss, there are a lot of things which signal to me that the organization really doesn't "get it" yet. They may be spending a lot of money, but the cash seems to go overwhelmingly towards (1) corrupt internal programs, (2) minor university programs abroad which benefit perhaps tens of students per year, and (3) cultural missions such as performing arts tours where the direct financial beneficiaries are also mainland Chinese. These also seem strangely disconnected - one of the common complaints I heard was that local schools are often given little or no notification of performing tours.

Probably also worth mentioning that one of the reasons for the hostility towards the Confucius Institute in California is that Taiwan has historically been very active in supplying teachers and providing direct funding for students, and California has a large number of people with an ethnic Chinese background who do not consider themselves to have much in common with the Chinese government. China would be better served (in my opinion) to provide more direct funding for US and foreign students to take immersion programs in China than what they are doing now. In that sense, the fact that there is even a battle for influence is a sign of the mainland's organizational weakness more than anything.

Also, assuming that you guys mean "cultural power" when you say "soft power" -- in contrast to "hard" economic and military power, I'd have to disagree that the U.S.'s putting up a World Expo pavilion is an example of Chinese soft power. The U.S. originally was not going to build a pavilion. It only started raising funds after China made it clear that not having a U.S. pavilion would hurt US-China relations. Basically, China is an insecure but powerful kid who would have cried and made a fuss if the U.S. refused to play along. Even then, the U.S. gov didn't contribute significant funding, and had to get everything from corporate backers.

This definitely wasn't a case where the U.S. was impressed with China's awesome cultural, soft power, and said, "hey there, I've got to be a part of that!"

Love the podcast. It's a welcome addition to my iPod.

Kaiser read from a blog post he wrote. It would be really cool if the podcast had links to stories our sources mentioned in the show.

@Kaiser: another great podcast. One point that echoes what Travelyan brought up regarding the Confucius Institute in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. While the majority of the overseas Chinese population in both Northern and Southern California is now from the Mainland, the San Gabriel Valley is the heart of the Taiwan expatriate community. What makes the SGV so interesting is that it is the only divided Chinese region in the world where approximately 50% of the Chinese population comes from Mainland China and the other 50% from Taiwan. While on the surface, everyone is largely amicable. Below that egg shell thick surface is a significant amount of animus between the two sides that manifests itself in disputes like the one over the Confucius Institute. Just to give you an idea over how contentious it is, one of the most controversial topics that you can raise in mixed Mainland/Taiwan company in Southern California is whether you use pin yin or phonetics to teach your kids Chinese. This gives you an idea of what kind of minefield the Confucius Institute is operating in.

@Talktostuart I trust you're joking; I'm obviously no advocate of Internet censorship, and I'm only here to take part in a debate because I was asked to argue against the proposition that "no government should censor the Internet" (which is a pretty easy position to defeat, I would think). No Brisbane; just Sydney and Melbourne. Hate being portrayed as some stooge of the CCP, and I'm planning on making it abundantly clear that I'm opposed to censorship as practiced in China, and opposed instinctively to curbs on Internet freedom in countries (like Australia) with deep roots in the western liberal political culture.

@Crusty_138 Thanks, yeah, those types of shows make it difficult to get into any real depth, but I feel like I got at least some of my main points across reasonably well. Mao Live House is closed -- the place was a real fire trap -- and D-22 is good if you're really into style and substance repulses you. Great hair cuts and ironic t-shirts, but don't expect much by way of musicianship or musicality. Other clubs to check out are 13 Club (right next to D-22) and Yugong Yishan. Enjoy the rock scene in Beijing! It's really pretty damned vibrant.

I actually do ride a bike in America but ironically I felt safer when I rode a bike in Beijing. The drivers here think that bikes shouldn't be using the road and truth is I wonder how often I have been close to death or major injury because of the way people here drive in relation to bikers. It isn't like Beijing where they have bike lanes with a median to protect the bikers. In addition, electric bikes here cost about $3-4,000 and people can buy a car for that much so why buy one. I bet as gas prices go up and the technology for electric bikes also increases decreasing prices so will the willingness to buy and use an electric bike in America.

I would be surprised if I'm not persona non grata here after how ridiculous I've been to 1,2,3 of the podcast discussants, but if Howard French shows up, I've read his scathingly negative report on China's involvement in Africa. Since it's essentially a first-hand report, I can't rebut its core thesis but I can mention that he was relatively off about China's potential to stimulate agricultural productivity growth.

See this program:

http://www.focac.org/eng/dsjbzjhy/hxxd/t645965.htm