In a summer when many reporters and their families are departing Beijing (including many people who have appeared on this podcast), perhaps the biggest loss to the foreign correspondents' pool in the Chinese capital is the departure of Evan Osnos, who has been in China since 2005 and writing for the New Yorker since 2008. In today's show, Kaiser and Jeremy caught Evan before he leaves for Washington next month to talk about the big kerfuffle at NYU, how the Snowden affair may or may not affect Sino-American diplomacy, his forthcoming book, and about his time in China. We're sure that once you listen to this you'll understand why Evan will be so sorely missed.Like Sinica? Don't forget you can download this podcast as a standalone mp3 file. And if you'd like to download out entire archive in one go, just open up iTunes and subscribe to our custom Sinica feed at http://popupchinese.com/custom/feeds/sinica. And if you run into problems, we can be reached for support at service@popupchinese.com.
howiesnyder
said on June 22, 2013
Yo....what's with the censoring of Jeremy's language?
phil.mead
said on June 22, 2013
"Fun man", that it certainly was, and entrancing. I became so absorbed with Evan's stories I missed a business deadline. But it was a small price to pay for the enjoyment and enlightenment. One of the memorable highlights for me was the 'educated' Hutong neighbour who dissed the street cleaner whom Evan later learnt hosted an online modern Chinese poetry forum. What an instructive morality tale. If Lu Xun were alive today, he would have penned it as a short story. As he isn't, Evan should. I look forward to reading his book.
jmainardi
said on June 22, 2013
Thanks for calling out the authenticity fetish - I lived in the "downtown" area in Qingdao for a couple of years and it annoyed me to no end hearing other expats complain that we weren't living in the real China.
shane.xian
said on June 23, 2013
Standalone mp3 file doesn't work.
Sinica
said on June 23, 2013
@shane.xian -- fixed, thanks.@howiesnyder -- the bleeping is because of iTunes policy. We've become a lot more relaxed about it since Steve Jobs passed on, but this was Sylvia's first time editing a show. Not an attempt to censor.--david
robfur1
said on June 23, 2013
Peter Hessler goes from Beijing to Ridgeway, CO, a gorgeous blip on the map while Mr. Osnos goes to Washington (gorgeous not being a word often associated with the place). Your case is made. With all the quips and in-jokes, the interview got a little lost. Normally when interviewing someone who's leaving, you ask what they'll be doing in their new environs. We have not a clue. Working for the New Yorker? The Tribune? A lobbyist for the Chinese government? I look forward to his book. Hessler's were great. I suspect Osnos' will be too.
docwphd
said on June 23, 2013
It's not a coincidence that so many dissidents turn out so badly. Western naivety about what causes/people to 'support' creates a self-selection process. The West too often barks up the wrong tree in short. this is not unique to China either. look at the history of the soviet union and the eastern block in general. the same applies. People who turn out to be instrumental to the down fall or change of the old system often work within the system and do not 'give up' so easily by taking the easy way out of courting the embrace of the populist/naive forces within the West. Please be more discerning and more clever about what and how you support the progressive forces in China. God knows they need it. and there are too many issues/people that the mainstream focus on are irrelevant, or worse, counterproductive, making it all too easy for the establishment to dismiss, ridicule and exploit in front of the Chinese masses.
BILLINCHINA
said on June 24, 2013
Very much agree with Evan on the point that a China correspondent is lucky to not have an editor with China experience as a reporter...we are lucky to have the ability to craft a "moral" lens through which a listener (or, in the case of a print reporter, a reader) 'views' China is key to integrity. That privilege is not always extant in the U.S. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Bill Marcus
舒雅
said on June 24, 2013
。。。。Sinica越来越长呀！我的中级、高级中文交谈在那里？
