After a long and hot July marked by the near-absence of most of our guests, Sinica host Kaiser Kuo is pleased to be back this week leading a discussion of the recent accident on the high-speed Hangzhou-Wenzhou rail line, an accident that has shattered public confidence in the rail system and undermined one of the most public symbols of China's economic and technical resurgence.

And while we don't want to downplay the human tragedy involved, we do have to ask: why all the fuss? After an abortive attempt to quite literally bury the accident, the state has acquisced to an explosion of public indignation over the accident. The outcry has become particularly visible on microblogging site Sina Weibo, and raises the question of why? Is this a sign of a general loosening of propaganda controls, a greater radicalization of the Chinese middle class, or perhaps even an internal power struggle within the arms of the Community Party. This week we consider the evidence for all these interpretations.

Also up for discussion is the question of what will happen to Sina Weibo? Leading away from the rail accident, we ask if China's answer to Twitter has become too big to censor and wonder about the future for the platform. We also take a look at a controversial article by David Sedaris and ask, has the popular humorist lost his sense of humour, or have we?
 said on
July 30, 2011
Here is the link to the downloadable version of the Sinica podcast if that's your thing. For instructions on subscribing to the Sinica feed via iTunes, just look for the instructions at the bottom of our podcast introduction here
 said on
July 30, 2011
where is the mp3 file
 said on
July 30, 2011
↑同问
 said on
July 30, 2011
Great job guys -- really engaging topics, and always insightful commentary.
 said on
July 30, 2011
Found that the links to the MP3 are in the RSS feed at least:

http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica

Here is the MP3 for this podcast:

http://data.popupchinese.com/1014/sinica-train-wrecks.mp3
 said on
August 1, 2011
Hey Micah,

Thanks for that.

--david

 said on
August 3, 2011
Mybfirst Sinica episode, & it was great!
 said on
August 3, 2011
@Maxiwawa,

好久没见到你了!你最近怎么样?我很久以前看到你留在 Youtube 上的视频,我觉得你的同声传译和分神能力都厉害得很!

你有没有注意到泡泡中文现在已经长大了?

 said on
August 3, 2011
胡老师,最近忙,你怎么还记得我啊,真的是一种荣幸。。。

最近进了大学,口译/笔译!实在太难了!!!
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August 3, 2011
是呀,长大了,现在有kai叔叔的sinica,泡泡已不只是个学中文网站了。你那个short stories也不错,泡泡已经不仅是教育辅导网站了
 said on
August 5, 2011
Heard Jeremy on NPR's "On the Media" program talking about the governmental reaction to the train wreck. I'm curious if there are officials that have the task of researching what 老外 journalists say about China to western media outlets. Is every opinion expressed on Sinica something you guys could also express on CCTV without any significant repercussion?
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August 6, 2011
@maxiewawa,

是呀,真是好久没见你来看我们大家呢。

哈哈哈,你说“kai叔叔”太逗了......

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 6, 2011
@尼古拉斯桑,

I'd guess CCTV would avoid some of the topics discussed because it's the state broadcasting company. For our part we don't put pressure on people to say or not say anything, although we will sometimes consciously avoid including sensitive keywords in the podcast introduction to avoid antagonizing the national firewall.

--david

 said on
August 12, 2011
Here are the reading recommendations mentioned at the end of the podcast:

http://thehypermodern.com [Kaiser recommends George Ding's takeoff on Sedaris' column]

"The Big Necessity" by Rose George [about turds]

Michael Pettis asks how the debt got this big. An export-led mercantalist economy

"Factory Girls" by Leslie Chang [especially the parts about laborers in high tech factories]

 said on
May 29, 2013
Once again Jeremy hits the nail on the head!
Mark Lesson Studied