logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2021
58m 1s

China in Slogans

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China. Throughout its existence, the party has used key slogans to communicate policy and mobilise the country's vast population. These messages reflect not just the ambitions of party leaders but also have a profound impact on the lives of millions. Using the BBC archive Celia examines the story behind eight key Communist Party slogans, from their early years as a guerrilla movement to the campaigns of China's current all-powerful leader Xi XInping.

Contributors: Professor Vivienne Shue, Dr Jennifer Altehenger, Dr Olivia Cheung, author Lijia Zhang, Dr Rowena He, and New York Times correspondent Christopher Buckley.

Presenter: Celia Hatton Producer: Alex Last Editor: Hugh Levinson

Up next
Jul 2024
Stealing Power
Meter tampering means altering a meter to prevent it from fully recording how much electricity or gas is being used, or bypassing the meter completely to energy usage being recorded at all. It may seem like a great idea, but there are consequences. It’s dangerous and it is a crim ... Show More
28m 31s
Jul 2024
The Club Nobody Wants to Join
There Is a club that no high school principal in the USA wants to join, but they are all incredibly grateful that its there. Because in the event of the worst possible scenario happening, they will need it The 'Principal Recovery Network' is made up of school leaders who have liv ... Show More
28m 31s
Jul 2024
Searching for Butterflies
In the mountains of Latakia, Syria, Mudar Salimeh devotes much of his time to searching for butterflies. A geologist, artist, and nature lover, Mudar's fascination with butterflies began in the spring of 2018 when a great number of caterpillars appeared in his art studio. Over ti ... Show More
28m 52s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2021
June 27, 2021 |On GPS: As China celebrates a century of communism, Fareed talks to an expert panel about what’s next for China. Plus, Malcolm Gladwell is back with a revisionist history perspective on
On Thursday, the Chinese Communist Party will celebrate its 100-year anniversary and Beijing is commemorating with festivities all over the country. Fareed hosts Elizabeth Economy, senior fellow for China studies at the Council for Foreign Relations, Rana Mitter, professor of mod ... Show More
40m 14s
Oct 2022
What A Third Term For Xi Jinping Could Mean For China And The World
This week, China's Communist Party Congress is expected to approve a historic third term in office for the country's leader, Xi Jinping. Xi has already been in power for a decade, a period marked by growing authoritarianism in China. Many experts believe he could emerge a more em ... Show More
14m 8s
Aug 2023
A Marriage, a Secret and a Crackdown in China
Over the past decade, China has placed more and more restrictions on the lives of its citizens — tightening its hold over what people can do, read and say.When Bei Zhenying’s husband was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for “smearing” the country’s political system ... Show More
40m 59s
May 2022
Ban Wang, "China in the World: Culture, Politics, and World Vision" (Duke UP, 2022)
Ban Wang's book China in the World: Culture, Politics, and World Vision (Duke University Press, 2022), traces the evolution of modern China from the late nineteenth century to the present. With a focus on tensions and connections between national formation and international outlo ... Show More
58m 18s
Jan 2023
There’s Been a Revolution in How China Is Governed
There are few stories that are more crucial to the world’s future than what’s happening in China. Take any of the most important issues of our time — climate change, geopolitics, the global economy, advanced technologies — and China is at the center of them. American politics its ... Show More
1h 19m
Nov 2019
Lian Xi, "Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao's China" (Basic Books, 2018)
In 1960, a poet and journalist named Lin Zhao was arrested by the Communist Party of China and sent to prison for re-education. Years before, she had –at approximately the same time– converted to both Christianity and to Maoism. In prison she lost the second faith but clung to th ... Show More
1h 18m
Mar 2024
Chinese history
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.To mark 50 years since the discovery of the Terracotta Army, we're exploring modern Chinese history.We hear from the man who helped to modernise the Chinese language by creating a ... Show More
52m 5s
Feb 2022
Leilei Chen, "Re-Orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-Cultural Understanding" (U Regina Press, 2016)
Re-Orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-Cultural Understanding (U Regina Press, 2016) challenges the notion of the travel writer as imperialistic, while exploring the binary opposition of self/other. Featuring analyses of rarely studied writers on post-1949 China, including ... Show More
1h 24m