logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
38m 17s

Drum Tower: Startle the heart

The Economist
About this episode

“Spring Landscape”, a poem written over 1,000 years ago, remains one of China’s most celebrated literary works. Composed by the 8th Century Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, it is still memorised by every schoolchild in the country. Why is the poem still so resonant today? 


The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, consider whether the ambiguity of classical Chinese makes it ideal for poetry. Our deputy editor Edward Carr explores how close he can get to the poem in translation. Nicolas Chapuis, a former ambassador to China who is translating Du Fu’s complete works into French, examines the meaning of one particular couplet of the poem. And Eileen Chengyin Chow of Duke University takes us outside China’s poetry canon. 


Sign up to our weekly newsletter here.


For full access to print, digital and audio editions, as well as exclusive live events, subscribe to The Economist at economist.com/drumoffer.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Today
Dune raider: Saudi is a video-game superpower
Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, is a huge video-game fan. Now his hobby is becoming a multi-billion-dollar industry for the kingdom, which is acquiring some of the world’s biggest gaming firms. How Finnish icebreakers became a focus for polar power politics. And ... Show More
19m 57s
Yesterday
Finally, a deal: the fragile peace in Gaza
Donald Trump has brokered an agreement between Israel’s government and Hamas. It’s a momentous breakthrough. Our correspondent analyses what comes next. We launch “The Economist Insider”, our new TV show for subscribers, where senior editors debate the news. And, do red-light mas ... Show More
23m 25s
Oct 8
Liberté, égalité, désordre: chaos in France
France’s newly-appointed prime minister has resigned only weeks into the job. Now President Emmanual Macron has given him 48 hours to come up with a plan for next year’s budget. Can Macron survive the turmoil? As driverless taxis take over San Francisco, what will happen to the h ... Show More
21m 3s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2022
Drum Tower: Startle the heart
“Spring Landscape”, a poem written over 1,000 years ago, remains one of China’s most celebrated literary works. Composed by the 8th Century Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, it is still memorised by every schoolchild in the country. Why is the poem still so resonant today?  The Economist’ ... Show More
38m 17s
Sep 2023
Drum Tower: Inside Fortress China
Panzhihua used to be a state secret. The steel-making city, buried deep in the mountains of Sichuan, formed part of Mao Zedong’s Third Front, a covert plan to move core industries inland in case America or the Soviet Union attacked. David Rennie, The Economist’s Beijing bureau ch ... Show More
42m 1s
Feb 2023
Drum Tower: Up in the air
Sino-American relations have been blown off course after the downing of a Chinese balloon.  The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and our senior China correspondent, Alice Su, explore whether China and America are heading towards a stand-off and what needs to be don ... Show More
40m 45s
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
Mar 2024
1085: Spring View by Du Fu, translated by Arthur Sze
Today’s poem is Spring View by Du Fu, translated by Arthur Sze. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Victoria Chang writes… “I have always loved imagining how people lived a long time ago, what they thought about, how they dressed, what they ate. ... Show More
5m 35s
Oct 2023
The Sunday Read: ‘The Art of Telling Forbidden Stories in China’
As China strove for a larger role on the international stage at the turn of the century, the arrival of the internet and a relatively relaxed political environment spurred a boom in self-expression. Many writers tested the boundaries of Chinese literary culture, experimenting wit ... Show More
38m 7s
Nov 2022
Introducing Drum Tower
Two of The Economist's China correspondents, Alice Su and David Rennie, analyse the stories at the heart of this vast country and examine its influence beyond its borders. They’ll be joined by our global network of correspondents and expert guests to examine how everything from p ... Show More
2m 18s
Nov 2022
Drum Tower: Back to the future
As China re-shapes the existing world order, its officials argue that the values behind it are Western and not universal. Western leaders worry that China is merely trying to make the world safe for dictatorships. Do universal values exist? The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, D ... Show More
32m 17s
Dec 2022
BONUS: A conversation with Lorna Goodison – and the humans behind Poetry Unbound
As part of a celebratory launch party for the new Poetry Unbound book, Pádraig welcomed Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, into a joyful Zoom room of poetry lovers and listeners of the show, old and new. We draw Season 6 to a close with their conversation on themes ... Show More
28m 6s