Britain's Mirpuri migration
In 1967, a dam was built in Mirpur, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, that would spur a huge global migration. Water diverted by the dam forced around 100,000 people to leave their homes.Thousands migrat...
25 Mar 202410min
Wham! in China
In 1985, the British band Wham! became the first Western pop act to play in China.Around 12,000 fans packed into the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing to hear such hits as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and ...
22 Mar 20249min
Discovering the Terracotta Army
It's 50 years since a chance find by Chinese farmers led to an astonishing archaeological discovery.Thousands of clay soldiers were uncovered in the province of Shaanxi after being buried for more tha...
21 Mar 20249min
The 'comfort women' of World War Two
Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.Referred to as "comfort women", they were taken from countries...
20 Mar 20249min
Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution
In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among hundreds of thousands of Chinese people sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s so-called cultural revolution.The aim was to re-educate those not thought...
19 Mar 202410min
Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write
In 1958, a brand new writing system was introduced in China called Pinyin. It used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words. The mastermind behind Pinyin was a professor calle...
18 Mar 20249min
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944.It was World War Two, and families in southern Italy ha...
15 Mar 20249min
Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero
Winifred Atwell was a classically-trained pianist from Trinidad who became one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s in the UK. She played pub tunes on her battered, out-of-tune piano which travell...
14 Mar 20249min
