The China History Podcast

Thank you for your patience. In this fourth installment of the history of tea, we finally make it to the immortal Tea Saint. Lu Yu 陆羽. What Elvis was to rock n' roll, Lu Yu was to the popularity of te...

13 Dec 201419min

After centuries of trial and error, tea starts to transform from a bitter medicinal brew into something worthy of presenting to the emperor as tribute. Tea's development during the 326 years of the Su...

6 Dec 201424min

Tea might not have tasted so great in Shen Nong's time and for a thousand years thereafter. But progress was being made and tea's evolution starts to make some headway in China's Bronze Age that began...

30 Nov 201422min

In this first episode, we'll explore tea's humble beginnings in the Ba 巴国 and Shu 蜀国 States in today's Sichuan province. We'll also look at the mythical story of the discovery of tea by the Divine Far...

21 Nov 201424min

In this episode, we will conclude our CHP overview of the life of Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet. In this 3rd part of the series, we'll look at the last couple of decades of Backhouse's life. Backh...

24 Juli 201430min

Fast on the heels of Part 1 of this CHP overview of the life of the Sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse, we present Part 2 in this episode. We'll look at the years 1911 to 1924, the years that Backhouse c...

24 Juli 201436min

In this episode, we will begin a 3-part series covering the life of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet. He lived from 1873 to 1944, spending more than half his life in Beijing. Backhouse is be...

24 Juli 201439min

I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea in 2021 to resurrect this old episode from mid-2014 that tells the story of Wong Chin Foo (王清福). His spirit is alive and well in many of today's Chinese-Americans w...

28 Juni 201455min