Jiayang Fan is a staff writer for The New Yorker who moved from Chongqing to North America when she was seven years old. Despite her inability to drink alcohol because of an acetaldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency common to many East Asians, she covered the cocktail bars scene — among other topics — for the magazine for several years as a contributor before joining the publication full-time in 2016. She still occasionally writes restaurant and bar reviews, but her recent work has delved into China and its interactions with the world, especially the U.S. and Canada. In this episode of the Sinica Podcast, Jiayang talks with Kaiser and Jeremy about her article on Donald Trump, Trump’s appeal among young Chinese, and the similarities that some people perceive between him and Mao Zedong. She also discusses mainland Chinese attitudes toward Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, being Chinese and writing for a prestigious American magazine, the prejudices against and sensitivities of Asian-Americans, and, of course, Chinese food in New York City. Recommendations: Jeremy: Usborne children’s books, especially Shakespeare tales Jiayang: Reading Tang poetry in Chinese or playing recordings of it for small children (start here if you’re new to the form). The Mala Project restaurant in New York. Kaiser: A rare concert by Cui Jian at Worker’s Stadium in Beijing on September 30, 2016. Listen to Sinica on SupChina, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, or tune in with your favorite app using our feed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sinica Podcast
A weekly discussion of current affairs in China that looks at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends that help us better understand what’s happening in China’s politics, foreign relations, economics, and society. Join each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to the way we think and talk about China.
A weekly discussion of current affairs in China that looks at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends that help us better understand what’s happening in China’s politics, foreign relations, economics, and society. Join each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to the way we think and talk about China.
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