CULTURE
The Full Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Where were you in 2008? Some viewers were very young, and others may not even have been born yet. China hosted the spectacular Olympic Games in Beijing that year. This recording offers an opportunity to experience a remarkable moment in modern Chinese history—one that remains among the most important and cherished collective memories of the Chinese people. Through it, viewers can gain a deeper understanding of China, its people, and the extraordinary excitement and national pride surrounding this historic event.
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TECHNOLOGY
China’s C919 Passenger Aircraft
The C919 is China’s first domestically developed mainline passenger jet. Produced by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), it represents China’s effort to enter a global market long dominated by Boeing and Airbus.
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ECONOMY
A New Yorker Columnist Reflects on China after Ten Years
After returning to China a decade later, a New Yorker columnist reflects on the country’s economic and technological transformation. He argues that China is increasingly pursuing its own developmental path and investing heavily in AI as a force that may reshape its economic future.
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LANGUAGE
A British Linguist Introduces China’s Languages and Dialects
A British linguist offers an engaging introduction to the rich diversity of Chinese language varieties and dialects, helping viewers look beyond the common assumption that spoken Chinese is a single, uniform language.
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POLITICS
Why Is Political Meritocracy Appropriate for China?
Political theorist Daniel A. Bell challenges the common view that China experienced economic reform without meaningful political change. He presents political meritocracy—xiánnéng zhèngzhì (贤能政治)—as an evolving ideal in which officials are selected and promoted according to ability, experience, performance, and public-minded virtue. Drawing on China’s size, Confucian political tradition, and public expectations, Bell argues for combining meritocratic leadership at higher levels with wider democratic participation below. His case offers a thought-provoking alternative to viewing every political system through a simple democracy-versus-authoritarianism divide.
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CULTURE
Amazing Marriage Customs in China
This documentary explores the remarkable diversity and historical development of marriage customs in China. Through practices involving matchmaking, bride prices, dowries, wedding processions, symbolic rituals, and community celebrations, it shows how ideas about marriage, family responsibility, social status, and courtship have differed across periods and communities. The film offers a vivid window into traditions that have changed greatly—and, in some places, nearly disappeared—as Chinese society has modernized.
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CULTURE
Some Imperial Chinese Eunuchs Took Wives—but Why?
Why would palace eunuchs marry when they could not have biological children? This video examines several proposed reasons, including the pursuit of social recognition, the formation of political and family alliances, companionship and household support, and security in old age through marriage and adoption. Its examples also expose the unequal power relationships and personal suffering that could exist behind outwardly prestigious unions, inviting viewers to consider how status, family continuity, wealth, and vulnerability intersected in imperial Chinese society.
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TECHNOLOGY
The Second World Humanoid Robot Games in China
This report introduces the second World Humanoid Robot Games in China, where humanoid machines are tested in the demanding setting of athletic competition. More than a technological spectacle, the event provides a visible measure of advances—and continuing limitations—in balance, movement, coordination, speed, and autonomous performance. It offers viewers a lively glimpse into China’s rapidly developing robotics sector and the ways competitive events can accelerate experimentation and innovation.
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POLITICS
Why Does the West Vilify China?
This article attributes negative Western perceptions of China to a combination of historical narratives, cultural stereotypes, geopolitical rivalry, fear of changing power relationships, and mutual misunderstanding. It contrasts Western emphases on competition and individualism with Chinese traditions that value harmony, collective well-being, and long-term stability. Rather than denying areas of disagreement, the author calls for clearer communication, greater empathy, and a more reflective dialogue in which both China and the West examine their assumptions about one another.
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MILITARY
China’s One-vs-All Endgame: Western Think Tanks and Their Real Intentions
This analysis examines the strategic environment created by expanding alliances, military planning, and policy debates surrounding China. It asks whether Western security strategies are primarily intended to deter conflict, preserve an existing balance of power, or contain China’s rise. By presenting the issue from a perspective rarely emphasized in mainstream Western discussions, the video invites viewers to distinguish between stated policy objectives, underlying strategic interests, and the narratives used to justify military preparation.
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POLITICS
How Was the “Threat of China” Made in the USA?
This video investigates how China came to be framed as a major threat within American political, media, military, and policy discourse. It considers how economic competition, national-security concerns, institutional interests, and repeated public narratives can shape popular perceptions of another country. The presentation encourages viewers to ask who constructs a threat narrative, what evidence supports it, whose interests it serves, and how rhetoric can influence relations between nations.
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TECHNOLOGY
Inside Apple’s iPhone Factory in China
This report takes viewers inside the immense manufacturing system behind one of the world’s most recognizable consumer products. It highlights the scale, coordination, precision, labor, quality control, and supplier networks required to assemble iPhones in China. The factory provides a concrete case study of China’s position in global production—and of the deep interdependence connecting Chinese manufacturing capacity, multinational corporations, technology supply chains, and consumers around the world.
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ENVIRONMENT
China’s Next Economic Transformation: Going Carbon Neutral by 2060
This Wall Street Journal report explores the scale of China’s pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Reaching that goal would require a profound transformation of a vast economy still strongly connected to coal, heavy industry, transportation, construction, and rapidly growing energy demand. The video examines how renewable power, electric vehicles, technological investment, industrial policy, and difficult economic trade-offs may reshape both China’s development and the global response to climate change.
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ENVIRONMENT
China’s Investment in Renewable Energy Pays Off
This report examines the results of China’s sustained investment in renewable energy and clean-technology industries. Large-scale deployment of solar and wind power, expanding transmission infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and falling technology costs have strengthened China’s position in the global energy transition. At the same time, the subject invites a fuller examination of continuing challenges, including fossil-fuel dependence, grid integration, regional imbalances, and the task of translating industrial leadership into lasting emissions reductions.
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AGRICULTURE
How Is China Blowing Its Best Chance to Beat the United States?
Viewed through agriculture, this report considers the strategic importance of food security, productivity, technology, land use, and rural policy in competition between China and the United States. It examines choices and structural constraints that may prevent China from fully converting its resources and technological ambitions into agricultural advantage. The video invites viewers to look beyond headline economic rankings and consider how the ability to feed a large population remains a fundamental measure of national resilience.
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SOCIETY
What Do Americans Think about China?
Through informal conversations with Americans, the Fung Bros explore the impressions, associations, concerns, stereotypes, and areas of curiosity that shape public views of China. The responses reveal that attitudes are rarely uniform: admiration for Chinese culture, food, history, and economic development can coexist with political anxiety or limited firsthand knowledge. The video offers a useful starting point for examining how media exposure, personal experience, heritage, and international tensions influence ordinary people’s perceptions.
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ECONOMY
How Poor China Became the World’s Factory in Forty Years
This account traces China’s transformation from a largely poor and inward-looking economy into the manufacturing center of the world. Beginning with the reform and opening policies associated with Deng Xiaoping, it highlights experimentation, special economic zones, foreign investment, infrastructure, a large industrial workforce, export growth, and integration into global supply chains. The story helps viewers understand both the extraordinary speed of China’s economic rise and the policy choices, social changes, and international connections behind it.
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ECONOMY
China’s 15th Five-Year Plan Explained: Technology, Markets, and Long-Term Strategy
This video examines the priorities and strategic thinking associated with China’s 15th Five-Year Plan. It considers how technological development, domestic and international markets, industrial policy, and long-term planning may shape the country’s next stage of economic growth. The discussion offers learners a useful introduction to the role of national plans in coordinating development while responding to changing economic conditions.
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ECONOMY
Economist Richard Wolff: The U.S. Empire Is Over—It’s China’s Turn
Economist Richard Wolff explains why he believes the American empire is in decline—and why China and Asia are shaping the future of the global economy. The discussion addresses the history of U.S. colonialism, criticisms of American capitalism, China’s hybrid economic model, the economic consequences of the Iran war, and the growing appeal of socialism in the United States. Wolff also considers whether the United States and China can coexist peacefully and how changing domestic politics may affect America’s response to a shifting world order.
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POLITICS
China’s Hidden Strategy toward the United States—Explained by Kishore Mahbubani
Geopolitical thinker Kishore Mahbubani discusses China’s long-term approach to its relationship with the United States. The video considers economic development, technological advancement, manufacturing, infrastructure, global influence, and strategic diplomacy as parts of a broader contest over international power. It invites viewers to ask whether China seeks to defeat the United States or to build a world in which American dominance is no longer decisive.
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POLITICS
A Journalist Challenges Kishore Mahbubani on China
In this interview, Kishore Mahbubani responds to challenging questions about China and its place in the international order. His answers offer a sustained critique of common Western assumptions while drawing attention to history, development, diplomacy, and differences in political perspective. The exchange encourages viewers to evaluate both the questions and the responses rather than treating either side as the final word.
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POLITICS
Kishore Mahbubani on a Possible Chinese Blockade of Taiwan
Kishore Mahbubani assesses the strategic realities surrounding Taiwan and the possibility of a blockade by mainland China. His argument focuses on geography, military risk, political calculation, and the limits of outside intervention. The video provides one expert’s perspective on a highly contested issue and invites careful comparison with other analyses of deterrence, escalation, and cross-strait relations.
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MILITARY
What U.S. Sailors Eat vs. What Chinese Sailors Eat on an Aircraft Carrier
This comparison looks at everyday food service aboard American and Chinese aircraft carriers. Beyond the menus themselves, meals at sea reveal practical questions of logistics, nutrition, morale, cultural preference, and life aboard a large naval vessel. The video offers an accessible human perspective on two military institutions often discussed only in terms of weapons and strategy.
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POLITICS
Ronnie Chan: “I Live in China—Why Should I Accept Your Values?”
Business leader Ronnie Chan challenges the assumption that Western political and social values should be treated as universal standards for China. Drawing on his experience living and working across cultures, he raises questions about national history, cultural confidence, development, and who has the authority to define good governance. The discussion invites viewers to distinguish between universal human concerns and differing paths for organizing society.
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POLITICS
Ronnie Chan: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S.–China Relations
Ronnie Chan reflects on the historical development of relations between the United States and China and considers the forces shaping their future. His perspective connects business, politics, culture, and personal experience, highlighting both the depth of the relationship and the dangers of growing mistrust. The conversation encourages learners to view bilateral tensions within a longer and more complex historical frame.
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ECONOMY
Ronnie Chan Discusses China with Two European Interviewers
In this wide-ranging interview, Ronnie Chan discusses China’s development, its economic strengths and constraints, and the ways European observers interpret the country’s rise. The exchange brings different regional viewpoints into conversation and illustrates how assumptions about markets, governance, modernization, and global influence can vary across China, Europe, and the United States.
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POLITICS
Is Democracy Wrong for China?
This video examines whether liberal democracy should be considered the only appropriate political model for China. It explores how history, population, governance capacity, social stability, public participation, and cultural expectations shape arguments on both sides. Rather than offering an easy verdict, the discussion invites viewers to examine what democracy means in practice and how political legitimacy may be understood differently across societies.
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ECONOMY
What Is the Human Cost of China’s Economic Miracle?
This report looks beyond headline growth figures to consider the people whose labor helped drive China’s rapid economic transformation. It raises questions about migration, working conditions, family separation, inequality, and the pressures created by industrialization and urban development. The video encourages viewers to assess economic achievement alongside its social and human consequences.
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POLITICS
Is Xi Jinping’s China on a Path to War?
This analysis considers whether China’s domestic priorities, military modernization, territorial disputes, and rivalry with the United States are increasing the risk of armed conflict. It examines how leadership decisions, security dilemmas, nationalism, and competing interpretations of deterrence can influence the choices of all parties. Viewers are invited to weigh the evidence carefully and separate warning, prediction, and speculation.
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POLITICS
Victor Gao: Interviewing China’s Unofficial Spokesman
In this interview, commentator Victor Gao presents and defends Chinese perspectives on major domestic and international questions. His responses provide insight into arguments often associated with China’s official worldview, while the interviewer presses him on contested claims and policies. The exchange gives learners an opportunity to study how national narratives are articulated, challenged, and defended in international media.
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POLITICS
How Does the United States Misunderstand China?
This discussion identifies assumptions that may distort American interpretations of China’s history, ambitions, political system, and behavior abroad. It considers how ideological frameworks, selective evidence, domestic politics, and limited cultural knowledge can produce strategic misunderstanding. The video encourages viewers to test its claims against other perspectives and to consider the consequences of misreading another country.
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ECONOMY
Lee Kuan Yew on the Rise of China, the U.S. Economy, and Geopolitics
Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew offers his assessment of China’s rise, American economic power, and the changing international balance. Drawing on decades of statecraft and close observation of both countries, he discusses leadership, competitiveness, culture, and strategic adaptation. His remarks provide a historically influential Asian perspective on a transformation that continues to reshape world affairs.
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POLITICS
Ronnie Chan on the U.S.–China Power Struggle
Ronnie Chan examines the intensifying competition between the United States and China through the lenses of economics, technology, security, and national psychology. He considers how fear, pride, interdependence, and changing power can narrow the room for cooperation. The discussion asks whether rivalry must become confrontation or whether both countries can adjust to a more balanced relationship.
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POLITICS
Are Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland Closer to Reunification after a KMT Leader’s Visit?
This report examines the political significance of a Kuomintang leader’s visit to the Chinese mainland and what it may mean for cross-strait relations. It considers party politics, dialogue, public opinion, historical ties, and competing visions of Taiwan’s future. The video offers a timely case study of how symbolic visits can affect political communication without resolving the deeper disagreements surrounding reunification.
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MILITARY
China Says It Is Ready for War with America
This video examines statements and military developments presented as evidence that China is preparing for a possible conflict with the United States. It considers force modernization, strategic signaling, regional flashpoints, and the ways both countries interpret one another’s actions. The report invites viewers to distinguish preparation and deterrence from intent—and to consider how threat perceptions can themselves increase danger.
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POLITICS
Why Has China Been Demonized by Western Countries?
This discussion explores why strongly negative portrayals of China have become common in parts of Western politics and media. It points to strategic rivalry, ideological differences, economic competition, historical memory, and the incentives that shape public narratives. The video invites viewers to compare criticism grounded in evidence with language that simplifies an entire country or people into a threat.
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HISTORY
The Rise of China
This historical overview traces China’s emergence as a major global power. It connects political change, economic reform, industrial development, and international engagement to help viewers understand how China’s position in the world has changed—and why that transformation continues to shape global affairs.
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HISTORY
Lessons from the Cultural Revolution
This video revisits the Cultural Revolution and considers what later generations can learn from its political campaigns, social upheaval, and human consequences. It offers historical context for understanding a deeply disruptive period while encouraging viewers to reflect on memory, responsibility, and the dangers of ideological extremism.
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HISTORY
An Insider’s View of the Cultural Revolution: Fred Engst, Part 1
Fred Engst shares a firsthand perspective on the Cultural Revolution and the social and political forces surrounding it. His personal recollections add lived experience to a period often presented through broad historical summaries, giving viewers material to compare with other accounts and interpretations.
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HISTORY
A Former Red Guard Reflects on the Cultural Revolution: Fred Engst, Part 2
In the second part of the interview, Fred Engst reflects further on his experience as a former Red Guard and the lessons he draws from that era. The conversation invites viewers to consider how personal memory, political commitment, hindsight, and historical interpretation can intersect.
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CULTURE
Differences in Chinese Tone Values across the Taiwan Strait
This video examines differences in the phonetic realization of Mandarin tones across the Taiwan Strait. It helps learners hear how a shared tonal system can vary by region and speech community, illustrating the relationship among standard pronunciation, natural variation, identity, and actual language use.
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POLITICS
Wall Street Journal: How Banning Most Chinese Cotton Shifted Global Supply Chains
This Wall Street Journal report examines how restrictions on cotton associated with Xinjiang have altered sourcing, manufacturing, documentation, and trade. It provides a concrete case study of how human-rights policy, economic pressure, and global supply chains interact—and how companies respond when political standards and commercial realities collide.
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POLITICS
Cyrus Janssen on John Deere and the Xinjiang Cotton Industry
Cyrus Janssen discusses John Deere’s connection to agricultural mechanization and cotton production in Xinjiang. The video offers another perspective on an industry shaped by technology, trade, labor allegations, sanctions, and competing political narratives, inviting comparison with reporting from other sources.
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CULTURE
Why Chinese Makes More Sense Than English
This accessible comparison highlights patterns in Chinese vocabulary and word formation that can appear especially logical to learners. By contrasting selected expressions in Chinese and English, it invites viewers to notice how languages organize meaning differently—and why apparent difficulty often changes once the underlying patterns become visible.
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POLITICS
The United States, China, and the Future of the Global Order
This discussion considers how competition between the United States and China may reshape international institutions, alliances, trade, technology, and global leadership. It encourages viewers to look beyond a simple bilateral rivalry and consider what a changing balance of power could mean for countries throughout the world.
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ECONOMY
Victor Gao Debates a Former Trump Adviser’s Talking Points
Victor Gao debates arguments associated with a former Trump administration adviser, addressing economic competition and broader U.S.–China relations. The exchange places sharply contrasting interpretations side by side, allowing viewers to examine not only the claims themselves but also the evidence, assumptions, and rhetorical strategies used to defend them.
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POLITICS
The End of U.S. Hegemony? Is China Taking the Lead?
This video asks whether American global dominance is giving way to a more multipolar order in which China plays a leading role. It considers economic weight, diplomacy, technology, institutions, and geopolitical influence while inviting viewers to distinguish a provocative thesis from the evidence used to support it.
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GEOGRAPHY
The Diaoyu Islands: The Truth Beneath the Waves, Episode 1
This documentary introduces the geography, history, and competing claims surrounding the Diaoyu Islands, known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands. Because the dispute is politically sensitive and differently framed by China, Japan, and other observers, the episode is best approached as one perspective to compare with additional sources.
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HISTORY
A Professor Explains the History of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong before 2010
This lecture provides historical background on mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong as understood before 2010. Its earlier vantage point is especially useful for comparing how enduring historical narratives and political questions were discussed before many of the developments that now dominate public debate.
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HISTORY
Lessons Learned: Richard Nixon Goes to China
This retrospective examines President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China and the strategic calculations that made the opening possible. It explores diplomacy, political risk, Cold War rivalry, and the long-term consequences of a meeting that transformed relations among China, the United States, and the wider world.
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HISTORY
The History behind the Diaoyu Islands Dispute
This video presents a historical argument concerning sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands. It brings treaties, maps, wartime history, and competing national narratives into the discussion. Given the contested subject, viewers are encouraged to compare its evidence and framing with Japanese and international accounts.
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HISTORY
The Long History of Japan and China
This broad historical survey traces centuries of cultural exchange, political interaction, rivalry, and conflict between China and Japan. Its large scope offers an introductory framework for understanding how geography, borrowed institutions, war, modernization, and historical memory continue to influence relations between the two countries.
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DIPLOMACY
Decoding Putin and Xi’s Blueprint for a New World Order
This analysis examines how Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping describe—and may seek to shape—a world less dominated by the United States and its allies. It considers strategic partnership, multipolarity, economic coordination, sovereignty, and the limits of Russian–Chinese alignment.
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DIPLOMACY
India vs. China, Explained
This explainer introduces the complex relationship between Asia’s two most populous countries. Border disputes, economic ties, regional influence, historical memory, and strategic partnerships combine to produce both cooperation and rivalry, showing why India–China relations cannot be reduced to a single conflict.
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SECURITY
Why Could This Island Trigger World War III?
This video examines an island flashpoint as a possible trigger for conflict among major powers. It considers geography, sovereignty, military planning, alliance commitments, deterrence, and escalation, while inviting viewers to separate attention-grabbing predictions from the underlying strategic risks.
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SOCIETY
China’s Megacities Will Surprise You
This video explores the scale and pace of urban life in some of China’s largest cities. Infrastructure, housing, transportation, technology, migration, and public space reveal both the achievements and pressures of rapid urbanization, offering viewers a vivid look at daily life beyond familiar images of China.
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POLITICS
FRONTLINE PBS: The Rise of Xi Jinping
This FRONTLINE documentary examines Xi Jinping’s path to power and the political transformation of China under his leadership. Through reporting, archival material, and interviews, it considers party control, nationalism, surveillance, economic challenges, and China’s expanding global role. As with other interpretive documentaries in this collection, its framing invites comparison with additional perspectives.
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