There’s a podcast out there for all you Sinophiles if you haven’t seen it yet.  The Chinese History Podcast by Lazlo Montgomery is a jewel of a podcast in the caverns of iTunes and the interwebs.  If you haven’t heard of it or if you haven’t gone over to his site we would highly recommend it.  Even MX likes his podcast and she can learn two things: history of her own country (not that she doesn’t know it but it’s 5,000 years, you can’t know it all!) and she can practice her English comprehension.  Mr. Montgomery clearly enjoys doing the show and loves imparting knowledge to all of his fans worldwide.

We had a quick conversation over e-mail a while back and this is part 1.  Part 2 will come later:

Lazlo Montgomery: The initial inspiration was Bob Packett from the History According to Bob podcast.  He seemed like an ordinary guy in Kansas City who did this interesting thing by the seat of his pants and totally for the love of  the subject matter and the process.  After catching wind of a few more history podcasts and after waiting in vain for someone else to cover China, I opted to try it myself.  No one else would do it and so far no one has started any alternative to the CHP.  I thought a blog was too presumptuous of me in the face of all the real experts in China and the great writers of history.  My target is the person who is interested in China but probably won’t read a history book….or maybe even a China blog.  So an mp3 seemed the most suitable medium for this little idea.

MandMx:  What kind of traffic are you getting to the China History Podcast website and iTunes?

Lazlo Montgomery: I wish I knew.  Last night at a family function one of the brother-in-law’s told me there is a plug-in where you can get stats on your iTunes activity.  I don’t know if it’s 17 or 17 million.  It’s probably closer to 17.  The show always seems to be in the top 200 in the iTunes Store for the education category against some stiff competition.  In the China iTunes Store it seems to do quite good.  But how good, I have no idea.  My technical skills are limited unfortunately and no friends or relatives that I can rely on for free help.

MandMx:  Do you have many fans?  What are they saying?

Lazlo Montgomery: Since the day I started this I have not gotten one negative email from anyone.  They are always without fail, appreciative and filled with praise in one form or another.  I even have professors, journalists and scientists who listen and tell me how much they like it.  I’m amazed.  I also get some good ideas for topics.  Basically everyone is either Chinese thanking me for helping them polish up on their history and for the English practice or they are Westerners who just love China and want to learn or Westerners in China who just listen to see who is this strange guy?

 

MandMx:  Have you ever made a mistake about some historical issue or story?

Lazlo Montgomery: Two times that I know of.  First was in discussing the Chu-Han Contention between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.  I wrongly said 楚河汉河 instead of 楚河汉界.  One of my Ningbo colleagues told me that one.  I have been too lazy to go back and change it.  But it’s on my list of things to do. The second one involved mispronouncing Laozi’s name. I said the 子 should be neutral but a Chinese listener informed me 应该是第三声.  I’m sure here and there I made a mistake or used the wrong tone when I mention the Chinese name for something.  I have an OCD about accuracy so I strive to give the facts.

 

MandMx:  Where do you get all your information?  I don’t hear many sources (except for the Sir Robert Hart podcast) or am I just not listening carefully!?

Lazlo Montgomery: I just made an “executive decision” not to include these in the podcast.  Like in the Hart episode, if it’s something particularly worth mentioning, I’ll do it.  But for the most part I have a rather large China history library and all these internet resources.  One of my intentions is to put a page up on my site listing every single volume in my library with comments about which ones are particular good.

 

MandMx:  Do you write all that you say on the podcast?

Lazlo Montgomery: My daughter is in her 2nd year at Berkeley and she calls me up groaning about an essay or paper that is due.  I tell her I write a dang 8 to 10 page paper every single week so she isn’t going to get any sympathy from me.  I do all the research, note-taking, writing, proofreading and double checking tones, recording, editing and uploading.  No one helps me.  I improvise over the script or whatever you want to call it.  If you listen to my podcasts, they’re pretty straight-forward and I limit the editorializing and comments.

 

MandMx:  Sometimes in your podcast you speak Chinese that is pretty good.  Where did you learn Chinese?

Lazlo Montgomery: May 1979 I saw an ad in the Daily Illini offering 2 semesters of Mandarin in an intensive summer school course.  So I stayed down in Champaign, IL during that summer and began my education.  China had just tied the knot with the US in January and Deng’s reforms were just getting underway.  The talk back in 1979-1980 was that sky’s the limit between US and China.  I dreamed to work for the Foreign Service.  But since 1989 I have worked for Chinese companies and have used Mandarin in my daily life so it never went stale on me and I keep learning a new word, phrase or whatever all the time.  Compared to some of these guys I listen to (like on the Sinica Podcast), I’m like a pre-schooler.  Those guys are my Mandarin heroes!

 

MandMx:  What are the top 5 websites that you go to for Chinese history?

Lazlo Montgomery: Wikipedia is good for dates and checking Pinyin and tones.  Usually I go to the bottom of the article and they list links to all their sources.  They’re from all over the place and I am too lazy to take note where I get what.  Google Books is invaluable. Mostly I use these books in my library and the internet usually is just a supplement.

 

MandMx:  What are the top 5 historians that you use for the podcast?

Lazlo Montgomery: I use Jonathon D. Spence, John King Fairbank, F.W. Mote the most.  Then I have a whole bunch of other books but those three are my stalwarts.

 

MandMx:  In your opinion, what makes Chinese history so interesting?

Lazlo Montgomery: To me and to so many other westerners it is interesting because it is both exotic and everyday at the same time. It’s so long and filled with all kinds of interesting stuff.  I believe (and I’m finding) there’s a huge pool of citizens all over the world who have this latent interest in all things China.  My little production is simply my two cents that I throw out there to help shore up the bridge of understanding between China and the US (or the west).

3.  Tang Dynasty part 3 5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms

4.  Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

5.  Wu Zetian – Tang Dynasty Empress

6.  Sir Robert Hart

7.  May 4th Movement 

–We have Old China Books where we excerpt sections from some old books about China.

–Women in Chinese History

–While Teaching English in China we did an activity where students told us where they would go if they could go back in time.  FUN READ!

–Moment of history brought to you by CHINA.