Podcasting Laowai

For last several weeks, I have been following three streams of podcasts by foreigners in China. As mentioned in Dan Washburn’s Shanghaiist as well as John Pasden’s Sinosplice, each one of these podcasts has its own niche and drawing large crowds of visitors across the world.



Danwei TV – Danwei.org is a website about media, advertising, and urban life in China. It publishes fresh information about China that won't be found anywhere else.

So far there are three episodes of Danwei TV about Beijing’s construction, China’s print media, and interview with Thomas Shao, founder and CEO of Modern Media.

Jeremy Goldkorn’s on camera persona and close resemblance of Mo Rocca have made me feel like I am watching the Chinese version of The Daily Show.



Chinesepod.com’s Video HotPot – Give two interns Tayhler and Ryan a simple script, a camera, sent them roaming the streets of Shanghai and watching them struggle with locals. That is the theme of Ken Carroll’s Video HotPot. The results are both entertaining and educational.

Each episode of Video HotPot has English captions along with Mandarin Chinese Pinyin pronunciations. For someone that is starting to learn Mandarin Chinese or wants to apply Chinese into real life situations, this is definitely a good way to learn through entertainment.

Ken Carroll also offers Chinese lessons via mp3 audio podcasts.



Ron Sims’ The Illworld – Can a blackman get a decent haircut in China? Can a blackman handle real Chinese’s street food? What is China like from a blackman’s point of view? If you ever wanted those questions answered, you better check out Ron Sims’ The Illworld series.

Forget about Mike Tyson, with at least one camera attached to him at all time, I would nominate Ron Sims to be an honorary Chinese.

Respect yo!

* "Laowai", or 老外, is Mandarin Chinese slang for "foreigner(s)".