#196- Yaling Jiang: Through Chinese Eyes
THD美籍华人英语访谈秀
Yaling Jiang is a writer and researcher helping people understand China through real individuals, rather than through headlines or stereotypes. Yaling is a former journalist and translator and founder of the popular newsletter Following the Yuan. She is also the founder of the research and strategy consultancy ApertureChina. Today, Yaling joins us to talk about what it really means to explain China to the outside world—and why seeing Chinese people as individuals matters. We talk about what it’s like to have your country, your culture, and your own identity be misunderstood. We also talk about the growing desire among Chinese women to have more control over the lives they choose to live. We talk about dating, marriage, motherhood, gender expectations and the fear of becoming “leftover”. We explore how younger generations are challenging traditional norms and whether China’s changing social attitudes are pointing toward a more equal future. We also talk about the loneliness of a world
that feels increasingly divided, and Yaling’s hope that we can learn to see each other as individuals rather than stereotypes. It’s a conversation about identity, agency, belonging—and the fragile hope that we might find our way back to each other.
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00:00 Name pronunciation
02:40 Yaling’s mission: human stories about China
11:30 Growing up in a globalized China
14:00 Gender, ambition, and what Chinese women want
18:00 Dating in Shanghai and the numbers problem
23:00 “Leftover women” and changing expectations
32:50 Are gender norms actually changing?
39:00 Marriage, birth rates, and who carries the cost
44:00 Egg freezing as a safety net
49:00 Dating across cultures
55:00 History, race, and the “inferiority complex”
63:00 Asian representation in Western film and TV
71:00 Race and identity from China to the UK
79:00 Being called “banana”
85:00 Assimilation and the trauma of belonging
94:00 Empathy as the takeaway
98:00 Outro
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下载节目文字版: Episode Transcripts
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