# Calling all China Nerds

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/calling-all-china-nerds
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/calling-all-china-nerds.md
Podcast: [Barbarians at the Gate](https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733)
Published: 2025-08-14T06:10:38+00:00
Episode link: https://blubrry.com/barbarians/147752855/calling-all-china-nerds/
Audio file: https://media.blubrry.com/barbarians/content.blubrry.com/barbarians/BATG-2025-08-14-099.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/episodes/calling-all-china-nerds
Duration seconds: 1953

## Resource

Where are our nerds at? David Moser is on summer holiday, and stepping into David's seat for this episode is literary translator Brendan O'Kane. It takes about two minutes for Jeremiah and Brendan to go off the rails, over the edge, and back to the Amilal Courtyard in Beijing ca. 2010 (if you know, you know). In this wide-ranging conversation, Brendan and Jeremiah rate different levels of dynastic decline on the "fuckery" scale, Brendan reads a translation from Chinese philosopher Mencius, there's discussion of how to best gloss "laowai," if Xi Jinping is "president," "chairman," or something else entirely, a quick debate on whether Matteo Ricci had an eidetic memory or was just really, really smart, and Brendan's adventures battling ICE. Come with us for a wild ride of Sinological geekdom and summer-style freeflow scholarship.

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## Transcript

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