A Passion to Present Chinese History to the English Speaking World
When the faintest winds began to blow into the podcasting world’s sails, I climbed onboard in 2010 and launched The China History Podcast. There were already several amateur historians such as Lars Brown worth, Mike Duncan and Dan Carlin who had made a sizable splash in the early history podcasting space. But most of the content creators were normal people holding down full-time jobs and presenting their passion to the world via the amazing simplicity of RSS feed technology.
I quite enjoy studying history in general and Chinese history in specific. My major at the University of Illinois was Chinese history and Asian Studies. For three decades I have worked for a trio of Chinese publicly traded light industrial products manufacturers, helping them to grow their business in the US. But while I’m not helping them to manage and grow their businesses in the US, I produce bi-weekly shows of various lengths that introduce dim sum sized morsels of Chinese history from mythical to modern times.
I started recording and uploading these history shows in June of 2010. I chose random topics, did some research, wrote an outline and presented the material in the form of an mp3 audio file that can easily be downloaded or streamed to any computer, tablet or mobile device…anywhere in the world. Less than half of my listeners are based in America.
While not everyone loves China, the numbers of people who find enjoyment in some facet of Chinese culture are much greater. I’m as patriotic an American as there can ever be. But at the same time I’ve had lifelong enjoyment embracing Chinese and other world cultures.
For most of my professional career I was involved in sales, marketing and PR. I’m hardly what you could call a scholar and barely graduated from the U of I with a B.A. Throughout my career my customers were companies like Walmart, Dollar General, Target, Costco and all the heavies in the US mass market. Over 30 years I think I was able to connect with this market, understanding its demands and enjoyed a lot of success selling to the masses.
With the China History Podcast I’ve applied this same skill set to presenting the history. I’m proud to say that there are plenty of professors, China experts and people smarter than I am about China who listen to every show. But the lion’s share of listeners aren’t “China people.” They are by and large “China curious”, married to a Chinese spouse, working for a Chinese company or have an itch to learn about this subject. A great number of listeners are Overseas Chinese who stumbled upon the program and have also found it a pleasurable way to reconnect with all these long forgotten stories from their school days.
I crank these shows out two per month. Some are presented as individual topics like Wu Zetian, Zhang Qian, The Duke of Zhou, Guan Yu or Xiang Yu. I have also produced a number of series that run anywhere from three to ten episodes covering bigger topics like The History of Tea, The History of Chinese Philosophy, History of Hong Kong, The Cultural Revolution, The Chinese Civil War, Zhou Enlai, China-Vietnam Relations and the History of the Jewish Refugees in China. There are others as well. On my YouTube and Sound cloud stations the two hundred and thirty episodes or one hundred forty hours of free content produced to date are sorted into playlists covering topics like the history of Chinese Immigration in the US, Famous Westerners from Chinese History, PRC history and many more. There is even a twenty-seven part series that gives a brief overview of the timeline of imperial Chinese history from the mythical Xia to the final dynasty of China, the Qing.
It’s now past nine years since I launched the first episode. I have received a regular stream of heartfelt emails from people all over the world. The comments can all be distilled down to a number of repeating themes: Thank you for opening up this door that has allowed me to gain an understanding of something that seemed too intimidating to take on. Thank you for allowing me to reconnect with my heritage. Thank you for the inspiration you gave me. After nine years of this and a whole lot more, I never need to convince myself that I am making a contribution to the understanding of China. I religiously publish one show every two weeks. I have no sponsor. My show has no ads. The content is not monetized. If you’re looking for politics, opinion or someone with a bone to pick with China, my show isn’t for you. Let me repeat that I’m not a scholar. I read the books of the great scholars and China experts and package up the history in such a way that two primary objectives are met. A topic is presented in a factual way and the listener is entertained. Some people call this “edutainment.”
I recognized that this China History Podcast program is not going to change the world or create stronger relations between the US and China. But if I, as a citizen diplomat, can make even a small contribution in allowing people to understand this subject a little more, that was all I set out to do back in 2010. After all this time I know I’ve made a difference in many people’s lives. Cathay Pacific Airways carries many of my shows as part of their Inflight Entertainment. China Daily is shortly publishing a story about me. I’ve spoken at colleges and high schools in the US and China and just hosted a program in cooperation with the 21st Century China Center at UCSD. Producing this podcast has taken me to many fine and interesting places both here in the US and in the PRC.In November 2018 I spoke at Harvard last November at the Sound Education Conference. Back then I thought that surely US-China relations had hit rock bottom. I spoke about all the good moments in US-China history going back to 1783 when we first became a nation all the way through the visit of Deng Xiaoping in January 1979. I said that at this moment where relations are reaching a nadir, we should not discount or forget the good times in our shared history. Little did I know this “low point” seen from the lens of nine months later could be called the good old days. In my speech I said my fear, as someone who grew up during the 60’s and 70’s, was that the PRC would become the new USSR of the 21st century. Our adversary. The bad guy in the movies.I don’t think my China History Podcast is going to make or break the diplomatic deadlock that exists between the US and China. I always say, if you’re going to hate on China, at least do it from an informed perspective. Listeners of the China History Podcast aren’t looking to earn a Ph.D or even have a Ph.D’s perspective on China. They have a yearning to learn about this subject matter. And late I my career I have developed a knack for telling these stories from Chinese history in my own way that remains true to the history and presents it without the indigestion of reading a history book or listening to a university lecture.
About the author: Laszlo Montgomery is a LA-based businessman and creator/presenter of The China History Podcast. He has worked continuously for Chinese companies since moving to Hong Kong in 1989. This history program has educated and delighted listeners around the world and for many, it has served as their gateway to the wonders of Chinese history and culture.Laszlo Montgomery’s China History Podcast can be found at https://Teacup.Media and in all podcast apps.
Emai: LaszloCHP@gmail.com