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Rana Mitter’s Chinese Characters Starts on BBC Radio 4 April 9th

Posted: April 4th, 2018 | No Comments »

An interesting new series from Rana Mitter on BBC Radio 4 (and then, presumably, on the BBC iPlayer for a time afterwards) – Chinese Characters….

Chinese Characters is a series of 20 essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.

In this first episode Rana Mitter tells the story of Wu Zetian, the only woman ever to rule as China’s emperor in her own right, in two thousand years of dynastic history. Even more remarkably, she did it during one of the finest moments of China’s cultural history – the medieval Tang dynasty.

Wu Zetian grew up as a lady of the court, but threw off her humility to plan her way to the top with strategic precision, leaving a trail of elite corpses along the way. Once on the throne, she secured China’s borders and promoted Buddhism as a powerful new religious force. Later, history condemned her as a dreadful anomaly, as women were never supposed to rule in traditional China. But she has had the last laugh – now regarded as a feminist icon in China with a 74-part TV soap opera dedicated to her rise and rule.

Starts BBC Radio 4 – April 9th – 1.45pm GMT

 



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