Haig Balian
The Manila SessionsEpisodes
Episodes of The Manila Sessions
Mark All
Search Episodes...
In the midst of semi-lockdown in Beijing, I got to talk to my CrossFit buddy Alice Xin Liu for this week’s The Beijing Sessions podcast. She’s a translator and writer, and we had a lot to talk about:* Which Chinese books are being translated in
Danny Dunn is the lead guitarist of Soul Shake, the hottest professional foreign rock band in Beijing. OK, Soul Shake is possibly the only foreign rock band in Beijing. And as of Wednesday, the entire band’s been in lockdown.Last year I spoke w
And... we're back. After a longer than expected break, it's volume 2 of The Beijing Sessions. First I start with a little pandemic update (0:57). Will there be a Shanghai-style lockdown in Beijing? We'll see. Then we catch up with musician Djan
Hi everyone. No show this week as I'm getting ready to launch a new podcast on the SupChina podcast network. Get ready for China Sports Insider Podcast with Mark Dreyer and Haig Balian. Check out the Sinica podcast next week for our launch. Th
Nick Cheng went from the British Navy to the stages of Beijing's comedy clubs. His persona on stage is Longhu, the Comedian in Heels - "the a*****e I wished I could be when I was younger," he says in this revealing interview.One of Nick's grea
"I don't like to play the game, and I don't want to play the game," photographer Feng Yu told me near the end of our interview. Utterly brave and supremely talented, her portraits of celebrities like Jackie Chan, Ai Weiwei, Michael Phelps, Step
I’ve wanted to do a food episode ever since I started this podcast, and finally I get to do it. Christine Yang is a full time content creator, and she’s a full time vegan. She combines both of those passions in her channel called A Little Vega
Tom Knight is the founder and leader of Soul Shake, the band that rocks Beersmith - a fancy beer and burger joint in Beijing's CBD - five times a week. The conversation went to places I didn't expect. There's real joy in seeing Tom and Soul Sh
After a longer than usual monologue, I got to talk to Dalton Grant Jr (3:45). He wants Floating World, the company he co-founded in Beijing, to be the Pixar of China. If anyone can do it, Dalton can. He's worked on Cars, DuckTales, Shrek 2, and
Today I talk to Huihan Lie, the founder and CEO of MyChinaRoots (7:35). Has the success of the documentary The Six inspired more people to dig into their roots? What makes China unique when it comes to genealogy? How has technology changed th
What does it mean to be poor? To demonstrate what it means to live at the poverty line, Beijing-based artist duo Stefen Chow and Huiyi Lin visited 36 countries and territories on six continents―from Germany and China to New York and London―exam
It's been 20 years since Dayyan Eng's breakout short film, Bus 44, was screened at Venice, Sundance, and Cannes. Since then he's directed hugely influential films, including Waiting Alone, his 2004 feature that expressed a type of youth cultur
Shannon Bufton is the co-founder and director of Serk, a Beijing-based outfit that designs titanium bicycles and leads some of the most ambitious cycling tours in the world. This week, we talk about what makes Beijing one of the world's best un
TikTok is the fastest growing app on the planet. And, unusually for a breakout social media app, it’s owned by a Chinese company. That’s a combination that makes a lot of people in the west uncomfortable, and puts the makers of the app, Beij
On the final episode of The Beijing Sessions before a summer break, I talk to Dr. Katie Cummer and Professor Lynne DiStefano about a new book they edited, Asian Revitalization: Adaptive Reuse in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. You can find
Wei Du and David Carey of Nocturnes are here. Their debut album, Lines Written in Code, came out a few years ago. Now they’re back with a new full length album. Poetic Irony will be released on June 20. For information about the band, check out
A quick double header this week. It's the American Literature Festival until June 26. It's all over China and the Internet. Kerry Wald from the US Embassy is organizing it, and she's on The Beijing Sessions to talk about it. You can check out w
In 2019, students from New York City’s public school 124 staged stripped-down version of Disney’s musical Frozen. The elementary school is in New York’s Chinatown, and the overwhelming majority of the students there are of Asian descent, mostly
Thank goodness for standup comics. This week's guest is Alex Shi, the first Chinese comic to appear on The Beijing Sessions.We talk about Chinese punchlines in English sets, whether she'd ever to a set exclusively in Chinese, Chinese comedy and
In part 1, Mike Wester returns to the podcast to talk red hot chilli peppers. Then we move the topic to vaccination rates of foreigners in Beijing. Will the WHO’s move to grant emergency approval to Sinopharm have any impact on hesitancy? In pa
There are 280 days to go until Beijing hosts the Olympic Games next February. And while the focus of the world - at least the part of the world that focuses on the Olympics - is squarely on the summer games in Tokyo, Beijing is making news of i
In the most free-flowing conversation in the entire run of this podcast, host Haig Balian speaks with Charles Pellegrin (1:50), China correspondent for France 24/stand-up comedian.We get answers to all the big questions, like why do French phar
First came ping pong, and then came Beethoven. In 1973, the Philadelphia Orchestra did something no other American orchestra had done before. They took a ten-day trip to China, part of an effort to normalize relations between the two countries.
Five years ago travel writer and journalist Jonathan Chatwin set out on a 30 kilometre walk along Beijing’s Chang An Jie, Long Peace Street, from its western point at the former site of Shougang Iron and Steel to its eastern terminus, the Sihui
Everyone knows the story of the Titanic. On a frigid evening in 1912, the passenger ship hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, killing over 1500 people. Only around 700 survived.Six of those survivors were Chinese men. Their stories ha
Join Podchaser to...
- Rate podcasts and episodes
- Follow podcasts and creators
- Create podcast and episode lists
- & much more
Unlock more with Podchaser Pro
- Audience Insights
- Contact Information
- Demographics
- Charts
- Sponsor History
- and More!
- Account
- Register
- Log In
- Find Friends
- Resources
- Help Center
- Blog
- API
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More
- © 2024 Podchaser, Inc.
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Contact Us