The Little Red Podcast

China’s college exam, the gaokao, is fetishized as the ultimate test, yet a lesser-known story is how it entrenches regional education discrimination. Its role at social engineering is also clear, with AI suddenly becoming the sixth most popular major in China, on command from above. This month, the Little Red Podcast sets the first ever podcast gaokao. The intrepid test-takers are Edward Vickers from Kyushu University, co-author of Education and Society in Post-Mao China and host of the Asian Education Podcast, Karron Huang, who is studying for a Masters in early childhood education at the University of Melbourne and sat the gaokao in 2015, and Ruixue Xia from the University of California San Diego who coauthored The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China.

Image: c/- Karron Huang. Morning gaokao study session, Foshan No. 1 High School, Guangdong, 2015.

Transcripts are available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcast

In the latest episode in our series on belief, we’re looking at the CCP’s faith in Artificial Intelligence. China has embraced AI like no other nation, laying out a plan for AI that would see 70 percent adoption across six sectors - including governance – within the next two years. This aggressive approach is driven by commercial imperatives, the desire to shape international standards, and the hope that AI will solve the Party’s biggest worry: social stability. To explore China’s AI dreams, Louisa and Graeme are joined by China Media Project’s Alex Colville, who also writes the China Chatbot newsletter on Lingua Sinica, and Daria Impiombato, a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Image: Goose, c/- Andy Hazel, 2025

Transcripts are available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcast

In the latest episode in our series on belief, we’re exploring the surprising revival of shamanism in China, which has made a comeback despite Mao's best efforts at eradication. Ritual healers and spirit mediums are tapping into online believers and a public thirst for authentic spirituality. Shamanism has also become a tourist draw as a form of cultural and religious heritage, with a shamanic theme park even existing in northeast China until 2021. To explore the diversity of shamanic practices across China and their survival in the face of official scepticism, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Feng Qu, an archaeologist from Nanjing Normal University and Mayfair Yang, a cultural anthropologist from UC Santa Barbara.

Image: Totem poles at the Changbai Mountain Nayin Tribe Shamanic Culture Tourist Resort. Feng Qu, February 2023.

In the latest in our series on belief, we’re examining the emergence of incels in the world’s largest manosphere.  China’s growing incel community is fuelled by state-approved nationalism and simple demographics—by one estimate, 30 million Chinese men won’t find a life partner. To find out why so many Chinese men believe that women are the source of their problems, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Yihuan Zhang, a graduate researcher at the University of Macau, Ling Tang, a cultural studies lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and Qian Huang from the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen.

Image: Incel. c/- MissLunaRose12 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Continuing our series on belief in China, we look at the revival of Buddhism, which is being embraced by citizens and the Chinese state. While temple visits increase, the state is funding temples and martial arts academies from Nepal to Tanzania. As Xi Jinping extols Buddhism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese state is leveraging Buddhism diplomacy to its advantage. To find out more, Louisa and Graeme are joined by anthropologist Gareth Fisher from Syracuse University, the author of From Comrades to Bodhisattvas, and political scientist Chien-Peng Chung from Lingnan University in Hong Kong.