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Chinese CharactersEpisodes

  1. Omnibus 3

    Portraits of remarkable individuals who have made China what it is today.

  2. Omnibus 4

    Portraits of remarkable individuals who have made China what it is today.

  3. Omnibus 2

    Portraits of remarkable individuals who have made China what it is today.

  4. Omnibus 1

    Portraits of remarkable individuals who have made China what it is today.

  5. Deng Xiaoping: Black Cat, Yellow Cat

    The paramount leader who enabled China's economic miracle.

  6. Bruce Lee: Screen Warrior

    The fastest pair of fists in East Asia and the first global Chinese film star.

  7. Mao Zedong: The Man Who Made Modern China

    The Communist leader who changed his country forever.

  8. Factory Girls: Modern Girls, Modern Dreams

    The hard-working, hard-living factory girls behind China's industrial revolution.

  9. Cixi: Ambivalent Empress

    The empress dowager who tried - and failed - to reform.

  10. Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan: The Duellists

    The rebel leader of the Taiping and his nemesis.

  11. Wang Jingwei: Revolutionary Renegade

    The man who saw himself as a patriot, but is remembered as one of China's worst traitors.

  12. Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

    A writer still read by every Chinese pupil and considered China's greatest modern author.

  13. Robert Hart: Chinese Customs

    The influential Ulsterman who became a servant of the Chinese emperors.

  14. Zheng He: The Admiral Goes to Africa

    The Muslim sailor whose epic maritime voyages created new routes for trade and influence.

  15. River Elegy: River and Ocean

    River Elegy was a pioneering TV documentary series, one of the most watched in history.

  16. Li Qingzhao: Patriotic Poet

    The woman remembered today as one of the great poets of Chinese history.

  17. Confucius: Becoming the Sage

    The smiling philosopher who is perhaps the most famous Chinese person in history.

  18. Kublai Khan: Cosmopolitan Conqueror

    The Mongol head of a dynasty that both occupied China and connected it to a wider world.

  19. Sima Qian: Grand Historian

    The historian who spoke the truth to the emperor and suffered for it.

  20. Ding Ling: Sophie, Sensation and Sex

    Rana Mitter on the life of one of China's most important feminist authors.

  21. Matteo Ricci: Jesuit and Geometrist

    The Jesuit who brought together Renaissance Europe and Ming China through geometry.

  22. Kumarajiva: Translator Monk

    The translator and Buddhist monk whose words are chanted daily by millions of Chinese.

  23. Chiang Kai-Shek and Soong Meiling: Asian Power Couple

    The power couple who reunited China and nearly lost it to Japan.

  24. Wu Zetian: The Female Emperor

    Rana Mitter tells the story of China's first and only female emperor.

  25. Welcome to Chinese Characters

    Welcome to this new BBC Podcast. The first episode will be available within seven days.