Chinese language podcasts

[wushijiao]

Thanks for the RSS tip Roddy. What is the RSS address of the 有一说二? (I I used to listen to that quite a bit. Actually, listening to the same one again and again to catch everything.)

As far as the RFA RSS feeds, I put that into iTunes, then do you just have to wait until they update? When I put the link from 德国之声's RSS feed it automatically searched out the latest podcast. Why the difference?

Also, here is the French website. You can download their broadcasts:

http://www.rfi.fr/portail_cn.asp

[roddy]

There's maybe a difference between hitting the 'subscribe' button on the iTunes store page and using the Advanced> Subscribe to Podcast function in the iTunes software, I'm not sure.

The RSS feed i have for 有一说二 is http://www.lifepop.com/asp/rss.asp?popno=76146

However at the moment all it's giving me is the same podcast three times. Hopefully it'll sort itself out.

[wushijiao]

Another one from the BBC.

中国丛谈

Description:

BBC中文部的时事专题节目《中国丛谈》提供有关中国的独特深度报道和分析，栏目包括专家访谈、学者点评、世界看中国、五洲来鸿、欧美文摘和中国人谈中国，既力求客观公正，又希望切中时弊，言大陆媒体所不能言。

本节目由李丽、乐安、高毅、凯露、跃生主持，周一至周五每天15分钟。

It looks like an interesting podcasts/blog.

Website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_6940000/newsid_6940100/6940195.stm

Site address for iTunes:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/chinareel/rss.xml

The BBC has a ton of Chinese stuff. It'd be nice if they had it easier to use.

[roddy]

Oh very good. I wrote to the BBC a few months back pointing out that not putting their stuff on RSS feeds made it a lot less accessible and pointed to 德国之声 as an example of good practice. They've obviously taken my advice, despite not replying. I would resent this, but I don't pay the license fee (sh)

Edit: downloads fine into iTunes as well, the block on the bbc doesn't affect the downloads subdomain.

[roddy]

Actually, lets have a recap of what's available and maybe we can do a proper list with names, description and RSS address. Listing only regular, native-Chinese, properly formatted podcasts.

Antiwave

有一说二

德国之声 (website blocked, but rss feed accessible)

SBS Mandarin

Radio Free Asia (all blocked, requires proxy)

New BBC one just posted (website blocked, but rss feed accessible)

NHK Chinese

The French RFI and news茶座 disqualify themselves by not having a usable RSS feed, I think.

So that's 7, not bad. Any others that should be added. I (or if I'm lucky someone else) can make up a formatted list with links to the sites and RSS feeds.

[wushijiao]

I could probably make up a list (sometime).

Wait...just when I was about to complain that there wasn't very much out there, I found a what looks to be like hidden pirate treasure:

http://podcast.chinatimes.com/rss/podcast/index.htm

[roddy]

Had a quick look. There are six feeds, all listed on itunes and there are subscribe buttons on the page linked above. It's all blocked, and you'll need a proxy to get through from the mainland.

I tried to subscribe to all six. Only three worked. Two are video, so not much use for me as my ipod doesn't do video. There are the weather forecast (氣象達人彭啟明 氣象快遞) and news snippets (每日午間中天影音新聞) - the one I downloaded was about one and a half minutes long. Both look like clips from TV, and it might be easier to get them through online TV somehow.

The 每日新聞快遞 is ten minutes of news, seems to be all politics. This is audio and I might stick with this one as it would be nice to have some Taiwanese news.

The other three are either not working or are so slow through the proxy I can't tell the difference.

[roddy]

Quite enjoyed this guy's discussion of 夜宴. Hasn't updated for a few months but there are thirty podcasts in the archive if anyone wants them.

[imron]

At the bottom of this page, you can find a podcast of what appears to be an abridged version of the book 每个姑娘都单纯.

[roddy]

Anyone else having trouble with 德国之声？ I know the website was blocked, but I used to be able to get the podcasts fine through iTunes However I now can't access their iTunes page or download the podcasts without firing up my proxy - as has always been the case with RFA. Seems to have just happened in the last day or two.

[wushijiao]

I just took a trip to Luoyang and Shanghai and was able to get 德国之声 as of a few days ago. I'd suprised it took them this long.

[roddy]

Hmmm, iTunes still can't reach it directly, need the proxy. The BBC's ChinaReel still survives.

Edit: And let me take this opportunity to reiterate how good this radio show is - you get solid global news (with a forgivable focus on Germany), it doesn't pull any punches on China but doesn't go on and on about human rights stuff like RFA, and the magazine content is generally interesting and well produced. And there's hours of it every day. BBC take note!

Edit Edit: I wonder if this is due to coverage of the arrest of Hu Jia - normally I'm not keen to link blocks with news events, but this sounds plausible to me. RFA and ChinaReel have both given it ample airtime, can't get the latest programme from our German friends yet though.

[roddy]

Is anyone else having problems with 德国之声？I have trouble at the moment even through a VPN, with 404 errors for a lot of episodes - of the 9 that itunes is currently listing, I can only download 4, and it's showing nothing at all for Jan 4th. Kind of annoying. Not sure if it's a problem their end or something that itunes is doing.

The iTunes store isn't showing anything past the 3rd, but it can often be slow to update.

[wushijiao]

Downloaded in less than a minute, here in HK. So at least right now, it's not their tech problem.

[roddy]

Seems to be a bit better now, though still odd. Ie for the 6th I have four programs listed, 晨间，晚间一套上，晚间一套下，晚间二套. The first three seem to have downloaded fine, but the 晚间二套 just gives me a 404 error via iTunes. As long as I'm getting one or two a day I'm happy, but I miss it if it doesn't work at all as it's probably my main source of news now (which explains why I'm so well informed on criminal behavior among young immigrants in Germany, and how the nation's athletes are preparing for the Olympics.)

Not sure about all this German pop music they're playing just now though

[roddy]

德国之声 is working fine now. Not sure what the problem was, but I don't think it was blocked.

How many of us are regularly listening to Radio Free Asia? I listen every now and then, basically if I've finished 德国之声 and ChinaReel and still want something to listen to. I have to admit I love the bits where they phone up random police officers and officials in the middle of nowhere and ask them about various injustices. One guy just claimed he couldn't understand the question, and then later someone else ( I think was actually one of the wronged) just yelled 你管这个干啥？ down the phone and hung up. You also get some gems like:

Interviewer: So it is true you've arrested 15 villagers and are holding them in your police station.

Police: Yes, they're criminals.

Interviewer: What did they do?

Police: Crime.

Ok, I'm obviously both paraphrasing and translating, but it's worth listening to.

[Long Pan]

Apart from the content, just curious to have your opinion about the difference of language between 德国之声 and some local news like CRI ?

[roddy]

I listen to little, if any, mainland news, read newspapers now and then. I've never noticed any differences. I suspect a lot of the people working there are mainland-born anyway - I remember one listener emailing in to congratulate the Germans on how good their Chinese was, and the presenter saying thank you very much, but he grew up in Beijing, so . . .

[bagz007]

Here's a website I meant to pass along a while back when I was more active in the forums (apologies if it's been posted elsewhere):

http://www.bookast.com

It's a Taiwanese company that does book summaries on audio. They used to do a weekly podcast on iTunes with MP3s. The content is still free after you register, but, unfortunately, you can only download it in protected WMA format and listen to it through an internet connection. (At least it appears that way--someone pls tell me if I've missed something.)

Most of their stuff falls into the business/leadership category. May not be everyone's bag, but at least it adds to the variety of our options out there...I find the stuff VERY challenging...

[roddy]

Does anyone else find themselves really enjoying Princess Remy's podcasts? I didn't used to like them so much, but I'm finding that after a week of generally only listening to the BBC and 德国之声 going on about current affairs and human rights and what have you, ten or twenty minutes of Remy nattering randomly about her favorite foods and what she thinks about James Bond on a Friday are greatly appreciated. Kudos also for reliability - she must have been running for years now, with a podcast very nearly every single Friday.

The website is here for anyone who wants to take a look, plus RSS feed and you can also find her on iTunes - search 'princess remy'