And so we are at an end. Summer break was here, relations with the school were in the gutter, but I'd signed a contract for next year and was effectively trapped. The only way out was to concoct a cunning scheme, and that's exactly what I did... *cackle* 谢谢，再见 亚当 Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast

As I was planning my escape from the Cradle, Lisa was just settling in. How did her experience compare to mine? From her home back in the USA, she told me her story.   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYPodcast

In this penultimate episode, the foreign teachers meet for one last time at Brew Kettle, and as the booze takes effect a certain clarity appears.   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

We're almost at the end of this troubled tale and, because few stories end as dramatically as Lin Biao's, I think it's time to revisit the ailing marshal and find out how it all went so wrong. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

The year end is nigh. School holidays approach. The question to renewing the contract has come. What should a paranoid, anxiety-addled teacher do? Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

We cycle through the wetlands of Jiangnan to the water town of Jinxi, muse a little on the contradicting feelings of restriction and freedom in China, and then get into the story of modern Tibet. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

It's Easter in Changshu, and an Easter Egg hunt at school goes hopelessly off the rails. Also, the festival of Qingming, and the Chinese story of creation – with a giant rabbit called Pangu. Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast Song: 'I am the Sea' - Epic Pirate Battle Music, supported by #TheROOMnoCopyRMusic

A change in the teacher line-up has been taking place following the surprising dismissal of teacher Tyler. The new clan heads out to a nightclub, where I get some advice about dealing with Dodi. (dubious accent alert) Email: SMKYPodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast  

In episode 1 of this three-parter, China was alarmed at Soviet attempts to live alongside the Americans; and in part 2 those attempts went into reverse as the Cold War reached its peak temperatures. In the final part, we follow the secret mission of Henry Kissinger as he went to China to make contact after 25 years of silence, and how the new Sino-American relationship shook up the final decades of the Cold War. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

Part 2 of 3 in a Sino-Soviet Split miniseries, and it's time for the hopes for peaceful co-existence between the Americans and the Soviets to be roundly dashed, much to the satisfaction of a certain Chairman over in Beijing. Next time, how the Chinese capitalised on the situation for their own ends. Music in this episode:  Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony Cuba Baion by Kurt Drabek Russians by Sting (guitar cover by Giuseppe Torrisi) Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

If only the two big communist powers had gotten on, perhaps they could have stuck it to the Americans during the Cold War, but it wasn't to be. Personalities and ideologies got in the way. In this first part of an SMKY doublepod, we look at the period leading up to the split in the early 60s. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast  

China might be a big scary communist country to people in the West, but for Neo-Maoists the country has lost its way, and sometimes it seems that communism in China is more of a nostalgic indulgence. Apart from Mao, Lei Feng is the mascot of commie merchandise.  We also take a trip into the Humble Administrator's Garden, and the Suzhou Museum, before a dramatic race for the bus. FYI: Songs that feature in this episode – 1, Without the Communist Party, there is No New China – 2, Learn from Lei Feng's Good Example

As we head back to Suzhou, we look at the story of the ancient city and make sense of all those Wus associated with the area. We then dive into the local tourist hotspot at Shantang Street, it's poetry and nostalgia, for dinner. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

A number of curious phrases have popped up lately in China, as a new internet-native generation join the workforce and find themselves getting knocked about by office politics and social pressures.  In this episode, a Shanghai-based worker joins me to explain these terms. Sang culture - 丧文化 Lying flat - 躺平 Let it rot - 摆烂 Neijuan - 奶卷 Touching fish - 摸鱼  

After visiting the harsh cold countryside for the Lantern Festival, I get back to the school only to be thrown into more office politics. But compared to the Chinese workers, laowai work is pretty tame. Let's explore that a little. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

Having returned from the winter break, I head off into rural Jiangsu to spend the Lantern Festival in Lily's Town. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @AdamSMKY

Picking up at the end of the last episode, today Grade 7 teacher Penny and I travel to the epic Yangtze River, and we get stuck in to the Opium Wars. Not Britain's finest moment, that. And we discover why Penny left a note under my door while I was sick.... Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @AdamSMKY  

It's time to recall the Opium Wars that began China's Century of Humiliation. After the lofty heights of the Ming expeditions with Zheng He's epic fleet, the Chinese lost their ability to rule the waves. This episode details the prelude to the first Opium War, how the British set up their drug trade and why they did it. Next episode, battle commences. Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

As Winter Break approaches, I take a trip to the biology department.   And a new guy starts at the school...   Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast

Today we go back in time to find out about "China's most respectable prostitute", and the winners and losers in the concubine system.  Also, the dramatic end of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing! And #MeToo in China, or #RiceBunny... Email: SMKYpodcast@gmx.com Twitter: @SMKYpodcast