Ep. 119 | The Chinese Civil War (Part 1)

Jun 10

In this week’s episode, we begin a multi-part series covering the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949. In China, this is known as the War of Liberation. In this Part 1, we will look at the background leading up to the war as well as failed attempts by the Americans in 1945-1946 to mediate a peace between Mao’s Communists and the Nationalists led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Player

Terms in Episode

Pinyin/Term	Chinese	English/Meaning
Battle of Red Cliffs	赤壁之战	Epic battle (and blockbuster movie) where Cao Cao met his Waterloo during the Three Kingdoms Period
Changchun	长春	Capital of Manchukuo and Jilin Province
Chen Yi	陈毅	Great PLA general
Dalian	大连	Port city in Liaoning
Dongbei	东北	The northeast (Manchuria)
Harbin	哈尔滨	Capital of Heilongjiang
He Long	贺龙	Great PLA general
Heilongjiang	黑龙江	Province of Manchuria
Jilin	吉林	Province of Manchuria
Jinggangshan	井冈山	In Jiangxi, on the Hunan border, where Mao set up a successful Soviet
Koumi Fujian	口蜜腹剑	Sweet talking but a sword in the belly
Li Xiannian	李先念	Great PLA general
Liaoning	辽宁	Province of Manchuria
Lin Biao	林彪	Great PLA general
Liu Shaoqu	刘少奇	Early political leader of the CCP
Manchukuo	满洲国	Japanese puppet state in Manchuria
Nie Rongzhen	聂荣臻	Great PLA general
Nongmin	农民	Peasants, farmers
Qiangganzi limian chu zhengquan	枪杆子里面出政权	Power grows from the barrol of a gun
Qin Shihuang	秦始皇	The great Qin dynasty founder
Ren Bishi	任弼时	Great PLA general and political figure. Died 1950.
Shenyang	沈阳	Industrial city on Liaoning
Song Jiaoren	宋教仁	One of the founders of KMT, assassinated in 1913
Xian Incident	西安事变	December 1936, in a plot led by Marshall Zhang Xueliang, Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped
Zhang Zuolin	张作霖	Warlord of Manchuria
Zhongguo laobaixing	中国老百姓	The Chinese people
Zhongguo renmin jiefangjun	中国人民解放军	The PLA
Zhou Gong	周公	The Duke of Zhou