The Belt and Road Podcast
A podcast that covers the latest news, research and analysis of China's growing presence in the developing world.
Co-Hosted by Erik Myxter-iino, Juliet Lu and Keren Zhu
Edited by Taili Ni
The Belt and Road Podcast
Cotton Diplomacy in Central Asia: Dr. Irna Hofman on China in Tajikistan and Beyond
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Erik Myxter-iino and Juliet Lu
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Episode 52
Just across the Xinjiang border, China is investing in a range of sectors. Infrastructure and road construction are booming as in many other places, but cotton investments dominate and are seen as a distinct type. Cotton is considered a strategic crop both to China and Tajikistan and is embedded in a range of elite networks and state power. Cotton Diplomacy is one of many things we cover in this episode, listen in!
Read more of Dr. Hofman's work:
- Chinese Cotton Diplomacy in Tajikistan: Greasing the Ties by Reviving the Cotton Economy
- In the Interstices of Patriarchal Order: Spaces of Female Agency in Chinese-Tajik Labour Encounters
- Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan's trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change
Recommendations
Irna
- The People's Map
- Host an event bringing together all the podcast interviewees!
Erik
- Embrace home design DIY!
- Listen to MeatLoaf Bat Outta Hell 2 album especially
Juliet
- The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (2010)
- The Power and Business of Hip-Hop: A Reading List on an American Art Form. Stories of hi-hop’s genius, influence, struggle, and endurance
- Overcoming Challenges to the Research Environment in China, Harvard Fairbank Center with YuenYuen Ang, Liz Perry, Denise Ho and Rob Weller (Summary)
- This Tik Tok that Erik sent me making fun of podcast hosts that do recommendations at the end lol