品读论语 Chinese Virtue Podcast Review

Name of podcast: 品读论语 (pǐn dú lún yǔ)

What topics are covered? It focuses on traditional Chinese culture and morals, values guidance mainly.

Why is it good to listen to? This podcast is a program presenting traditional Chinese culture and history through quotation from The Analects of Confucius. The Analects of Confucius is a well-known classic work in China, which is written by the students of Confucius and other Confucians to record the famous sayings of Confucius. Confucianism is mainstream of Chinese culture, through this program you can learn a lot about traditional Chinese culture and history. And maybe you will become even wiser because of these pearls of wisdom!

To listen or subscribe to the podcast, you can search 品读论语 on iTunes.

How often are the podcasts updated? It’s updated on a weekly basis.

Length of the podcast: It varies from 20 mins to 30 mins generally.

Description of the podcast: The host is a woman in her 40s who has a Shandong accent, and each episode of the podcast there is a guest in the studio to work with her together. The guest is generally a school teacher or scholar, he will make an analysis on a quotation from The Analects of Confucius. One interesting thing is that the quotation will generally be spoken in a Peking Opera chanting style to start the discussion, which makes the podcast feel very historical. The female host has a sweet voice and always speaks at  a normal speed, while the guests often have a little bit of a local accent, but very strong. The scholarly guest will talk about the meaning, significance of the quotation and how it will benefit us and modern society. As the Analects of Confucius is written in Classical Chinese, you may also learn some classical Chinese from this podcast.

Summary: To those who love and have an interest in Chinese culture and philosophy, this podcast would be a good choice.