My Life as a Chinese Rock Star, with Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo is a household name among China watchers as host of the Sinica Podcast with Jeremy Goldkorn, a current affairs podcast that invites prominent China journalists and China-watchers to participate in uncensored discussions about Chinese political and economic affairs.

Before launching the podcast, however, Kaiser was the guitarist in the Chinese heavy metal band “Tang Dynasty.” Kaiser’s story of China’s burgeoning rock & roll scene in the late 1980s colorfully fuses the music, culture, and politics of the time to present an alternate angle on events that shaped a generation.

Kaiser previously worked as director for international communications for Chinese search engine Baidu. Before that he was a technology correspondent for Red Herring magazine, and also worked as director of digital strategy, China, for Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing. He used to write a column for the foreigner-focused English-language magazine The Beijinger from 2001 to 2011, and is now a regular contributor for SupChina, which acquired the Sinica Podcast in 2016.

The “Harvard on China Podcast” is hosted by James Evans at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen and subscribe to the Harvard on China Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Podbean.