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The Indiana Jones of China
After his controversial involvement with the Tarim mummy excavations in Western Xinjiang, Victor Mair might just be the closest thing Sinology has to Indiana Jones, assuming the fictional Spielberg character was a renowned linguist, translator and popular blogger in addition to his standing as a historian/archeologist. So it can be no surprise that we're delighted to be joined by Victor today for a discussion that delves from the origins of well-known Buddhist texts to digressions on ancient migration patterns, and even a bit of myth-clearing on Chinese romanization.

In addition to Victor Mair, joining Sinica hosts Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn for one of the most wide-ranging shows we've done to date is David Moser, a close Sinica friend and Director of the CET immersion program in Beijing. Everyone is very much on their game, and this is a great show for anyone with an interest in Chinese history. So be sure to check out today's show, and please feel welcome to leave your comments in the discussion section below.

Want new episodes of Sinica streamed to your computer automatically as soon as they're released? Just subscribe to us on iTunes by clicking on "Subscribe to Podcast" in the Advanced file menu and providing the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica when prompted. We also welcome everyone to download this podcast as a standalone mp3 file, or join us on our Facebook and Twitter communities. And if you have any specific feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to hear covered, you can send us an email anytime by writing sinica@popupchinese.com.

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Chinese Podcasts and Lessons from Beijing, China....

Popup Chinese is the highest rated Chinese lessons series on iTunes, and the only Chinese program recommended by the heads of all major immersion programs in Beijing. Create an account today for instant access to our entire archive of free Chinese podcasts, along with everything else you need to learn mandarin online: mobile apps, HSK tests, study tools and much more.

Why should you use us? While most mandarin podcasts are created by Chinese teachers with little experience learning a foreign language, Popup Chinese has been designed from scratch by native English speakers with native-level fluency in Chinese. We've suffered through the same dry textbooks and ineffective classes you have, and built Popup Chinese to solve the major problems we had learning Chinese. Try out a few podcasts and in no time you'll be understanding more challenging Chinese than you ever thought possible and enjoying the emotional subtleties of the language.

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But enough of an introduction. To get started create your own free account. Once that is done, you can explore our archive of free Chinese podcasts through this website, or download the audio files to your computer by subscribing to our public iTunes feed. If you value convenience, a reasonably-priced premium subscription adds the ability to download audio files straight from our server to your computer with a single click, and provides access to supplementary audio transcripts, dialogue-only recordings and other premium learning materials.

There are many advantages to becoming a premium subscriber, and all subscriptions are backed by a no-questions-asked refund guarantee. That said, if you're not ready to take the leap don't worry. It is not necessary to upgrade to create an account, and even non-paying supporters can head over to iTunes and download all of our Chinese podcasts by subscribing to our feed that way.

How do I listen to the Popup Chinese podcasts?

Once you've downloaded our podcasts, we recommend installing them on a smartphone or portable music player, and then listening on-the-go. Most of our subscribers use iPods or iPhones, but our lessons will play on practically any mp3 player.

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