On the radio

Anna Chen's new website is now LIVE!

Anna Chen wrote and presented programmes for BBC Radio. She has also appeared on the World Service, Resonance FM and Monocle.

WEDNESDAY 21ST DECEMBER 2016, ST IVES AND ME is being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 06:30; 13:30; 20:30; and next morning 01:30; and is then available on iPlayer for 30 days. Written and presented by Anna Chen. Produced by Chris Eldon-Lee for Culture Wise. Originally broadcast BBC Radio 4, 11.30am Thursday 1st December 2011.

WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH 2016, 06:00 and 13:20: Anna May Wong fans can listen to a repeat of my profile of Hollywood's first Chinese screen legend in A Celestial Star in Piccadilly on BBC Radio 4 Extra and then for 30 days on iPlayer.

THURSDAY 2ND JULY 2015: My programme, Chopsticks At Dawn, about chinoiserie clichés in music, is repeated tomorrow BBC Radio 4 Extra & iPlayer.
It's on four times: 6:30; 13:30; 20:30 and again the next morning at 01:30, so no excuses.
First broadcast 2010 on BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Chris Eldon-Lee and Mukti Jain Campion for Culture Wise.
With musicologist Dr Jonathan Walker.


(To listen to Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge series on Resonance FM for WINDOWS, download VLC media player)

Resonance 104.4fm can be found in the internet radio directory in iTunes under the “Eclectic” category.

To listen LIVE, click the Resonance icon in the sidebar or visit Resonance 104.4FM and click on the Radioplayer widget, top left.

RESONANCE 104.4FM Madam Miaow Says
Presented by Anna Chen. With Charles Shaar Murray

RETURNING FOR A SECOND SEASON IN 2014 ON TUESDAYS 5-6PM
22nd April 2014: The women of the blues. Concluding Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues, Part 3. Guest: Sarah Gillespie.
15th April 2014: China's cultural & scientific contributions to the west. Guests: Liz Lawrence and Paul Anderson.
8th April 2014: Slam and Performance Poetry. Guests: John Paul O'Neill, John Crow and Charles Shaar Murray. Plus Kevin Shen talks about the transfer of David Henry Hwang's play Yellow Face to the National Theatre Shed.
1st April 2014: Alternative Theatre. Guests: Dr Susan Croft and Neil Hornick of The Phantom Captain.
25th March 2014: Chinese Arts round-up. Guests: Jingan Young, Aowen Jin, Daniel York and Wondermare, and Charles Shaar Murray.
18th March 2014: The Life and Crimes of Anna May Wong The story of Hollywood's first Chinese screen legend, the most famous Chinese woman on the planet in the 1920s and '30s.
11th March 2014: Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues, Part 2. The mid-1960s to the present when the white kids got it and joined in. In brief, pre- and post- Stones. With Stephen Dale Petit.
4th March 2014: Charles Shaar Murray's Guide to the Blues, Part 1. 1920s to the early sixties when the Blues was almost entirely African-American. With special guest Stephen Dale Petit. Part 2, 1960s to the present, next week on Tuesday 11th March.
3rd December 2013: "George Orwell: Left or right?" Was he as right-wing libertarian as some claim? Did he ever drop his revolutionary ideals? Despite giving us the language tools with which to examine Stalinist excesses, Orwell never abandoned his socialism. So says Professor John Newsinger, author of Orwell's Politics. He'll be in the studio to discuss this with Paul Anderson, former editor of Tribune and deputy editor of the New Statesman, both publications where Orwell worked.
26th November 2013: "Breaking a butterfly on a wheel: Modern Heroes" John Sinclair was a hippy, the manager of the MC5 and a founder of the White Panthers. In 1969, he felt the full spite of the state when he was sentenced to 10 years for supplying 2 joints to a narc. Only widespread protest — including John Lennon writing and recording a song, "John Sinclair" — got him an early release. John Sinclair is in the studio alongside Oliver Shykles from Queer Friends for Chelsea Manning, who'll be talking about Manning, Edward Snowden and why we should be wary of governments siezing extra powers.
19th November 2013: "Paul Robeson, meet Anna May Wong." Tayo Aluko talks about the life, career and politics of the first African American superstar, while Dr Diane Yeh, tells us what other Black and Asian performers were making it in the early years of mass entertainment.
12th November 2013: "Monkey goes western." An overview of the Chinese rock scene and science fiction. Plus actor Lucy Sheen talks about her career and Chinese in UK theatre.
5th November 2013: "The Super Rich." A tale of two nations. Plus support for the evening's Operation Vendetta Million Mask March. Guests: Aditya Chakrabortty and Kate Belgrave.
29th October 2013: "Cultural Revolution." Guests: Cliff Cocker, Mike Pearn and Elizabeth Lawrence
22nd October 2013: "The Counterculture" plus a report on the day's Chinatown strike. Guests: Phoenix Rainbow, Tim Concannon and Shruti Narayanswami
15th October 2013: Series launches with "Oh Other, where art thou? Yellow Peril." Guests: Daniel York, Siu-see Hung, Dr Diana Yeh, Ben Chu and Wondermare (Melody Brown and C Amanda Maude).
The press on Resonance FM: The Guardian calls it “the best radio station in London”; the Village Voice, “the best radio station in the world”.

Chinese In Britain
Repeated daily on BBC Radio 4 Extra from Monday 27th October 2014, 00:15 and 14:15.
Anna Chen presents the groundbreaking ten-part series Chinese in Britain made for BBC Radio 4 in 2007, repeated from 27th October 2014 on R4 Extra. Available to listen again for 30 days after broadcast. Produced by Mukti Jain Campion for Culture Wise.

BBC World Service WEEKEND programme
Saturday 18th October 2014
Anna is a guest on the BBC World Service Weekend programme 6:30-8:30am Saturday 18th October 2014, talking about the news. With Daniel Johnson (editor of Standpoint magazine), presented by Paul Henley. Listen here.

Madam Mao's Golden oldies
Repeated BBC R4 at 3.30pm Saturday 26th October 2013
Written and presented by Anna Chen. First broadcast July last year. Available to listen on iPlayer until Saturday 2nd Nov. More here.

MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE on RESONANCE 104.4FM
Anna Chen's series of hour-long shows every Tuesday starts 5.30pm 15th October and opens with Oh Other, where art thou? looking at yellowface, the return of blackface and whether it's all going backwards. You can hear them all here.

Overwhelming China
BBC Radio 4, 11am, Friday 1st November
Anna is an interviewee on this Radio 4 programme that examines the origins of the current anti-Chinese yellow peril scare manifesting in a slew of books with titles like Martin Jacques' When China Rules the World. Presented by Philip Dodd. More here.

Madam Mao's Golden Oldies, BBC R4 
Written and presented by Anna Chen
Produced by Mukti Jain Campion, Culture Wise
BBC Radio 4 Broadcast 11:30am, Tuesday 17th July 2012
A programme about Madam Mao's model operas which were made during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
MORE HERE

St Ives and Me, BBC Radio 4
11.30am Thursday 1st December 2011
Anna shows why the Cornish fishing town is such a magnet for artists and writers.
Written and presented by Anna Chen. Producer: Chris Eldon-Lee for Culture Wise
Pick of the Day in the Telegraph, Times, Mail, Observer, Independent, Radio Times, Time Out. " ... a lovely evocation ..." Express
MORE HERE

Night Waves, BBC Radio 3
10pm, Tuesday 14th June 2011
Host Matthew Sweet. On with Chris Frayling talking about Anna May Wong and representation of Chinese in the British media.

Two more programmes for BBC Radio 4 coming up:
Found In Translation, an exploration of the Chinese sense of humour and what makes China laugh to be broadcast July 2011. And a programme about St Ives in Cornwall taking in the art, the history and the people, due early 2012. Both written and presented by Anna Chen.

The Forum, BBC World Service
9am, Sunday 14th November 2010
You can hear me talking about Hollywood legend Anna May Wong this Sunday on the BBC World Service's The Forum at 9am. Chaired by Bridget Kendall, I'm on with Professor Dimitar Sasselov, discussing Super-earths, and Kwame Anthony Appiah on honour revolutions.

BBC Radio 4 — 13:30
Tuesday 8th June 2010
Written and presented by Anna Chen with Dr Jonathan Walker. Produced by Mukti Jain Campion and Chris Eldon-Lee for Culture Wise.
What makes certain configurations of notes in Western music sound Chinese? And why does it set my teeth on edge?
More here and pictures here
Pick of the Day: The Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Time Out, Radio Times and Mail On Sunday

China, Britain and the Nunzilla Conundrum
BBC Radio 4 – 11.00-11.30am
Friday 19 March 2010
PICK OF THE DAY Guardian Guide, Radio Times and Daily Telegraph which says, " ... tying it with a ribbon of her wit. "
PICK OF THE WEEK Sunday Telegraph
" ... refreshingly original ..."
Recommended by the Diocese of Liverpool
Made in China, designed in Britain, consumed in the West. Anna Chen asks what throwaway gifts such as the fire-breathing wind-up Nunzilla toy or Mummy Mike tell Britain about both its own society and its relationship with China. Written and presented by Anna Chen. Producer Sally Heaven.

Anna Chen writes and presents a half-hour profile of Hollywood's first Chinese movie star for BBC Radio 4. Produced by Mukti Jain Campion for Culture Wise.
Broadcast 11:30, Tuesday 13th January 2009. Chosen as Pick of the Week by BBC R4, Guardian Guide, The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday.
MORE HERE

Chinese In Britain — BBC Radio 4
A ten-part series first broadcast April/May 2007, repeated 2014, presented by Anna Chen. Produced by Mukti Jain Campion for Culture Wise. Written by Mukti Jain Campion and Anna Chen from an idea by Jessie Lim.
A fascinating story” - Chris Campling, The Times
Each episode sounded effortless only because it had been crafted with such supreme care” - Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph
Repeated as omnibus editions 9pm Fridays 16th and 23rd May 2008 on BBC Radio 4
Pictures of the series launch
More info at Culture Wise.

8-9.15pm, Wednesday 22nd July 2009. Guest of Jan Kooper at Raiders FM, themed around politics in music.

9-10pm, Tuesday 10th February 2009, guest host on Resonance 104.4FM's Lucky Cat hour.

11:40pm, Saturday 23rd August. BBC R5Live, the Stephen Nolan Show on the Beijing Olympics

10pm, Friday 8th August. BBC R5Live, the Stephen Nolan Show on the Beijing Olympics

1:10pm, Thursday 7th August. BBC Radio 2, the Jeremy Vine Show on the Beijing Olympics

10pm, Sunday 3rd August. BBC R5Live, the Stephen Nolan Show on China and the Beijing Olympics

5.20pm, Monday 14th July. BBC Radio London, Kath & Eddie Drivetime on the Chinese in Britain

Tuesday 24th June. BBC Radio 4, fourth and last of the Reith Lectures. Prof Jonathan Spence on China, the Beijing Olympics and the Body Beautiful. As an invited guest asking a question.

Thursday 10th April. BBC World Service, World Have Your Say on the proposed Olympic boycott

Wednesday 9th April. BBC R5Live, the Victoria Derbyshire programme

Thursday 14th February. BBC World Service, World Have Your Say

Red Guard, Yellow Submarine, BBC Radio 4, November 2005. Drama written and narrated by Anna Chen. BBC page here

Yoko Ono: A Life In Flux, Presented by Anna Chen. Produced by Lance Dann. BBC Radio 3, March 1999. Featured the first interviews with Yoko Ono carried out by a UK broadcasting company for 20 years. The programme looked into her past as an artist, her relationship with John Lennon, her current work and her influence as a cultural figures. It featured inteviews with Kate Millet, John Hendricks, Geoff Hendricks and a host of other 60s art figures.


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