Journeys of the Soul (心灵之旅) recordings, 1998-2018

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Summary

Creator:
Radio Free Asia and Zhang, Min
Abstract:
Eight hundred twenty-six episodes of Radio Free Asia's program Journeys of the Soul (心灵之旅), 1998 to 2018. Episodes are approximately 30 minutes, with interviews covering topics including the Great Leap Forward, The Great Famine, Korean War, the Cultural Revolution, the June 4th Movement, the Anti-Rightest Campaign, and the Weiquan movements (civil rights movements) in China. Also includes unedited audio.
Extent:
12 Linear Feet
1,117 items (595 audiocassettes, 522 minidiscs)
Language:
Materials in Chinese.
Collection ID:
RL.11948

Background

Scope and content:

Eight hundred twenty-six broadcast episodes, as well as unedited audio, of Radio Free Asia's program Journeys of the Soul (心灵之旅), 1998 to 2018. Interviews include witnesses and participants in various political movements, from the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957, the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside from the mid 1950s to 1970s, the Cultural Revolution in 1966-1976; to the June Fourth massacre in 1989, and the crackdown on rights defense lawyers from 2005 to 2018, etc. The interviewees include leading exiled figures who had been at the center of political or diplomatic crises—including journalist Liu Binyan 刘宾雁, astrophysicist Fang Lizhi 方励之, Tiananmen student leader Wan Dan 王丹, and the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng 陈光诚. They also include multiple interviews with key contemporary figures such as the late Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo 刘晓波, Tiananmen Mother Ding Zilin 丁子霖, as well as notable writers, poets, and artists such as Nien Cheng 郑念, Ha Jin 哈金, Liao Yiwu 廖亦武, and Bei Dao 北岛.

Biographical / historical:

Zhang Min graduated from the Journalism Department of Beijing Broadcasting College (北京广播学院) (now the Communication University of China 中国传媒大学) with a Master's degree in law. She worked as a reporter and editor for the "Half Hour Midday (午间半小时) of China National Radio (中央人民广播电台). In 1989, because she supported the pro-democracy movement, her press pass was revoked after the June Fourth Incident. She left China in 1992, and later enrolled in Logos Evangelical Seminary in the United States. While in school, she was hired as a special correspondent in Los Angeles in December 1996, and also worked part time for Radio Free Asia to report local news related to China. She graduated from Logos Evangelical Seminary in July 1998 with a Master's degree in Christian studies, and started to work full time for Radio Free Asia immediately to host the 30-minute special program, Journeys of the Soul. She worked as the anchor of this program for twenty years until her retirement in October 2018. Radio Free Asia (funded by the U.S. Congress and supervised by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors) was established in March 1996. Its mission is to broadcast news and information to Asian audiences who have no access to free news media. It officially started broadcasting Mandarin programs on September 29, 1996. As part of the Mandarin programs, Journeys of the Soul was launched on August 2, 1998, its last episode was broadcast on September 30, 2018. The program lasted for twenty years and two months. A total of 826 episodes were produced and broadcast (not including rebroadcasts). Journeys of the Soul was a thirty-minute shortwave radio program, and the main area covered by this program was mainland China.

Acquisition information:
The Journeys of the Soul recordings were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2020 and 2024.
Processing information:

Processed by Yufei Sun, Luo Zhou, and Craig Breaden, 2022-2025.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2020-0013; 2024-0145.

Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically, by episode.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Journeys of the Soul recordings, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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