Meet My Country: Announcement

08/06/21 • 1 min

Our second podcast season "Meet My Country" is out. In this season, you will learn about a new Asian country in each edition from the perspective of leading local voices.

Our second podcast season "Meet My Country" is out. In this season, you will learn about a new Asian country in each edition from the perspective of leading local voices.

Previous Episode

China and the World: Switzerland’s China Strategy, with Ambassador Raphael Naegeli

In politics, if you are criticized from all sides, it’s usually a sign you’ve reached a good compromise. So it was with Switzerland’s recently unveiled China Strategy: It was seen as either being too harsh or way too lax on China. Swiss Ambassador Raphael Naegeli shares with us why Switzerland’s new China Strategy is a good step forward and not all that different from other countries’ approaches.
Your host: Nico Luchsinger, Executive Director, Asia Society Switzerland
Moderator: Nico Luchsinger
Speaker: Ambassador Raphael Naegeli, Head of the Asia Pacific Division, The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland
Production: Denise Staubli, Program Manager, Asia Society Switzerland
Sources:

Interview with Ambassador Raphael Naegeli with Asia Society Switzerland’s Nico Luchsinger, June 17, 2021
Switzerland’s China Strategy 2021-2024

Next Episode

Meet My Country: Bhutan, With Kunga Tenzin Dorji (Supe)

Journalist and Musician Kunga Tenzin Dorji, known as Supe, talks about his homeland Bhutan – the landlocked country located in the Eastern Himalayas. Until the 1960s, the kingdom of Bhutan was isolated from the rest of the world. When Bhutan started to open up, it did not modernize blindly, as Supe points out. The tiny nation wedged between India and China was able to preserve its national identity, which remains visible in the country’s cultural heritage, and in its political and socio-economic systems.
Your host: Denise Staubli, Program Manager, Asia Society Switzerland
Moderator: Simona Grano, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Taiwan Studies Project at the University of Zurich (UZH)
Speaker: Kunga Tenzin Dorji (Supe), freelance journalist and musician
Production: Denise Staubli

Show Notes

Phobjikha Valley – a spectacular wide valley in Bhutan at an elevation of 3’000 meters, where you also find the very endangered black-necked cranes
Ema Datshi – the national dish of Bhutan
Anthony Bourdains’ series Parts Unknown on Bhutan, who gives a good assessment of Bhutan
The History of Bhutan, by Karma Phuntsho
So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas, by Barbara Crossette, for a better understanding of geopolitics of Bhutan
The Circle of Karma, by Kunzang Choden, fiction and quite revealing about Bhutan’s society and culture
Asia Society Switzerland webcast A Closer Look at Bhutan with Kunga Tenzin Dorji and Dr. Simona Grano, July 1, 2021