Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Popular Culture
Episode: En Li, "Betting on the Civil Service Examinations: The Lottery in Late Qing China" (Harvard UP, 2023)
Description: During the Qing dynasty in China, a wide variety of people participated in a lottery game named weixing (âsurname guessingâ), which had participants placing bets on the surnames of civil service examination candidates. A fiercely competitive process, those who passed the various levels of the civil service and military examinations could climb the social ladder and obtain status in their communities and be considered for important positions in the government and military. The results of these examinations were not only highly anticipated by the exam takers themselves but alsoâwith the introduction of weixingâby an enthusiastic community of players who...