• The Battle for the Future: The Mission of China's Underground Historians

  • Sep 27 2023
  • Length: 48 mins
  • Podcast
The Battle for the Future: The Mission of China's Underground Historians By cover art

The Battle for the Future: The Mission of China's Underground Historians

Listen for free

View show details

  • Summary

  • Writing history in China has never been easy; China’s first historian, Sima Qian, was forced to choose between execution and castration and imprisonment. He chose the latter in order to finish his life’s work, Records of the Grand Historian. Now China’s keepers of inconvenient truths are put under immense pressure by Xi Jinping’s war on historical nihilism—viewpoints and memories that run counter to official Party history. Fighting a seemingly unwinnable battle against the state, China’s underground historians often make huge sacrifices to keep alive histories that the Party would like to erase. In the first of a two-part series on history and memory, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Ian Johnson, whose book Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future is out today.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
Politics & Government
Show more Show less

What listeners say about The Battle for the Future: The Mission of China's Underground Historians

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available