Review by Choice Review
This thought-provoking and thoroughly researched volume by Johnson (Council on Foreign Relations) seeks to reveal how some intellectuals in China have overcome crackdowns and censorship to challenge the state's monopoly on history and how they have engaged in struggles of memory against forgetting. The book's 15 chapters are divided into three sections. The first section (chapters 1--6) focuses on the founding years of the Communist Party, a time of intense violence. The second section (chapters 7--11) deals with the efforts in recent years to challenge the Party's domination of history. The third section (chapters 12--15) looks into several events that "indicate the future trends and potential for political change" (p. xii). The author believes that "if the history of this movement [of underground historians] has taught us anything, it is that it has grown with time, despite setbacks. We can look at individual battles and see defeat. But we can also see endless cycle of creation, of new sparks that leap off the flint of history every time it is struck" (p. 305). Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. --Stephen K. Ma, emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Johnson (The Souls of China) delivers a striking account of people who have defied authority to document negative aspects of life under the Chinese Communist Party. According to Johnson, as each iteration of the party tries to erase the past, each new generation produces its own "underground historians" (a shorthand for "university professors, independent filmmakers, underground magazine publishers, novelists, artists, and journalists") who are "ready to spring into action when the state's guard is down." For example, he recounts the saga of Spark, a short-lived underground journal published in the northwest city of Tianshi in 1960 by a group of young people exiled to the countryside to do farm work. Before it was shut down, Spark challenged Mao's cult of personality and blamed party mismanagement for the famine and starvation of the Great Leap Forward. After the rise of the internet, online communities brought together more dissident voices. It was online citizen journalists, Johnson notes, who told the world what was going on in Wuhan at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. He highlights the story of Li Wenliang, a young ophthalmologist who was punished by the state for spreading rumors after he warned his colleagues about the new disease. This immersive survey combines interviews, firsthand reportage, and historical research to paint a moving group portrait of China's political dissidents. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In an authoritarian state, writing about history is a dangerous but necessary undertaking. Milan Kundera once wrote, "the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." This is the idea that informs Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist with a deep and personal connection to China, who chronicles his discussions with a range of writers and filmmakers working to tell the true story of the country's past and present. This is known as minjian lishi, which roughly translates to "grassroots history" or "counter-history." It can be a dangerous undertaking, as successive Chinese administrations have made concerted efforts to propagate an "official" version of events, a narrative that describes the Communist Party as the pinnacle of a historical process. In particular, Xi Jinping has made the control of history a priority as a means to legitimize his authoritarian approach. Historians that do not follow the party line can face imprisonment or might simply disappear. Thankfully, there are many that accept the risks, and Johnson gives them the space to explain why and how they do it. Some have produced documentary films based on interviews with people who were persecuted over political offenses, while others have written books and articles criticizing the government over corruption or its handling of the pandemic. They have told poignant stories dealing with the repression of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. In other cases, writers have used fiction to examine historical injustices. The internet has provided new avenues to tell stories, and dissidents have been ingenious in finding ways around the government firewalls. There is a continuing demand for their output, but several historians acknowledge the difficulty of challenging the state and see themselves more as providing a record for future generations. This represents the author's fundamental message: Speak the truth before it is forgotten. A brave book about inspiring people, underlining the value of freedom, independence, and courage. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
