Advanced Search Request a Book

ORDERS

Readings Orders 0

DEMANDS

Readings Demands 0

sparks: china's underground historians and their battle for the future
[Hardback - 2023]
ian johnson
Out of Stock
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £25
Our Price: Rs.5845 Rs.5260
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.585
Category: History
Publisher: Allen Lane Uk | ISBN: 9780241524947 | Pages: 400
Shipping Weight: | Dimensions:
Notify

Description

An indelible feat of reporting and an urgent read ... It s a privilege to read books like these Te-Ping Chen, author of Land of Big Numbers

A powerful reminder of the ways in which China s future depends on who controls the past Peter Hessler

A documentary filmmaker who spent years uncovering a Mao-era death camp; an independent journalist who gave voice to the millions who suffered through Covid; a magazine publisher who dodges the secret police: these are some of the people who make up Sparks: China s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future, a vital account of how some of China s most important writers, filmmakers, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to challenge the Chinese Communist Party on its most sacred ground - its monopoly on history.

In traditional China, dynasties rewrote history to justify their rule by proving that their predecessors were unworthy of holding power. Marxism gave this a modern gloss, describing history as an unstoppable force heading toward Communism s triumph. The Chinese Communist Party builds on these ideas to whitewash its misdeeds and justify its rule.

But in recent years, critical thinkers from across the land have begun to challenge this state-led disremembering. Using digital technologies to bypass China s legendary surveillance state, their samizdat journals, guerilla media posts, and underground films document a pattern of disasters: from past famines and purges to the ethnic clashes and virus outbreaks of the present.

Based on years of research in Xi Jinping s China, Sparks challenges stereotypes of a China where the state has quashed all free thought, revealing instead a country engaged in one of humanity s great struggles of memory against forgetting - a battle that will shape the China that emerges in the mid-21st century.

About the Author

Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who has spent most of his adult life in China, working as a correspondent for The New York Times, New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of other books that also focus on the intersection of politics and civil society, including The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, and Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China.

Bestsellers in History

View All
Islam: A Short History
[Paperback - 2002]
karen armstrong
In Stock
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: Rs.2145 Rs.1930
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.215
The Campaigns Of Alexander
[Paperback - 1971]
arrian
Out of Stock
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2345 Rs.2110
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.235
White Mughals: Love & Betrayal In Eighteenth Century India
[Paperback - 2004]
william dalrymple
In Stock
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: Rs.3795 Rs.3415
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.380
Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind
[Paperback - 2015]
yuval noah harari
In Stock
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2995 Rs.2695
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.300
The Histories (Translation)
[Paperback - 2003]
herodotus
Out of Stock
Availability in 4-6 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: $14
Our Price: Rs.2995 Rs.2695
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.300
21 Lessons For The 21st Century
[Paperback - 2019]
yuval noah harari
In Stock
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2895 Rs.2605
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.290
World Order: Reflections On The Character Of Nations And The Course Of History
[Paperback - 2015]
henry kissinger
In Stock
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: Rs.2495 Rs.2245
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.250
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
[Paperback - 2023]
peter frankopan
In Stock
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: Rs.4795 Rs.4315
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.480
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
[Hardback - 2023]
peter frankopan
On Demand
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £30
Our Price: Rs.7145 Rs.6073
Standard Discount: 15%
You Save: Rs.1072
Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India
[Paperback - 2017]
shashi tharoor
In Stock
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: Rs.2595 Rs.2335
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.260