{"product_id":"sparks-chinas-underground-historians-and-their-battle-for-the-future-paperback-2","title":"Sparks: China's Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eIan Johnson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUsing history to challenge Communist Party rule.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eSparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e describes how some of China's best-known writers, filmmakers, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to forge a nationwide movement that challenges the Communist Party on its most hallowed ground: its control of history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe past is a battleground in many countries, but in China it is crucial to political power. 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 glorify its rule. Indeed, one of Xi Jinping's signature policies is the control of history, which he equates with the party's survival. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut in recent years, a network of independent writers, artists, and filmmakers have begun challenging 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 regular pattern of disasters: from famines and purges of years past to ethnic clashes and virus outbreaks of the present--powerful and inspiring accounts that have underpinned recent protests in China against Xi Jinping's strongman rule. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on years of first-hand research in Xi Jinping's China, \u003cem\u003eSparks\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIan Johnson\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who has spent twenty years in China writing for \u003cem\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e, as well as serving for five years on the editorial board of \u003cem\u003eThe Journal of Asian Studies\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the author of three other books that focus on the intersection of politics and civil society, including \u003cem\u003eThe Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eWild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the founder of the China Unofficial Archive and lives in Berlin, Germany.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 400\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.97 x 9.22 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 03, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47355699298553,"sku":"9780197799352","price":25.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/Zr1B7JxogV9780197799352.webp?v=1782912617","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/sparks-chinas-underground-historians-and-their-battle-for-the-future-paperback-2","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}