Counter-History in China: Challenging the Headline Narratives, with Ian Johnson (April 2, 2024)
Newspaper headlines describe a China that is uniformly bleak: a slowing economy, tensions with the West, and a surveillance state that seems to have crushed all opposing voices. But in his new book Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future (2023), Ian Johnson presents a more nuanced picture of Xi Jinping’s China, one where a vibrant movement of underground filmmakers, magazine publishers, and authors challenge the Communist Party on its most important source of legitimacy: its control of history.
Join us as Johnson presents his book and introduces us to China’s counter-history movement, which echoes struggles in our own countries for a more equitable and just accounting of the past.
COUNTER-HISTORY IN CHINA: CHALLENGING THE HEADLINE NARRATIVES
with IAN JOHNSON
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 from 5-6:30 pm at the Kilachand Honors College (1st fl. Common Room)
91 Bay State Road, Boston, MA
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
To help us with planning, please register using this QR code or at this link
About the Speaker: [from https://ian-johnson.com/about-me]
Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, researcher, and senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His new book, Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future, shows how–despite the best efforts of Xi Jinping’s surveillance state–a nationwide movement has coalesced to challenge the Communist Party on its most hallowed ground: its control of history.