Ian Johnson

Ai Xiaoming

1957—1967：一位青年物理学者的生死劫—从中科院反右开始的追寻 1957–1967: A Young Physicist’s Trial by Fire

This week's @minjianarchives.bsky.social newsletter is by one of China's foremost public intellectuals, Ai Xiaoming, on an investigation she wrote on the myth that China's natural scientists were insulated from Mao-era political campaigns. EN/ZH.
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/19571967

The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet

A book to watch for in 2026 (have been eager to see it since reading and liking some magazine pieces by @yilingliu95.bsky.social) bookshop.org/p/books/danc... + it comes with blurbs by @karenhao.bsky.social & @iandenisjohnson.bsky.social (who refers to it as a
"masterful piece of reporting")

How does religion work in China?

@iandenisjohnson.bsky.social (@minjianarchives.bsky.social) joins us to explore how religion is viewed by the government and people in China.

▶️ Watch: https://www.ncuscr.org/video/religion-in-china/

贫瘠恶土中生长出的思想之花——遇罗克与《出身论》 The Flower of Thought That Blossomed in a Barren Wasteland: Yu Luoke and “On Class Origins”

One of our most significant newsletters: an intro to the great Chinese writer Yu Luoke, executed in Beijing's Workers Stadium at age 27. Best of all it's by someone who knew of Yu's works at the time, @huping1.bsky.social via @minjianarchives.bsky.social
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/7e7

Cui Weiping

崔卫平：守望漫漫长夜——我与傅国涌的交往点滴 Cui Weiping: Keeping Vigil Through the Long Night—My Interactions with Fu Guoyong

I couldn’t be prouder of this piece that we published in @minjianarchives.bsky.social by Cui Weiping on her translations of Havel and Michnik, and her interactions with the recently departed Fu Guoyong. An exclusive essay, bilingual, no paywall.
open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...

this is psycho

Lessons of the Father | Ian Johnson New biographies of Xi Zhongxun and Hu Yaobang provide insights into the opaque culture of the Chinese Communist Party and the political ascent of Xi's son, Xi Jinping.

New for @nybooks.com: @iandenisjohnson.bsky.social reviews my biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping. Thanks Ian!

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

七十年后重温胡风案：《红日风暴》和一场莫须有的文字狱 Revisiting the Hu Feng Case 70 Years Later: Storm under the Sun and a Baseless Literary Inquisition

A Mao-era Inquisition: 70 years on, why the PRC's first literary witch hunt is still a template for how the Communist Party controls writers. The latest @minjianarchives.bsky.social newsletter looks at the tragic case of Hu Feng.
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/fb8?utm_ca...

《被眼泪浸湿的土地》：一部维吾尔族“右派”的苦难史 The Land Drenched in Tears: A History of Uyghur “Rightists”

As part of our efforts to include the erased histories of all ethnic groups in China, @minjianarchives.bsky.social
newsletter today discusses a key work of Uyghur resistance: A Land Drenched in Tears. This is also our first trilingual newsletter!
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/a30?utm_ca...

Ten years on, the dystopian movie that proved to be all-too real. Read our weekly essay on "Ten Years," a Hong Kong film that predicted the city's sad state today. Bilingual. chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/24a

Subscribe our newsletter on Substack:
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com

Thanks for the note. In Souls of China one of the stories was about a meditation practice that was essentially new age--people hung out in caves and hugged trees. It was Daoist inspired by quite eclectic...

"A good political system is one that places restraints on our darker instincts, while a despotic totalitarian regime deliberately cultivates them. For the evil in human nature is the sustenance of all authoritarian rule."

The essay strikes me as significant, because it's written by a young writer: "Nearly 70 years have passed since the Anti-Rightist Campaign, but for today’s youth, reading this book as a textbook on human nature is more meaningful. We may love humanity, but we cannot fully trust human nature."

夹边沟亲历者和凤鸣辞世：一位捍卫记忆的女战士 A Woman Warrior Who Defended Memory: Eyewitness of Jiabiangou, He Fengming, Passes Away

Woman Warrior:
@minjianarchives.bsky.social with a moving essay on the passing of He Fengming, eyewitness to some of the worst atrocities of the Mao era, including #Jiabiangou death camp.
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/525?utm_ca...

【專訪】中國民間檔案館創辦人Ian Johnson 「這是獨一無二，關於中國獨立思想家的資料庫，我們希望它能讓人看見這場反歷史運動的廣度和深度。」

Thanks to Tian Jian 田間 for this interview in Chinese on
@minjianarchives.bsky.social : its founding, goals, and new features.
非常感謝《田間》簡訊的中文採訪，內容涉及民間檔案館的成立、我們的目標以及我們的新功能https://open.substack.com/pub/tianjiancmp/p/ian-johnson?r=g15&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Right where Sparks belongs the #radicalhistory section of @housmansbookshop.bsky.social in london!

100+ Global Journalism Leaders Urge China to Free Journalist Dong Yuyu WASHINGTON, April 23 — Today, more than 100 prominent figures from the global journalism and media community released an open letter in support of Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu, calling for his immedia...

We'd appreciate media coverage of this petition, which is in support of the unjustly imprisoned journalist Dong Yuyu, whose appeal will be decided shortly. The CCP is figuring that the world is distracted by tariffs please help us prove them wrong.
www.press.org/newsroom/100...

Awful.
//The situation affected nearly 40 people who hold employment-based visas at RFA and came from countries known for harsh crackdowns on press freedom, including China, Vietnam and Cambodia, where journalists are routinely harassed or jailed.//

《十年》，十年：如何解读香港命运的预言？ Ten Years After "Ten Years": How Should We Read Hong Kong’s Prophecy?

The dystopian movie that proved to be all-too real. Read the @mjdanganguan.bsky.social weekly essay on "Ten Years," a Hong Kong film that predicted the city's sad state today. Bilingual. No paywall.
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/24a?utm_ca...

那些未被杀死的，终将开口说话——向承鉴自传《炼狱归魂》获2024年博登书屋“最佳历史回忆文献档案奖” The Unsilenced Will Eventually Have Their Say

An inspiring essay—in Chinese and English—by the legendary Chinese journalist 江雪 in @mjdanganguan on how, in the end, the silenced in China will have their say. Read it and subscribe (for free) on substack.

open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...

Michael Rothberg | Universal Values On 1 April, the memorial site at the former Buchenwald concentration camp announced that the Israeli philosopher Omri...

How the Israeli government prevented an Israeli philosopher, the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, from speaking at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
@mrothberg.bsky.social writing in @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

The Digitalisation of Memory Practices in China The Digitalisation of Memory Practices in China - Contesting the Curating State; This book examines how new digital technologies are reshaping and expanding the production and contestation of collecti...

Book announcement: I have a chapter in a new book coming out this autumn, a more academically grounded look at how digital technologies enabled the recreation of the Sparks magazine.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-digitali...

The China Unofficial Archive Making accessible the key documents, films, blogs, and publications of a movement of Chinese people seeking to reclaim their country's history

or check it and recent newsletter on the CUA website:
minjian-danganguan.org/s/china-unof...

Subscribe to 中国民间档案馆 China Unofficial Archives 我们致力于收集、保存和传播被审查、被压制的中国民间历史。 This site is dedicated to making accessible the key documents, movies, blogs, and publications of a movement of Chinese people seeking to reclaim their country's history. ...

and subscribe to the newsletter (it's free) here:
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/subscribe

香港记者：六四现场的记录者和记忆的传承者 Hong Kong Journalists: Chroniclers of June Fourth and Keepers of its Memory

The latest weekly newsletter from
@mjdanganguan, this one on the emasculation of Hong Kong's media scene. Check it out in Chinese and English 👇
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/c82

China’s Iconoclast I Have No Enemies: The Life and Legacy of Liu Xiaobo by Perry Link, the leading Western chronicler of dissent in China, and a Chinese colleague who writes anonymously as Wu Dazhi is the definitive bio...

Now unpaywalled: my review of one of the most important--and yet shunned--recent books on China: "I Have No Enemies," a @columbiaup.bsky.social biography of the #NobelPrize laureate Liu Xiaobo. Originally in @nybooks.com Breprinted by @chinafile.bsky.social
www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb...

National Press Club Urges China to Overturn Espionage Conviction of Journalist Dong Yuyu /PRNewswire/ -- National Press Club President Mike Balsamo today called on Chinese authorities to overturn the conviction of journalist Dong Yuyu, whose appeal...

Kudos to @pressclubdc.bsky.social for reminding us of the plight of Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu. He's been incarcerated for completely normal contacts, including a @harvard.edu @niemanfoundation.bsky.social fellowship. Latest news: his appeal to be heard Monday.
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

#OTD five years ago: the Chinese scholar and filmmaker Ai Xiaoming publishes her heartfelt diary of the COVID-19 #lockdown in Wuhan, one of the first accounts of China's ultimately counterproductive policy against the virus. @mjdanganguan.bsky.social republishes it below in Chinese and English.