Looking back helps us to look forwards. For China, as with other nations and states, understanding its history is essential to decoding its future. Yet China is notable for its selective memory and sudden historical breaks. Xi Jinping himself has quoted a Qing scholar saying that “To destroy a country, you must first destroy its history.” He was warning about ‘historical nihilism,’ relating in part to the Party’s own past, but the line could equally apply to China’s collective acts of self-forgetting.
The quote is used as an epigraph in our top pick this month, a reported history of the Cultural Revolution that digs into questions about historical memory. On the shortlist are other works that fuse past and present, from China’s Communist Revolution and regime resilience to a history of its political left, as well as studies from the nation’s edges, on Taiwan and Lhasa. As ever, there is a glut of fascinating new China books to bury one’s nose in, and later in the spring we will be replacing this column with a more ambitious overview. Happy reading.
The One to Read
Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan
The Cultural Revolution looms large over recent Chinese history, yet it is easy to miss entirely. We have become almost over-familiar with its horror stories, through the ‘scar’ literature published in English for decades. And so in turn the scar has become passé, leading us to overlook the Cultural Revolution’s enduring influence. This book by Tania Branigan, former Guardian correspondent in Beijing, reminds us just how essential its stories are to understanding contemporary China. Talking to victims, perpetrators and witnesses, she brings to life both the pains of the past and the attempts to reconcile with it in the present. Taking in such topics as red nostalgia, political amnesia and connections to today (from Bo Xilai’s campaigns in Chongqing to Xi Jinping’s Maoist cult of personality) Branigan’s mellifluous prose captures the ghosts of memory that still haunt the nation.
February 2, 2023 | Faber. $22.54. | Buy.
The Shortlist
Dictatorship and Information: Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China by Martin K. Dimitrov
How is it that communist power has endured so successfully in China, where it faltered in Eastern Europe? That is the billion yuan question, often raised in the same breath as the “dictator’s dilemma”, which describes situations where increasingly authoritarian control makes it ever more impossible for leaders to judge true levels of opposition to their rule. This scholarly work, though quite ploddingly academic in its style, attempts to answer these questions through the case studies of communist Bulgaria and China over the decades. Dimitrov posits that the resilience of these authoritarian communist regimes can be traced to the effectiveness of their information-gathering systems in monitoring dissent and public dissatisfaction.
January 3, 2023 | Oxford University Press. $34.95. | Buy.
The Left in China: A Political Cartography by Ralf Ruckus
China’s political spectrum can be thought of as a mirror to America’s: their left is the conservatives on the right; their right the liberals on the left. Yet from 1949 to today, China’s left wing has shifted dramatically, moving from being the revolutionaries to becoming the status quo. In this raucous study, Ruckus walks us through the movements and actors of Chinese left-wing politics, from the Mao years through to Deng’s reforms and Xi’s consolidation of power. In drawing out the connections and divergences between these eras’ reinventions of ‘the left’, he also addresses whether the Chinese Communist Party can still be called a Marxist or communist institution at all.
February 20, 2023 | Pluto Press. $22.95. | Buy.
Accidental Holy Land: The Communist Revolution in Northwest China by Joseph W. Esherick
For the decade before it came to power, the Communist Party was a plucky group of rebels, crippled by the Long March, based out of Yan’an in northwest China. While much is made of this origin myth, scant attention is paid to the context it came out of, both political and geographical. Esherick, author of two other excellent works of national and family history, digs deep into the soil of Yan’an, the revolution’s so-called “holy land”, drawing on both archives and field trips. With a scope going back to the Qing dynasty and early Republic, he examines how the communists’ base arose from a more complex set of factors than the propaganda would have us believe.
February 22, 2022 | University of California Press. $27.18. | Buy.
One China, Many Taiwans: The Geopolitics of Cross-Strait Tourism by Ian Rowen
In this accessible work of scholarship, longtime Taiwan watcher Ian Rowen examines how an influx of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, especially after 2008, has aggravated cross-strait tensions, polarized domestic opinions and arguably created more problems than it addressed through cultural exchange. The most interesting section is when Rowen tags along on a mainland Chinese tour of the island, noting how Taiwan is assiduously portrayed throughout as a part of China. Blending cultural, political and economic factors, he persuasively argues that this tourism “has been one of several strategies aimed at achieving the political control of Taiwan for the PRC.”
January 15, 2023 | Cornell University Press. $27.95. | Buy.
Old Lhasa: A Biography by M.A. Aldrich
A former lawyer and longtime China hand, M.A. Aldrich’s delightful explorations of ancient Asian capitals have so far encompassed Beijing and Ulaanbataar. Now he completes the triptych with a historical guidebook of Lhasa, capital of Tibet long before it was incorporated into the Chinese empire. Part history, part walking tour, Aldrich’s eccentric scholarship and attention to detail is a delight to read, transporting us into the backstreets of Lhasa, from the Barkhor to the Potala Palace, and down the winding alleys of its history, from the first Dalai Lamas to foreign intrusions. While travel to Tibet is opening up again, most readers may be more edified by this book than by any expensive and sterilized tour to “China’s Tibet”.
January 17, 2023 | Camphor Press. $24.99. | Buy.
In Case You Missed It
Contemporary Chinese Short-Short Stories edited by Aili Mu with Mike Smith
Amid the panoply of politics and history, your humble books columnist rarely recommends new Chinese fiction, let alone language-learning resources — but considers both just as helpful for understanding the culture. This collection presents a range of translated short fiction next to the original Chinese, with vocabulary lists and discussion questions – so it’s perfect for Mandarin learners as well as literature fans. The stories are themed conceptually (‘Filial Piety’, ‘Governance’, ‘Face’, ‘Change’ etc.) and include a wide sampling of modern writers including Chi Zijian and Shi Tiesheng. A far from comprehensive introduction to contemporary Chinese lit, but a solid open sesame.
October 3, 2017 | Columbia University Press. $42.00. | Buy.
Alec Ash is the books editor for The Wire. He is the author of Wish Lanterns. His work has also appeared in The Economist, BBC, SupChina, and Foreign Policy. @alecash
As an Amazon Associate, The Wire earns from qualifying purchases of books featured here.