Ian Johnson

An inspiring testament to China's dissident historians and activists, from the 1940s to the present. A documentary filmmaker who uncovered a Mao-era death camp; an independent journalist who gave voice to the millions who suffered through Covid; a magazine publisher who dodged the secret police—these are some of the people who make up Sparks—China's Underground Historians and their Battle for...

A compelling history of Chinese resistance to state oppression, told through the stories of three remarkable individuals. In Wild Grass, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ian Johnson describes a China caught between the desire for change percolating up from below and the ossified political structure above. He recounts the stories of three ordinary people who find themselves facing oppression and government corruption, risking...