Ian Johnson
@iandenisjohnson.bsky.social
Ian Johnson is a fellow at the @wiko-berlin.bsky.social He lived and worked in China for 20 years as a correspondent, teacher, and writer. He currently lives in Berlin. More at www.ian-johnson.com
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/19571967
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
October 21, 2025 at 11:13 AM
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/19571967
Reposted by Ian Johnson
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")
"masterful piece of reporting")
The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet
Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet
bookshop.org
September 24, 2025 at 10:20 PM
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")
"masterful piece of reporting")
Reposted by Ian Johnson
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/
@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/
www.ncuscr.org
October 10, 2025 at 10:59 PM
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/
@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/
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/7e7
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”
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
August 21, 2025 at 6:29 PM
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/7e7
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...
open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...
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
open.substack.com
July 25, 2025 at 7:17 AM
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...
open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...
Reposted by Ian Johnson
New for @nybooks.com: @iandenisjohnson.bsky.social reviews my biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping. Thanks Ian!
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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.
www.nybooks.com
July 3, 2025 at 5:23 PM
New for @nybooks.com: @iandenisjohnson.bsky.social reviews my biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping. Thanks Ian!
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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...
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/fb8?utm_ca...
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:58 AM
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...
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/fb8?utm_ca...
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...
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...
《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”
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
June 27, 2025 at 8:12 AM
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...
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...
Reposted by Ian Johnson
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
Subscribe our newsletter on Substack:
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
April 22, 2025 at 8:32 PM
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
Subscribe our newsletter on Substack:
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
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...
@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...
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
June 13, 2025 at 8:48 AM
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...
@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...
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
@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
【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。」
open.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 2:42 PM
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
@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!
April 27, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Right where Sparks belongs the #radicalhistory section of @housmansbookshop.bsky.social in london!
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...
www.press.org/newsroom/100...
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...
www.press.org
April 23, 2025 at 8:56 PM
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...
www.press.org/newsroom/100...
Reposted by Ian Johnson
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.//
//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.//
Cambodia's government previously decreed that working for Radio Free Asia is tantamount to espionage. Some RFA journalists now face being forcibly deported to Cambodia from the US. https://kiripost.com/stories/rfa-journalists-on-us-work-visa-face-deportation-amid-funding-crisis
April 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM
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.//
//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.//
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...
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/24a?utm_ca...
《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?
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
April 22, 2025 at 7:56 AM
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...
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/24a?utm_ca...
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...
open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...
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
open.substack.com
April 15, 2025 at 7:41 AM
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...
open.substack.com/pub/chinauno...
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...
@mrothberg.bsky.social writing in @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Michael Rothberg | Universal Values
On 1 April, the memorial site at the former Buchenwald concentration camp announced that the Israeli philosopher Omri...
www.lrb.co.uk
April 11, 2025 at 8:52 AM
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...
@mrothberg.bsky.social writing in @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
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...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-digitali...
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...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
April 11, 2025 at 7:56 AM
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...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-digitali...
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
@mjdanganguan, this one on the emasculation of Hong Kong's media scene. Check it out in Chinese and English 👇
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/c82
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
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com
April 9, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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
@mjdanganguan, this one on the emasculation of Hong Kong's media scene. Check it out in Chinese and English 👇
chinaunofficialarchives.substack.com/p/c82
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...
www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb...
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...
www.chinafile.com
April 5, 2025 at 4:27 PM
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...
www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb...
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...
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
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...
www.prnewswire.com
March 28, 2025 at 6:01 AM
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...
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.
As the world looks back at 5 years of #COVID19, we look at one of the most original Chinese voices from Wuhan. Posted 5 years ago #onthisday, professor Ai Xiaoming wrote a detailing the world's first lockdown.
In Chinese:
matters.town/a/iyu4jyi2j661
In English:
minjian-danganguan.org/s/china-unof...
In Chinese:
matters.town/a/iyu4jyi2j661
In English:
minjian-danganguan.org/s/china-unof...
March 28, 2025 at 5:45 AM
#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.
The Comminist Party’s ultimate taboo: a landmark novel on China’s brutal #landreform campaigns in the 1940s/50s that laid the groundwork for authoritarian control. It’s just been translated by Michael Berry. My review for @theatlantic $$
www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
The Chinese Communist Party’s Ultimate Taboo
Fang Fang’s newly translated book uncovers the brutal, buried history of land reform in China.
www.theatlantic.com
March 27, 2025 at 3:29 PM
The Comminist Party’s ultimate taboo: a landmark novel on China’s brutal #landreform campaigns in the 1940s/50s that laid the groundwork for authoritarian control. It’s just been translated by Michael Berry. My review for @theatlantic $$
www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
"The American system is tearing itself apart with no outside pressure--similar to what the Communist Party did at the peak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966." Thanks to @liyuan6.bsky.social for quoting me in her piece on America's ongoing Cultural Revolution.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/b...
Many Chinese See a Cultural Revolution in America
People in China are expressing alarm at what seems to be an authoritarian turn in the United States, long their role model of democracy, that feels familiar.
www.nytimes.com
March 6, 2025 at 9:15 AM
"The American system is tearing itself apart with no outside pressure--similar to what the Communist Party did at the peak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966." Thanks to @liyuan6.bsky.social for quoting me in her piece on America's ongoing Cultural Revolution.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/b...
Flying blind: "Unlike during the Cold War, when the United States preserved scholarly exchanges with Moscow, academic and other engagement with China has fallen out of favor."
-->>Outstanding piece by Yanzhong Huang of @cfr.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...
-->>Outstanding piece by Yanzhong Huang of @cfr.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...
Opinion | Restoring Academic Ties With China Is a Matter of U.S. National Security
Decisions on U.S. policy toward China are being made based on diminishing insight into the country’s internal dynamics.
www.nytimes.com
March 3, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Flying blind: "Unlike during the Cold War, when the United States preserved scholarly exchanges with Moscow, academic and other engagement with China has fallen out of favor."
-->>Outstanding piece by Yanzhong Huang of @cfr.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...
-->>Outstanding piece by Yanzhong Huang of @cfr.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...