Writing history in China has never been easy; China’s first historian, Sima Qian, was forced to choose between execution and castration and imprisonment.  He chose the latter in order to finish his life’s work, Records of the Grand Historian.  Now China’s keepers of inconvenient truths are put under immense pressure by Xi Jinping’s war on historical nihilism—viewpoints and memories that run counter to official Party history. Fighting a seemingly unwinnable battle against the state, China’s underground historians often make huge sacrifices to keep alive histories that the Party would like to erase. In the first of a two-part series on history and memory, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Ian Johnson, whose book Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future is out today.

Writing history in China has never been easy; China’s first historian, Sima Qian, was forced to choose between execution and castration and imprisonment.  He chose the latter in order to finish his life’s work, Records of the Grand Historian.  Now China’s keepers of inconvenient truths are put under immense pressure by Xi Jinping’s war on historical nihilism—viewpoints and memories that run counter to official Party history. Fighting a seemingly unwinnable battle against the state, China’s underground historians often make huge sacrifices to keep alive histories that the Party would like to erase. In the first of a two-part series on history and memory, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Ian Johnson, whose book Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future is out today.

The Little Red Podcast: interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University's Department of Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University. We are the 2018 winners of podcast of the year in the News & Current Affairs category of the Australian Podcast Awards. Follow us @limlouisa and @GraemeKSmith, and find show notes at www.facebook.com/LittleRedPodcast/

The Little Red Podcast: interviews and chat celeb…

The Little Red Podcast

Awardwinning interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University's Department of Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University. We are the 2018 winners of podcast of the year in the News & Current Affairs category of the Australian Podcast Awards and we're funded by the Australian National University's Centre on China in the World. Find us on your favourite platforms: we're on Stitcher, Spotify and even Podbean. Follow us @limlouisa and @GraemeKSmith, and find show notes at www.facebook.com/LittleRedPodcast/. Our editor is the Saturday Paper's Andy Hazel (@AndyRickie), background research is by the Asia Society's Julia Bergin (@juliabergin1) and Xu Chong (@ChongXuCheng), our stirring theme tune was composed by Susie Wilkins (@susiewilkins) and our iconic art is courtesy of Seb Danta (@SebDanta).

Awardwinning interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University's Department of Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University. We are the 2018 winners of podcast of the year in the News &amp; Current Affairs category of the Australian Podcast Awards and we're funded by the Australian National University's Centre on China in the World. Find us on your favourite platforms: we're on Stitcher, Spotify and even Podbean. Follow us @limlouisa and @GraemeKSmith, and find show notes at www.facebook.com/LittleRedPodcast/. Our editor is the Saturday Paper's Andy Hazel (@AndyRickie), background research is by the Asia Society's Julia Bergin (@juliabergin1) and Xu Chong (@ChongXuCheng), our stirring theme tune was composed by Susie Wilkins (@susiewilkins) and our iconic art is courtesy of Seb Danta (@SebDanta).

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