I wrote about Perhat Tursun’s novel for the TLS.
Category Archives: china
TLS triple
I reviewed three new books on Xinjiang in this week’s TLS.
Hard Like Water
I wrote aout Yan Lianke’s newly translated (but old) novel for the Times Literary Supplement. Mao gets the best line in the piece:
A Dark Fusion of Waters
I wrote about Colin Thubron’s new book, The Amur River, for the Literary Review’s 500th issue.
A Xinjiang reading list
I picked some books to help understand the situation in Xinjiang for Shepherd.
Index on censorship piece
The War on the Uyghurs
I wrote the cover story for the latest TLS.
Boycott Mulan
I wrote a piece on Disney’s terrible new film for the LRB Blog.
Bloomsbury podcast
You can hear me talking to Rebecca Morofsky about Xinjiang (and China in general) on the Bloomsbury podcast (also on Spotify).
Asian Affairs Review
Thanks to Christopher Ruane for a review of the new edition of China’s Forgotten People in Asian Affairs.
South China Morning Post Review
Thanks to Dan Eady for a long review (and a fair summary) of the new edition of China’s Forgotten People.
The first edition had a very different reception in SCMP – that reviewer lamented that ‘the book does little to bring to life the exotic and enchanting characteristics of Xinjiang’. Though that was by a different reviewer, the difference in tone seems indicative of a shift in the global perception of Xinjiang, and perhaps also of the very different situation in Hong Kong now compared to that in 2015.
Mosque destruction in Xinjiang
I wrote a piece for Apollo magazine about the recent destruction of shrines and mosques in Xinjiang.
Rear Vision
What’s often lacking in news stories about Xinjiang is context, especially of the region’s complex history, so I’m glad that the excellent ABC radio program Rear Vision focuses this week on the wider issues behind the concentration camps. The program features contributions from myself, the historian David Brophy, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Josh Chin, and Omer Kanat of the World Uyghur Congress. You can listen/download here.
Along the Ili River
I wrote about the arrest of the Kazakh activist Serikzhan Bilash and the links between the Uyghur and Kazakh communities in the region for the LRB Blog.
New edition of China’s Forgotten People
Bloomsbury will be publishing a new, updated edition of China’s Forgotten People in June. The update consists of a foreword and afterword that deals with the camps in Xinjiang – their origins and their rationale, what we know and what we don’t, and why this is such a terrible new chapter in the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to control and shape the region and its peoples.
Piece for Zocalo Public Square
Internees at a ‘de-extremification’ event in Lop county
I wrote about the camps in Xinjiang for Zocalo Public Square.
Xinjiang for Francophones
Glad to see Xinjiang getting coverage for Francophone audiences on National Radio in Canada- and I’m grateful to them for featuring my book China’s Forgotten People (segment starts around 13h 9m) https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/plus-on-est-de-fous-plus-on-lit/episodes/427176/audio-fil-du-lundi-18-fevrier-2019 …
The arrest of Lu Guang
I wrote about the arrest of the photographer Lu Guang in Xinjiang for Frieze magazine.
BBC Breakfast
I went on BBC Breakfast this morning to talk briefly about the Xinjiang camps.
BBC Today Programme
I spoke briefly about the Xinjiang camps on the BBC Today program. They got my name wrong. Oh well! You can listen here
Xinjiang Camps ‘Legalised’
I spoke about the legalisation (and thus official acknowledgement of) the re-education camps in Xinjiang on the BBC last night. Segment begins at 24.49.
A Dream of Grey Mansions
There’s an extract from Chasing the Chinese Dream up on the China Channel.
The World Tonight
I spoke about Xinjiang and Theresa May’s visit to China on The World Tonight on Radio 4 last night. That segment starts at 12:52.
Prospect piece
I wrote a piece for Prospect magazine about wealth inequality in China. It offers brief portraits of several people in my new book, Chasing the Chinese Dream.
The ‘perfect police state’
Two very good pieces from Xinjiang this week – one, a look at the securitisation of Xinjiang by Tom Philips in The Guardian (in which I am quoted), the other a nice piece of reporting from Bortala in Xinjiang by Edward Wong from the New York Times.
TLS review of ‘Uyghur Nation’
I wrote a piece on David Brophy’s remarkable book for the Times Literary Supplement.
Audio from Asia House event
Here’s some audio recording from my event with Michael Dillon and Ablimit Baki Elterish at Asia House last year.
China Rhyming
Thanks to Paul French for his piece on China’s Forgotten People on his excellent blog, which has a lot of good material on the erosion of China’s visible history.
Urbanisation in Xinjiang
There’s an interesting piece on urbanisation in Xinjiang by Wade Shepard at The Diplomat (in which I am quoted). He writes about Horgos, the border town near Yining, where I used to live, and the speed with which Horgos is being transformed into a municipality. In general terms, it seems that the development of this much vaunted New Silk Road is centered around the north of Xinjiang, and thus runs the risk of further widening the economic gap between it and the south of the region (which is where most Uyghurs live).
Everyday Corruption in China
I write about the Tianjin explosion and the need to reform low-level governance in China on the LRB Blog.
Nick Holdstock 