There’s a Q and A about China’s Forgotten People in the new issue of Time Out Shanghai.
Category Archives: china
Reviews for China’s Forgotten People
Some thoughtful reviews from Kerry Brown at Open Democracy, Tom Miller at The Spectator, and Jonathan Mirsky at Literary Review (click here for pdfs LR CFP 1 LR CFP 2). Thanks to these experienced China commentators for taking the time to write such considered pieces.
There’s also a good overview of some of the book’s issues by Joshua Bird at Asian Review of Books and by Paul French at China Rhyming.
Thanks also to Ian Johnson of the New York Times for his incisive Q and A on the book.
‘181 Terrorist groups’
Anti-terror drill in Xinjiang
My latest piece on the LRB Blog about China’s dubious claims about the extent and nature of ‘terrorism’ in Xinjiang.
In Manchuria
My review of Michael Meyer’s great new book on Manchuria (NE China) is in the new Literary Review.
Asia House talk
I’ll be taking part in an event on the Silk Road at Asia House on May 14. More details here.
Highlight Arts
There’s an extract from my forthcoming book China’s Forgotten People on the Highlight Arts blog – you should spend some time on their site to learn about the diverse and important work they do.
‘Utterly Vile’
Islamic State piece on Vice News
Iraqi sources claim to have caught a Chinese citizen fighting for the Islamic State militant group.
My piece on China’s recent claims that fighters from Xinjiang are training with IS is up at Vice News.
‘Virtual water’
An interview I did for china dialogue on China’s water scarcity and agriculture is now online.
What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘the Uyghurs’
Back street in Urumqi, September 2013
Firstly, apologies to Raymond Carver for being yet another desecrator of his great title.
Secondly- this is the title of my latest piece on Xinjiang, which is in the Summer issue of Dissent mag.
Talk on Xinjiang in Chinese and Western Media
I’ll be talking at Westminster University, London, on March 19th about how Western and Chinese media tends to represent the Xinjiang issue in different yet equally distorting ways – details here.
After Kunming
I attempt to make sense of the horrible killings in Kunming on the LRB Blog
Free Ilham Tohti
Ilham Tohti, the respected Uyghur economist, has been charged with separatism and faces ten years to life in prison in China. It’s the kind of thing that’s a reminder of how China’s judicial and political system hasn’t made the same kind of progress as its economy. I wrote about the case on the LRB Blog.
The Death of Old Kashgar
I went back to Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang, in September last year for the first time in 13 years. In 2000 it was a place that I was sorry to leave; I didn’t feel the same this time. More words and pictures about that can be found at Unmapped, a new travel magazine that’s publishing the kinds of pieces that are in short supply: well-written, insightful reports from places that the news agenda doesn’t seem concerned about.
2024 Update: Unmapped has, alas, ceased publication, but the text of the piece can be found here: https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/the-death-of-old-kashgar/
Behind the Dunes
My piece on Lisa Ross’ exhibition in London of photos from Xinjiang is up on the London Review of Books Blog.
My interview with her earlier this year is at the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Smog in Shanghai
A blog I wrote with my other hat on…
‘Terrorism’ in Tiananmen Square
There was an explosion in Tiananmen Square last week. On the LRB Blog I write about why it wasn’t terrorism.
In Balykchy
My first dispatch from Kyrgyzstan is now up on the London Review of Books Blog
Here are some other photos of the town:
Afghan War memorial
Pandas!
My interview with photojournalist Sean Gallagher on his new book, Meltdown: China’s Environment Crisis, is up at chinadialogue.
Travelling the Silk Road of Pop
Verbally, that is. My Q and A with the director of this wonderful documentary about Uyghur music is now up at China File
Trailer:
The many trials of Mr Horse
My new essay on knowing a Chinese James Bond is in the new issue of The Dublin Review
This is how it starts:
Everyone in Shaoyang Teachers’ College said Mr Ma had been a spy. If this was supposed to be a secret, it was badly kept. When I first met him, in 1999, Mr Ma was in his mid thirties. He wore black glasses with thick lenses; his hair was in retreat; there was frequently a look of astonishment on his face. He was bashful, polite, prone to excessive laughter. But the fact that he didn’t look or act like a spy only made the rumours more plausible. It meant that he had been a good spy.
Bo Xilai and ‘seeking truth from facts’
The nicest looking picture of Bo Xilai I could find
My take on the Bo Xilai trial, the biggest political trial in China for decades, now up at the LRB blog
Cheating in China
Middle school students in Hunan briefly distracted from the dreaded gao kao by the presence of a foreigner.
My piece on cheating in Chinese education is on the LRB blog.
Learning the Wrong Lessons in Xinjiang
A show of force in Urumqi this week
My piece for the 4th anniversary of the Urumqi riots is at Dissent magazine.
For a Song and a Hundred Songs
My review of Liao Yiwu’s prison memoir is now up at The LA Review of Books.
Living Shrines
My interview with Lisa Ross on Uyghur shrines in the desert is at the Los Angeles Review of Books– thanks again to her for answering my questions in such a thoughtful manner.
Dead Pigs, Toxic Smog
I write about the apocalyptic pollution in China on the LRB Blog
Previous ‘Pollution in China!’ posts:
‘Medieval Lifestyle’
A mining project in Xilinhaote, Inner Mongolia
Isobel Yeung, who works for CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, recently wrote a piece for The Independent in which she argued that the Western media are misrepresenting China’s policies towards ethnic minorities in Inner Mongolia. She argued that the government aren’t trying to destroy the culture of nomadic herders by moving them into cities- they just want to improve their ‘medieval lifestyle’. Here’s my response to this in The Independent.
The Art of Escape
I have a review of Sven Lindqvist’s The Myth of Wu Tao Tzu up at the Los Angeles Review of Books
Tigers, Buttering of, now online
My Dublin Review piece on corruption and factories in China is now online.
Nick Holdstock 