"Sparks": New Book Exposes China's Underground Historians Resisting Xi Jinping's Control and Rewriting of History

A new book titled "Sparks" by Ian Johnson explores how underground historians in China are resisting President Xi Jinping's control over the country's past. The book highlights the efforts of these historians to keep the truth alive despite the suppression of dissent. Johnson tells the story of heroic Chinese people who have been working for over 60 years to ensure that historical truth is not lost in China. The book challenges the popular depiction of China as a "perfect dictatorship" under Xi Jinping and sheds light on the epic struggle being waged by contemporary counter-historians in the country. Johnson's work has received positive reviews, with critics describing it as an intimate and compelling portrait of China's underground history movement. The book also reveals that many of these underground historians were loyal Communists who eventually realized that the party was establishing a brutally totalitarian state rather than a utopian one. Overall, "Sparks" provides a counterhistory of China and exposes the rewriting of the country's history by Xi Jinping.