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  • Experts

Dissidents

    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature

  • Read
    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature - The Lament by Qu Yuan

    1

    The Lament
    by Qu Yuan

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    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature - Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong

    2

    Romance of the Three Kingdoms
    by Luo Guanzhong

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    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature - The Real Story of Ah-Q by Lu Xun

    3

    The Real Story of Ah-Q
    by Lu Xun

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    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature - One Man’s Bible by Gao Xingjian

    4

    One Man’s Bible
    by Gao Xingjian

  • Read
    Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature - Tombstone by Yang Jisheng

    5

    Tombstone
    by Yang Jisheng

Ma Jian on Chinese Dissident Literature

Writers in China are afraid to criticise the state and society, says London-based author Ma Jian. From the 3rd century BC to 2008, these five exceptional works show how it’s done.

    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recommended by Michael Nicholson

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Michael Scammell

    1

    Solzhenitsyn
    by Michael Scammell

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    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by L.Saraskina

    2

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
    by L.Saraskina

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    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Solzhenitsyn Files by Michael Scammell (Ed), Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

    3

    The Solzhenitsyn Files
    by Michael Scammell (Ed), Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

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    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Operation Prophet by Robert B Asprey

    4

    Operation Prophet
    by Robert B Asprey

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    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Francis Barker

    5

    Solzhenitsyn
    by Francis Barker

The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recommended by Michael Nicholson

Russian literature specialist Michael Nicholson, Emeritus Fellow at University College, Oxford, talks us through the best books to learn more about the great Soviet dissident and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

    The best books on China’s Darker Side, recommended by Harry Wu

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    The best books on China’s Darker Side - Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker

    1

    Hungry Ghosts
    by Jasper Becker

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    The best books on China’s Darker Side - Mao by Jon Halliday & Jung Chang

    2

    Mao
    by Jon Halliday & Jung Chang

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    The best books on China’s Darker Side - Wild Swans by Jung Chang

    3

    Wild Swans
    by Jung Chang

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    The best books on China’s Darker Side - War Trash by Ha Jin

    4

    War Trash
    by Ha Jin

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    The best books on China’s Darker Side - China after Deng Xiaoping by Willy Wo-Lap Lam

    5

    China after Deng Xiaoping
    by Willy Wo-Lap Lam

The best books on China’s Darker Side, recommended by Harry Wu

Activist Harry Wu spent 19 years in Mao’s labour camps and devoted years to uncovering what goes on in China’s ‘laogai’ or ‘reform-through-labour’ camps. He picks five books showing China’s darker side.

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We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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