Linda Jaivin on China's Cultural Revolution
And some programs to learn from history coming soon
In Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China I recommended Linda Jaivin’s new history (released on 2 June 2025) of China’s Cultural Revolution as part of my World History Tour of China
This week I bring you a special bonus—an interview with the author, Linda Jaivin, herself.
Linda Jaivin on Cultural Revolution in China
Linda Jaivin has studied Chinese politics, language and culture for more than forty years. She has translated texts, reported as a journalist from China, composed novels and The Shortest History of China, and now written a brilliant, brief history of China's Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution is one of the iconic events in popular memory of the 20th century. There are many dense and long histories of this complex event.
You can read Linda Jaivin’s new history, however, in a weekend. It is short and vivid but does not compromise on the quality of scholarship.
Linda Jaivin spoke with me this week about her new book. We talked about Mao and Jiang Qing, the Red Guards and the Capitalist Roaders, the men and women of the Cultural Revolution, the ideas that motivated millions to rebel, and the trauma that this destructive ten years of chaos left behind.
You can watch the full interview right here at the Burning Archive YouTube channel.
You can buy Linda Jaivin, Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China here:
You can buy Linda Jaivin, The Shortest History of China here.
You can read more about Linda Jaivin at https://lindajaivin.com.au/ and at https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/.
New Learn from History Programs Coming Soon
At the end of June, I will launch two programs to learn from history. Both programs will help you to rewire your thinking about the world with history. I will offer these programs on a separate platform more customised to online learning than Substack.
My inspiration for these programs comes from Amitav Acharya, The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West (2025). Acharya explains one basic premise of his book that underpins so much of my work.
“the end of the Western- and US-led order need not mean global collapse and might actually be good for the world. But to ensure stability and prosperity for all of humankind, the West needs to find ways to cooperate with non-Western nations. Instead of giving in to pessimism and fear, and resisting the end of their dominance, the Western nations should adapt and learn to live with the rise of the Rest. Working toward a global project of reconciliation and respect among nations and civilizations would be more productive than a futile last-ditch effort to resist change.”
Acharya, The Once and Future World Order, p. 371
I am to contribute to that global project of reconciliation and respect.
The programs aim to help you reimagine the “multipolar world”. When people talk geopolitics, they often fixate on two-dimensional coloured maps, powerful leaders, and the clashes of great powers. But the deeper changes in world history happen through the connections that all people make across borders. Through trade, ideas, culture, travel, and friendships they rewire the world. Much of my writing over the years has focussed on this below-the surface rewiring of the circuits of people, ideas, and resources all over the world.
Indeed, Acharya ends his book with a quotation from the Muslim scholar and historian, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), whose encounter with Timur or Tamerlane appears at the start of John Darwin’s After Tamerlane. The quotation conveys the wonder of witnessing the emergence, beneath the carapace of a fixed “world order” of a new rewired world.
It is as if the entire creation had changed and the whole world been altered, as it if were a new and repeated creation, a world brought into existence anew.
Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History
The two programs I will be offering are
Sprints or “mini-courses” to learn from history,
Monthly group discussion.
The sprints or “mini-courses” will be designed to be done in 1-3 hours on a weekend, or in short sprints over seven days. The monthly discussion of will be a guided conversation of the best books and insights into how history and multi-civilisational perspectives can attune you to the changing, rewired, multipolar world. Both aim to:
transform your thinking about one specific aspect of the rewired world
cut through the confusion, low-quality information, and biased commentary in both mainstream and alternative channels, and
save time and money in media consumption by focussing on deeper questions.
The first sprint in this series will be Rewired World Mindset. I will share with you my advice and practical strategies to stop fearing the emergence of a multipolar or rewired world, to let go of “a futile last-ditch effort to resist change” (Acharya), and to learn to love the rewired world.
Book a 1:1 Call with Me
I will be finalising the material for both programs over the next month. I would love to hear your thoughts on the goals you may have that these programs could help you achieve - even if that is as simple as having a good conversation about a good book.
I have set aside times in June when you can book a free individual call with me to discuss these programs. You can schedule a 15-minute individual call on what would work for you right here.
I plan to launch both programs in late June or July and will send you emails with details of these programs over coming weeks.
Next Saturday, I return to the planned schedule of the World History Tour of China and recommend to you Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian, The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform (2025).
This coming Monday, the Slow Read of The Books of Jacob will look at chapters 22 to 24, finishing The Book of the Comet and beginning The Book of Metal and Sulfur.
On Wednesday, the deep dive will look at Klaus Mühlhahn, Making China Modern and how, after the trauma of the Cultural Revolution, China reformed, opened, and advanced between 1977 and 2012.