“Spark is history,” Jiang Xue told me. The same problems the older generation faced, especially the lack of freedom of expression, is the same issue I face today. Her work clashed with her husband’s desire for a successful career as a researcher on religion in a government think tank. What sustains Jiang Xue and many other underground historians is the sense of community that their movement provides. Some of her interviewees have become close friends, such as Tan Chanxue, whom she regularly visited until she died in 2018.

---

Persons: ” Jiang Xue, —, “, ”, Jiang Xue, Tan Chanxue, Xiang Chengjian, Uncle Xiang, Hannah Arendt Organizations: Chinese Communist Party Locations: North America