In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, David Moser and I speak with Emily Feng about her new book Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting for NPR, Emily describes how state control has intensified over recent years, reshaping Chinese society, politics, and culture.
Weaving personal stories into historical, cultural, and political contexts, Emily’s new book explores the lives of Uyghurs separated by detention camps, human rights lawyers battling censorship, Mongolian educators struggling to preserve their language, and ordinary citizens whose acts of remembrance have become quiet forms of resistance.