Jonathan Chatwin
@jmchatwin.bsky.social
Non-fiction writer.
Writes about travel, China, sometimes both simultaneously.
‘The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future’ (2024).
‘Long Peace Street: A walk in modern China’ (2019)
‘Anywhere Out of the World’ (2012)
Writes about travel, China, sometimes both simultaneously.
‘The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future’ (2024).
‘Long Peace Street: A walk in modern China’ (2019)
‘Anywhere Out of the World’ (2012)
Pinned
Jonathan Chatwin
@jmchatwin.bsky.social
· May 20
The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future a book by Jonathan Chatwin.
A History Today Book of the Year 2024On a freezing January afternoon in 1992, Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader and now a revered elder statesman, set off on a month long trip around Chin...
uk.bookshop.org
This week marks the first birthday of ‘The Southern Tour’ from @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social - a History Today book of the year 2024, which hopefully still reads well in 2025.
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
On February 24, join @chinabooksreview.com for the book launch of “Red Dawn Over China” and understand the origins of China’s communist revolution. Frank Dikötter will be in discussion with Orville Schell of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society.
Frank Dikötter: How Communism Won China
Register now to join us for the book launch of Red Dawn Over China and understand the origins of China’s communist revolution. Frank Dikötter will be in discussion with Orville Schell.
asiasociety.org
January 31, 2026 at 2:54 PM
On February 24, join @chinabooksreview.com for the book launch of “Red Dawn Over China” and understand the origins of China’s communist revolution. Frank Dikötter will be in discussion with Orville Schell of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society.
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
After a fairly rubbish week of being in and out of hospital with a bad blood clot, I was delighted to learn that the great Adam Tooze chose ‘The Southern Tour’ from @bloomsburypol.bsky.social as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein Show!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
How the World Sees America, With Adam Tooze
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 30/01/2026 · 1h 4m
podcasts.apple.com
January 30, 2026 at 4:25 PM
After a fairly rubbish week of being in and out of hospital with a bad blood clot, I was delighted to learn that the great Adam Tooze chose ‘The Southern Tour’ from @bloomsburypol.bsky.social as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein Show!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Big fan of the transcript rendering of Tiananmen here
Adam Tooze picks The Southern Tour as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein podcast - brightened up an otherwise dreary few weeks!
February 2, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Big fan of the transcript rendering of Tiananmen here
Adam Tooze picks The Southern Tour as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein podcast - brightened up an otherwise dreary few weeks!
February 2, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Adam Tooze picks The Southern Tour as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein podcast - brightened up an otherwise dreary few weeks!
The longest January on record is over, and in the garden there are signs of life.
February 1, 2026 at 3:28 PM
The longest January on record is over, and in the garden there are signs of life.
I wondered how long it would take someone to mention Bruce Chatwin in the current debate about Raynor Winn’s veracity.
As Francis Wyndham said of him, though, he told not a half-truth but a ‘truth and a half’…
As Francis Wyndham said of him, though, he told not a half-truth but a ‘truth and a half’…
February 1, 2026 at 8:45 AM
I wondered how long it would take someone to mention Bruce Chatwin in the current debate about Raynor Winn’s veracity.
As Francis Wyndham said of him, though, he told not a half-truth but a ‘truth and a half’…
As Francis Wyndham said of him, though, he told not a half-truth but a ‘truth and a half’…
January 31, 2026 at 7:52 AM
After a fairly rubbish week of being in and out of hospital with a bad blood clot, I was delighted to learn that the great Adam Tooze chose ‘The Southern Tour’ from @bloomsburypol.bsky.social as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein Show!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
How the World Sees America, With Adam Tooze
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 30/01/2026 · 1h 4m
podcasts.apple.com
January 30, 2026 at 4:25 PM
After a fairly rubbish week of being in and out of hospital with a bad blood clot, I was delighted to learn that the great Adam Tooze chose ‘The Southern Tour’ from @bloomsburypol.bsky.social as one of his book recommendations on the @nytimes.com Ezra Klein Show!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
Heads up - coming Feb 15th on BBC R3 and then BBC.com & the BBC Sounds app.... my exploration in sound and memory of the old Kowloon Walled City as part of BBC radio's "Between the Ears" ('thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound exploring a wide variety of subjects')
January 30, 2026 at 8:24 AM
Heads up - coming Feb 15th on BBC R3 and then BBC.com & the BBC Sounds app.... my exploration in sound and memory of the old Kowloon Walled City as part of BBC radio's "Between the Ears" ('thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound exploring a wide variety of subjects')
I think if Bruce Springsteen is writing protest songs about it, you can say for sure that an issue has cut through.
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 9:05 PM
I think if Bruce Springsteen is writing protest songs about it, you can say for sure that an issue has cut through.
Some new year book post - first edition of Peter Goullart’s book on life in Yunnan, and Lijiang more specifically, amongst the Naxi and in the years before CCP’s victory of 1949.
January 5, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Some new year book post - first edition of Peter Goullart’s book on life in Yunnan, and Lijiang more specifically, amongst the Naxi and in the years before CCP’s victory of 1949.
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
My latest list of China books of the year up at @fivebooks.com —along with an interview (key to read for a sense of the books AND at the end has a note explaining some of the rules I set myself embarking on an impossible task given how many good works keep coming out) fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
The Best China Books of 2025
American professor and modern Chinese history specialist Jeffrey Wasserstrom recommends favourite books about China published in 2025.
fivebooks.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:30 PM
My latest list of China books of the year up at @fivebooks.com —along with an interview (key to read for a sense of the books AND at the end has a note explaining some of the rules I set myself embarking on an impossible task given how many good works keep coming out) fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
Postcard, ca 1916, of Guangzhou’s ‘Native City’ and the concessions across the canal on Shamian Island.
December 29, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Postcard, ca 1916, of Guangzhou’s ‘Native City’ and the concessions across the canal on Shamian Island.
French postcard on the scramble for China, c.1898.
“Poor John Bull (England)! They thumb their noses at you and, on your back, tear off the best pieces.
Get up quickly… if you can.”
“Poor John Bull (England)! They thumb their noses at you and, on your back, tear off the best pieces.
Get up quickly… if you can.”
December 28, 2025 at 9:48 AM
French postcard on the scramble for China, c.1898.
“Poor John Bull (England)! They thumb their noses at you and, on your back, tear off the best pieces.
Get up quickly… if you can.”
“Poor John Bull (England)! They thumb their noses at you and, on your back, tear off the best pieces.
Get up quickly… if you can.”
After the rain finally stopped in South Devon…
December 19, 2025 at 2:36 PM
After the rain finally stopped in South Devon…
Pre-Christmas Devon
December 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Pre-Christmas Devon
Two more images by Sha Fei (沙飞) - early 1940s. Sha Fei was one of the first Chinese photojournalists. Working with the Eighth Route Army in the late 1930s and 1940s, he produced some of the earliest frontline images of the Communist war against Japan.
November 22, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Two more images by Sha Fei (沙飞) - early 1940s. Sha Fei was one of the first Chinese photojournalists. Working with the Eighth Route Army in the late 1930s and 1940s, he produced some of the earliest frontline images of the Communist war against Japan.
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
Two photographs by Sha Fei (沙飞, 1912–1950), one of China’s first photojournalists.
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
November 9, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Two photographs by Sha Fei (沙飞, 1912–1950), one of China’s first photojournalists.
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
For all those who have drunk Tsingtao out of a plastic bag in Qingdao: the logical next step.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
The Tsingtao Beer Jacket.
The Tsingtao Beer Jacket.
November 9, 2025 at 7:22 PM
For all those who have drunk Tsingtao out of a plastic bag in Qingdao: the logical next step.
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
Our forthcoming volume on the environmental history of China's era of high socialism has a cover.
Paul Pickowicz, who took the photo when he visited China in 1971 as part of a Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars delegation, also contributed the book's epilogue.
Paul Pickowicz, who took the photo when he visited China in 1971 as part of a Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars delegation, also contributed the book's epilogue.
October 31, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Our forthcoming volume on the environmental history of China's era of high socialism has a cover.
Paul Pickowicz, who took the photo when he visited China in 1971 as part of a Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars delegation, also contributed the book's epilogue.
Paul Pickowicz, who took the photo when he visited China in 1971 as part of a Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars delegation, also contributed the book's epilogue.
Two photographs by Sha Fei (沙飞, 1912–1950), one of China’s first photojournalists.
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
November 9, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Two photographs by Sha Fei (沙飞, 1912–1950), one of China’s first photojournalists.
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
📷 Eighth Route Army recapturing Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi, 1937 — University of Bristol, Historical Photographs of China, ref. ML02-d145
📷 Eighth Route Army fighting on the Futuyu Great Wall, Laiyuan, Hebei, 1938
Photos by Xu Xiaobing (1916–2009), a key photographer for the Chinese Communist Party from the 1930s–1960s.
Xu documented Red Army and PLA soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War; the third image here is of Peng Dehuai, PRC defence minister (1954–1959).
Xu documented Red Army and PLA soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War; the third image here is of Peng Dehuai, PRC defence minister (1954–1959).
October 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Photos by Xu Xiaobing (1916–2009), a key photographer for the Chinese Communist Party from the 1930s–1960s.
Xu documented Red Army and PLA soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War; the third image here is of Peng Dehuai, PRC defence minister (1954–1959).
Xu documented Red Army and PLA soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War; the third image here is of Peng Dehuai, PRC defence minister (1954–1959).
In a very drizzly Oxford for my talk on Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour- open to all!
October 29, 2025 at 11:08 AM
In a very drizzly Oxford for my talk on Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour- open to all!
Anyone in Oxford or vicinity: I’m talking about Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour at the Oxford China Centre this Wednesday. Free and open to all.
www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk/event/china-...
www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk/event/china-...
China Centre Talks: The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future
www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk
October 27, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Anyone in Oxford or vicinity: I’m talking about Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour at the Oxford China Centre this Wednesday. Free and open to all.
www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk/event/china-...
www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk/event/china-...
Reposted by Jonathan Chatwin
I’m looking forward to speaking again at the University of Oxford China Centre on Wednesday 29th October about Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour; the event is free and open to all.
@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2be...
@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2be...
The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future
Jonathan Chatwin's book, The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future, explores Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 Southern Tour and the mythology around it. Drawing on archival sources, conte...
talks.ox.ac.uk
October 18, 2025 at 8:53 PM
I’m looking forward to speaking again at the University of Oxford China Centre on Wednesday 29th October about Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour; the event is free and open to all.
@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2be...
@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social
talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2be...