Bombard the Headquarters!: China’s Cultural Revolution
2025
A riveting account of a turbulent period in Chinese history.
Other Writings
Read article: A day in North Korea 
The Monthly
A day in North Korea
An article describing a day in North Korea, featuring observations of big statues, high swings, and a 'Sound of Music' sing-along.
Read article: Author Linda Jaivin on travelling with books 
The Sydney Morning Herald
Author Linda Jaivin on travelling with books
It is the 1980s in LA. Party time. Everyone is young, rich and beautiful and has too many drugs and too much time on their hands. Things quickly go bad, turn nihilistic: other people’s suffering becomes just another night’s entertainment. My nose fills with the smell of leeks…
Read article: Borneo’s Gomantong Caves 
The Saturday Paper
Borneo’s Gomantong Caves
Within Borneo’s Gomantong Caves – slippery with teeming insects, bird droppings and guano from two million bats – fine dining is likely far from the mind. But overhead a perilous harvest ensues for the key ingredient of Chinese bird’s nest soup.
Read article: Caught Mapping 
Sydney Review of Books
Caught Mapping
As I write this, Sydney, the city where I’ve set my life and much of my fiction over the past 27 years, is ringed by fire and choked by smoke. A combination fan and air purifier hums in the corner of my study. Seretide and Ventolin inhalers sit within reach on my desk…
Read article: China’s reunification goal the loser in Taiwan’s elections
The Saturday Paper
China’s reunification goal the loser in Taiwan’s elections
Taiwan has again voted to re-elect the Democratic Progressive Party, further inflaming cross-strait tensions with Beijing.
Read article: China’s underground historians 
Inside Story
China’s underground historians
A veteran China watcher uncovers a network of counter-historians.
Read article: Dining out with Michelle Garnaut
The Monthly
Dining out with Michelle Garnaut
An article about dining out with Michelle Garnaut, focusing on her kitchen rules and culinary expertise.
Read article: How Mao haunts China 
The Spectator
How Mao haunts China
Imagine a time traveller from Mao Zedong’s China – say a Red Guard – landing in a Chinese city today, nearly half a century since Mao’s death in 1976 brought the Cultural Revolution to an end.
Read article: How understanding Chinese history can help your business in China 
China-Britain Business Focus
How understanding Chinese history can help your business in China
Britain’s trade with China during the Qing Dynasty and the UK’s current obsession with Huawei may have more in common than you think. Sinologist Linda Jaivin’s ‘The Shortest History of China’ attempts to condense the country’s ‘unruly complexity’ into a genuinely useful book…
Read article: Inside the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory
The Saturday Paper
Inside the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory
While a laboratory leak may never be ruled out as the origin of Covid-19, the sources of that theory remain highly questionable.
Read article: Last call for China’s drinking culture?
Inside Story
Last call for China’s drinking culture?
China is waking up to the downside of its world-beating level of alcohol consumption.
Read article: Little Pinks and their achy breaky hearts
Inside Story
Little Pinks and their achy breaky hearts
China’s army of easily offended young internet-watchers is attracting its own critics.
Read article: Prison and the Poet – Linda Jaivin on Ravi Shankar (review)
Sydney Review of Books
Prison and the Poet – Linda Jaivin on Ravi Shankar (review)
Correctional is a migrant family story, prison memoir, record of a spiritual journey, love story, and morality tale. It is also an examination of race and policing in America and a critique of class on two continents. It is the record of an imperfect life closely and critically examined…
Read article: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Saturday Paper
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
An article about Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, discussing the city's resilience and relaxed lifestyle despite the scars of the Bosnian War siege.
Read article: Shanghai, July 1921
Inside Story
Shanghai, July 1921
When communist delegates met secretly in Shanghai in July 1921, their individual fates — as well as their party’s — were impossible to foresee.
Read article: Shooting down the “girlie guns”
Inside Story
Shooting down the “girlie guns”
Beijing’s crackdown on niangpao reflects anxieties dating back to Europe’s nineteenth-century incursions.
Read article: Slapped by reality
Inside Story
Slapped by reality
A fascinating examination of the Chinese economy leaves one big question unanswered.
Read article: Stolen moments
Inside Story
Stolen moments
Caught between their home villages and the city, a generation of Chinese migrant workers struggles for intimacy.
Read article: The Baiwan Zhuang Speakeasy 
China Heritage Quarterly
The Baiwan Zhuang Speakeasy
A personal reflection on visiting Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang at the Foreign Languages Press in Baiwan Zhuang in 1981, feeling like entering an enchanted land.
Read article: The Island (catalogue essay) 
Alex Seton - The Island Catalogue Essay
The Island (catalogue essay)
Catalogue essay discussing Alex Seton's "The Island" exhibition, exploring themes of tectonic forces and the transformation of limestone into marble.
Read article: The Museum of Ice Cream
The Saturday Paper
The Museum of Ice Cream
Los Angeles’ pop-up Museum of Ice Cream has visitors shuffling from one branded photo op to another, stretching the idea of a museum until it has no meaning.
Read article: The New Era: Ready or not, China is here
The Monthly cover
The New Era: Ready or not, China is here
When I lecture at mainland Chinese universities in film and television subtitling, discussions tend to be lively, with students asking about everything from problems of cultural specificity to the challenges of rhyming text…
Read article: The silence that makes sense of modern China
Inside Story
The silence that makes sense of modern China
Two new books excavate everyday experiences of the Cultural Revolution.
Read article: Tower of Strength: Ponte City, Johannesburg
The Saturday Paper
Tower of Strength: Ponte City, Johannesburg
The Ponte City apartment tower in Johannesburg was built for high-flyers before becoming a violent slum ruled by gangsters. Its rebirth as respectable, affordable housing is a model of community renewal.
Read article: What happened to privacy? 
ABC Radio National
What happened to privacy?
An article discussing the current state of privacy in the digital age, referencing Kim Kardashian and the increasing news coverage of privacy issues.
Read article: Wistaria Teahouse 紫藤盧
China Heritage Quarterly
Wistaria Teahouse 紫藤盧
A reflection on Wistaria Teahouse in Taipei, a place where people met to discuss books, politics, and philosophy in the late 1970s.
Read article: Yang Hengjun and China’s rule of law
The Saturday Paper
Yang Hengjun and China’s rule of law
As Australian writer Yang Hengjun awaits a verdict after being tried in China on charges of espionage, a conviction seems likely. Harder to predict is the sentence he will be given.