John Ross talks to Lee Moore about his book, China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read (2025, Unsung Voices Books). The book looks at the four important China-related stories that often make headlines: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong. In this conversation, Lee and John focus mainly on the history of Xinjiang and the Uyghurs, but also cover a wide range of other topics. Hoping to reach a broad audience, Lee took an unusual approach to writing China’s Backstory; although a scholar, he uses colloquial translations of Chinese texts, peppers his paragraphs with colorful language, and generally has a lot of fun. The approach is sure to generate controversy. The book is factually sound, however (it comes with endnotes), and has numerous literary references, as we would expect from the host of the long-running Chinese Literature Podcast.
Lee Moore’s book: China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read (2025, Unsung Voices Books).
Lee’s podcast: Chinese Literature Podcast
Lee Moore’s book recommendations
He went with three books on China which he describes as “old school scholarship” and ones that most BOA listeners will likely not have read.
1. Michael Pollak’s Mandarins, Jews and Missionaries: Jewish Experience in the Chinese Empire (1980, Jewish Publication Society of America)
2. Sarah Paine’s Imperial Rivals: China, Russia and Their Disputed Frontier (1996, M. E. Sharpe)
3. Hodong Kim’s Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877 (2004, Stanford University Press)
The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.
Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.
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