Jonathan Mirsky

He Fought the Law

The Barefoot Lawyer: The Remarkable Memoir of China’s Bravest Political Activist

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Macmillan 330pp £20 order from our bookshop

Here is China down and dirty, a side of the country rarely, if ever, experienced by foreigners, no matter how knowledgeable or fluent in the language they are. What Chen Guangcheng shows, as only a Chinese peasant can – though no other has, at least in English – is what life continues to be like in rural China, where 80 per cent of Chinese live, and what life is like for anyone who challenges the Communist Party.

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