Julia Lovell is professor of modern China at Birkbeck, University of London. Her most recent books are Maoism: A Global History, China’s Hidden Century and Creators of Modern China. She has translated many works of Chinese fiction into English, including for Penguin Classics Monkey King: Journey to the West and The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun. She is the recipient of the Cundill Prize for History and the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. She is presently working on a history of modern Chinese archaeology.

Photo Credit: Dominic Mifsud