James Farley completed his PhD at the University of Kent in 2016. In 2016 he organized an international conference on 'China's Propaganda System: Legacies and Enduring Themes' and his monograph, Model Workers in China, 1949-1965 (2019), was published by Routledge. He is currently a post doctoral researcher at Universität Hamburg, Germany.

Matthew D. Johnson is an independent research consultant and analyst. He pre­viously held academic appointments at the University of Oxford and Grinnell College, and as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Taylor's University, Malaysia. His books include Maoism at the Grassroots: Everyday Life in China's Era of High Socialism (joint editor, 2015). He is also a director of the PRC History Group (prchistory.org).