When nations decide to disown their troubled pasts, how does this strategic disavowal harden into social fact? In Negative Exposures, Margaret Hillenbrand investigates the erasure of key aspects of such momentous events as the Nanjing Massacre, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square protests from the Chinese historical consciousness, not due to amnesia or censorship but through the operations of public secrecy. Knowing what not to know, she argues, has many stakeholders, willing and otherwise, who keep quiet to protect themselves or their families out of shame, pragmatism, or the palliative effects of silence. Hillenbrand shows how secrecy works as a powerful structuring force in Chinese society, one hiding in plain sight, and identifies aesthetic artifacts that serve as modes of reckoning against this phenomenon. She analyses the proliferation of photo-forms—remediations of well-known photographs of troubling historical events rendered in such media as paint, celluloid, fabric, digital imagery, and tattoos—as imaginative spaces in which the shadows of secrecy are provocatively outlined.

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“While sharply grounded in Chinese cultural history, Margaret Hillenbrand’s Negative Exposures is a valuable addition to current studies on visuality…. Negative Exposures is an insightful account of media objects’ centrality within anthropological, art-historical, literary, historical and sociological modes of analysis, binding often disparate methodologies together.”

"“Margaret Hillenbrand’s incisive and beautifully composed monograph takes...‘photo-forms’—repurposed historical photographs—and their circulation as the point of departure for her fascinating excursus of public secrecy in contemporary China…. Her work could not have come at a more opportune time.”" - China Quarterly

"“Hillenbrand focuses on the medium of photography and its treatment of three key historical moments—the Nanjing Massacre, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Movement of 1989.... This is a beautifully conceived and nicely written book that is always interesting and thought-provoking.”" - MCLC Resource Center

"“This timely book by Margaret Hillenbrand...examines the mechanism of ‘secrecy’ as a main structuring force in contemporary Chinese society.... A courageous and revelatory work like this, also beautifully written, surely blazes new trails and opens up many questions.”
 " - Chinese Literature

"“One of the great contributions of the book is its intricate navigation across different disciplines and fields.... Filled with self-reflexive arguments, sophisticated analyses, and elegant prose, this engaging study is destined to be an important work.”" - Journal of Asian Studies

"“Margaret Hillenbrand’s Negative Exposures is a theoretically rich and provocative study that offers a new paradigm for thinking about Chinese cultural production under repressive governance.”" - The China Journal

"“How could I write a review that could possibly do justice to this eloquently written monograph?... Negative Exposures is thought-provoking reading for scholars and research students interested in culture and history, in creativity and politics, and in control and resistance, both in China and beyond.”" - China Review International