100 Best Chinese Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Art of War

Sun Tzu

5.0

For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has stood as a cornerstone of Chinese culture-a lucid epigrammatic text that reveals as much about human psychology, politics, and economics as it does about battlefield strategy. The influence of Sun-tzu's text has grown tremendously in the West in recent years, with military leaders, politicians, and corporate executives alike finding valuable ins

Recommended by Reid Hoffman, Evan Spiegel, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and 14 others.

Reid Hoffman

CEO/LinkedIn

Reid read Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu as a boy, which informed his strategic thinking. [source]

Evan Spiegel

After meeting Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel immediately bought every Snapchat employee a copy of 'The Art Of War'. [source]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … The Art of War (Sun Tsu) to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

2

The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)

Cixin Liu, Ken Liu

4.9

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plan

Recommended by Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Savage, and 7 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller. [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

It's a Chinese science fiction book that has gotten so popular there's now a Hollywood movie being made based on it. This will also be a fun break from all the economics and social science books I've read recently. [source]

Adam Savage

I felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. [source]

3

Tao Te Ching: By Lao Tzu - Illustrated

Lao Tse

4.8

A lucid translation of the well-known Taoist classic by a leading scholar-now in a Shambhala Pocket Library edition.
Written more than two thousand years ago, the Tao Teh Ching, or -The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue, - is one of the true classics of the world of spiritual literature. Traditionally attributed to the legendary -Old Master, - Lao Tzu, the Tao Teh Ching teaches that the qualities o

Recommended by Jack Dorsey, Jack Ma, Naval Ravikant, and 11 others.

Jack Dorsey

Co-Founder/Twitter

Q: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! [source]

Jack Ma

Founder/Alibaba

According to a Yibada interview with Chen Wei, who wrote Ma’s 2014 authorized biography, the Alibaba founder and executive chairman always carries the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text of Taoist philosophy, religion and ethics composed by Lao Tzu in the sixth century B.C. [source]

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

In the philosophy side, I’ve been rereading the Tao Te Ching. [source]

4

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Jung Chang

4.6

Three remarkable women--grandmother, mother, and daughter--struggle to survive in a true-life saga that spans 20th-century China with all its violence: wars, invasions, revolution, and continuing upheaval. A thrilling adventure story, Wild Swans is an important work of history, and a breathtaking testimony to the human spirit. 16 pages of photographs.

Recommended by Richard Branson, Harry Wu, and Vishakha Desai.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Harry Wu

Wild Swans is talking about people who are living at the highest level of society but they are still suffering persecution and live in fear. And the peasants in the village became slaves, they became nothing. So what the book does brilliantly is give a real insight into what life was like for ordinary people against the backdrop of the ever-changing China. [source]

Vishakha Desai

To me Wild Swans is one of those iconic books for understanding the generations of Chinese women. She is from this amazing intellectual family and it’s about what happens to them. The book just has this tremendous power. It’s an amazing journey. It’s about what women do to survive and also how they suffer. [source]

5

The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan

4.6

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have neve

Recommended by Armistead Maupin.

Armistead Maupin

The novel is structured around the four corners of the mahjong table. The device makes clear the distance between the old world of China and the new world that these women inhabit in San Francisco. The novel focuses on the memories and secrets that these women carry about their mothers and their daughters. It shows modern Chinese-Americans dealing with cultural differences across generations. Although it might sound like that terrible term chick lit, it’s completely compelling because Amy writes with remarkable wit. [source]

6

The Dark Forest

Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen

4.6

With the scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day this near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multple-award-winning phenemonenon from Cixin Liu Chinas most beloved science fiction author In DarkForest Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasionin just four centuries time The aliens human collaborators may have bee

Recommended by Adam Savage, Ben Brode, and The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

Adam Savage

I felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. [source]

Ben Brode

@noahmp @devonzuegel I thought book 2 and of the series that starts with “the three body problem” fulfilled this condition and was awesome [source]

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

It makes the point that humanity is fairly weak, and that if we’re ever faced by a really big threat, we most likely won’t survive it. [source]

Cover unavailable

7

To Live

Yu Hua, Michael Berry

4.6

From the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China but later named one of that nation's most influential books, portrays one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant. After squandering his family's fortune in gam

Recommended by Chris Kutarna and Xinran.

Chris Kutarna

It’s a story of the personal experience of the chaos of revolutionary political and economic change in China. [source]

Xinran

Yes. I normally only read non-fiction books but, as you can see, this novel is exceptional like A Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. It is all about family life in a Chinese village before and after the 1949 revolution. These are ordinary people and the book looks at how they survive this very difficult period in Chinese history. This was the time of endless political war between 1940s to 1980s. [source]

8

The Analects

Confucius

4.6

Preview Summary

This lively new translation with clear explanatory notes by one of the foremost scholars of classical Chinese provides the ideal introduction to the Analects for readers who have no previous knowledge of the Chinese language and philosophical traditions.

"How dare I claim to be a sage or a benevolent man?"

By constructing the philosophy expressed through The Analects, Confucius might well dare to ma

Recommended by Andrew Hui, Daniel A. Bell, and Michael Puett.

Andrew Hui

This edition is really good at showing both the constructed-ness of the original Analects and the vast exegetical machine that has driven the Chinese philosophical tradition through the centuries. [source]

Daniel A. Bell

It’s not written by Confucius himself. It is more a collection of anecdotes of how he engaged his students. [source]

Michael Puett

He believed one of our dangers is that we fall into ruts that are defined by the world around us. [source]

9

Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)

Cixin Liu

4.5

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threa

Recommended by Adam Savage and Ash "Ivivvi" Furrow.

Adam Savage

I felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. [source]

Ash "Ivivvi" Furrow

I’m finally reading Death’s End, the conclusion of The Three Body Problem trilogy. It’s amazing! But I’m only 1/3 through the book and all hope for humanity already seems lost? This happened much later in the first two books 🤔 [source]

10

The Good Earth (House of Earth #1)

Pearl S. Buck

4.5

Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

The Good Earth is Buck’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple’s fortunes improve over the years: They are blessed with sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Amy Chua, and Abid Zaidi.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

Reading Pearl Buck's writing feels like reading poetry to me. I just love the quiet rhythm of the words. They evoke the simple beauty of the characters and the harsh mystery of China's ancient culture. [source]

Amy Chua

I read this book when I was about nine years old. It just made such an impact on me. O-Lan, the mother in this book, toils silently and stoically all her life to provide for her family. [source]

Abid Zaidi

Day 4 : #30Days of posting cover of books I love (1 book a day for 30 days). No expectations, no reviews, just the covers. Inspired by @rekha_bhardwaj #MyFavouriteBooks https://t.co/Z1RZbzh9vZ [source]

11

Snow

Orhan Pamuk

4.4

One of multiple covers for ISBN 9780375706868.

A spellbinding tale of disparate yearnings – for love, art, power, and God – set in a remote Turkish town, where stirrings of political Islamism threaten to unravel the secular order; by the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature.

From the acclaimed author of My Name Is Red comes a spellbinding tale of disparate yearnings–for love, art, power, an

Cover unavailable

12

The Golden Days (The Story of the Stone #1)

Cao Xueqin, David Hawkes

4.4

"The Story of the Stone" (c. 1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Dai-yu. Through the changing fortunes of the Jia family, this rich, magical work sets

Recommended by Chris Livaccari and Xinran.

Chris Livaccari

Like Lu Xun for the modern literary tradition, if you ask scholars – or most people in China – for the greatest novel in the classical tradition, there are generally four novels of the Ming and Qing that are venerated. This is the most recent. It’s a very long and complex novel, and hard to summarise. For me, in the literary tradition of the whole world, this book along with two others – The Tale of Genji from Japan in the 11th century, and Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past from France in the 20th century – are the three works in which the experience of reading the novel is genuinely an experience. It becomes a world in which you can live and get lost. As you read through each chapter it feels like you are going through what the characters are going through. [source]

Xinran

This book is believed by many to be the greatest Chinese novel ever written. [source]

13

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Dai Sijie, Ina Rilke

4.4

In this enchanting tale about the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening, two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for reeducation during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned

14

Monkey: The Journey to the West

Wu Ch'êng-ên, Arthur Waley, Hu Shih

4.4

Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic combination of picaresque novel and folk epic mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking tale. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies.

Cover unavailable

15

Dream of the Red Chamber

Tsao Hsueh-Chin, Chi-Chen Wang

4.3

For more than a century and a half, Dream of the Red Chamber has been recognized in China as the greatest of its novels, a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story and a portrait of one of the world's great civilizations. Chi-chen Wang's translation is skillful and accurate.

16

American Born Chinese

Gene Luen Yang, Lark Pien

4.3

All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...

Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest

17

Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel

Guanzhong Luo, Moss Roberts

4.3

Romance of The Three Kingdoms (Hardcover) tells about the three kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu, led by Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan and the conflicts and fights among the three political, military blocs during the end of Eastern Han dynasty and the entire three kingdoms period. Based on the broad social and historical backdrop, it shows the sharp, complex and distinctive political and military conflic

Cover unavailable

18

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

Pu Songling, John Minford

4.3

The strange tales of Pu Songling are exquisite miniatures regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing is as it seems.

19

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

Adeline Yen Mah

4.3

A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.

A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother

Cover unavailable

20

The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan

4.3

Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .

In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative

21

魔道祖师 [Mo Dao Zu Shi]

ChanakyaYv Poster

4.3

前世的魏無羨萬人唾罵，聲名狼藉。
嘔心瀝血護持師弟，
師弟帶人端了他老巢，親自送他下地，
縱橫一世，死無全屍。
被鎮壓數年，
曾興風作浪的一代魔道祖師，重生成了一個……
腦殘。
還特麼是個人人喊打的斷袖腦殘！
我見諸君多有病，料諸君見我應如是。
他決定敬業地做好一名腦殘。
但修鬼道不修仙，任你千軍萬馬，十方惡霸，九州奇俠，高嶺之花，
但凡化為一抔黃土，統統收歸旗下，為我所用，供我驅策！
高貴冷豔悶騷攻×邪魅狂狷風騷受。

As the grandmaster who founded demonic cultivation, Wei WuXian roamed the world in his wanton ways, hated by millions for the chaos he created. In the end, he was backstabbed by his dearest shidi and k

22

The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh

Shi Naian, J.H. Jackson, Edwin Lowe

4.3

Based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his companions, this Chinese equivalent of the English classic Robin Hood and His Merry Men is an epic tale of rebellion against tyranny and has been thrilling and inspiring readers for hundreds of years.

This edition of the classic J. H. Jackson translation features a new preface and introduction by Edwin Lowe, which gives the history of the book and

Recommended by Marianne Bastid-Bruguière.

Marianne Bastid-Bruguière

I’ve always been interested in Chinese attitudes towards life: towards what happens, the misfortunes of life, and how they handle life in their society. And I think that, although you get a lot of hard facts through the historical record, of course, in order to get the mood and to understand deeper you need to look into literature. The first novel I really like is The Water Margin. It’s one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, but it’s very different because it’s a story of bandits – in a way it’s like a Chinese equivalent of Robin Hood. The novel came out of stories told among the people before the 14th century, and all these folk tales were taken together and put into written form by someone called Shi Naian, although it’s not even sure if this man existed. The story is based upon some historical facts: there was a bandit called Song Jiang who rebelled against the Song dynasty in the early 12th century. The novel takes the story of this bandit and his companions, and puts them into a kind of epic tale of rebellion against tyranny, which has been thrilling and inspiring Chinese readers for centuries. The novel is beautiful, because the personal stories of each of the bandits are taken together and also pursued individually, and as you have 108 characters it’s an extraordinary feat. It’s very vivid, and it shows the reactions of ordinary Chinese people: how they have a sense of justice, generosity, and humanity. And it also shows the extraordinary violence of Chinese society, and the way people make their lives with that: how they are able to subdue this violence, and turn it into human relations. [source]

23

Shanghai Girls (Shanghai Girls #1)

Lisa See

4.3

Pearl and May are sisters, living carefree lives in Shanghai, the Paris of Asia. But when Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, they set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America.

In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour

Cover unavailable

24

Love in a Fallen City

Eileen Chang, Karen S. Kingsbury

4.3

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang's achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utt

Cover unavailable

25

Waiting

Ha Jin

4.3

In Waiting, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author Ha Jin draws on his intimate knowledge of contemporary China to create a novel of unexpected richness and feeling. This is the story of Lin Kong, a man living in two worlds, struggling with the conflicting claims of two utterly different women as he moves through the political minefields of a society designed to regulate his every move and stifle the

26

Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)

Kevin Kwan

4.3

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be

Recommended by Cat Williams-Treloar and Tracy Chou.

Cat Williams-Treloar

A couple of years after moving to Singapore I read Kevin Kwan's first book "Crazy Rich Asians". I've never laughed so much in my life and have been an advocate of the entire series. To this day, whenever someone has a copy in hand at the airport or in our regular store, I tell them how amazing the books area. Kevin is a genius, and his books are full of beautiful cultural insights from across the region. I can't wait for the movie! [source]

Tracy Chou

@nelson @CrazyRichMovie yay i’m so glad you got to enjoy it!! lots of singaporeans do speak hokkien and eleanor does in the movie, i can’t remember if she does in the book [source]

27

The Journey to the West, Volume 1 (Journey to the West)

Anthony C. Yu

4.2

First published in 1592, The Journey to the West, volume I, comprises the first twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disc

Recommended by Donald S Lopez Jr.

Donald S Lopez Jr

In 629, a Chinese monk named Xuanzang set out for India in order to retrieve Buddhist scriptures, returning in 645. He was welcomed as a hero by the emperor and received the title ‘Master of the Tripitaka’, the Buddhist canon. Xuanzang wrote a detailed account of his travels, entitled Great Tang Records on the Western Regions – if I could choose six books, it would be the sixth. His long journey to India and back, much of it alone, is considered one of the most remarkable feats in the history of Chinese Buddhism, taking on legendary proportions. In the 16th century, Wu Cheng’en wrote a comic novel about it, entitled Journey to the West. [source]

28

The Kitchen God's Wife

Amy Tan

4.2

Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, a

Recommended by Ellah Allfrey.

Ellah Allfrey

This is my bestseller! Amy Tan unleashed this western obsession, or interest in, Chinese women’s writing and it’s not the best book in the world, but it’s a classic story of not understanding your parents until it’s nearly too late. There is this woman married to a white American man and she has always thought her parents never loved her. She finds out that in Chinese culture you must never tell your children they are beautiful or praise them because the spirits might be listening and will come and take the child away. So they are always saying you could be better, you could do better because you never know what spirits are listening. In some ways it takes you to a completely alien world and in other ways it’s completely familiar because we all have mothers. The food in it is amazing too. [source]

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29

Red Sorghum

Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt

4.2

Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s. A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and his

30

Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter

Adeline Yen Mah

4.2

Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through he

Cover unavailable

31

Soul Mountain

Gao Xingjian, Mabel Lee

4.2

In 1983, Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death. But six weeks later, a second examination revealed there was no cancer -- he had won "a reprieve from death." Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing and began a journey of 15,000 kilometers into the

32

The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston

4.2

A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity.

Recommended by Barack Obama and Eva Hoffman.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

When asked what books he recommended to his 18-year-old daughter Malia, Obama gave the Times a list that included The Naked and the Dead and One Hundred Years of Solitude. “I think some of them were sort of the usual suspects … I think she hadn’t read yet. Then there were some books that are not on everybody’s reading list these days, but I remembered as being interesting.” Here’s what he included: The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston [source]

Eva Hoffman

This is a very interesting memoir by a woman, Maxine Hong Kingston, who was born in America but of a Chinese immigrant family, so it is an immigrant memoir. It recounts her childhood and youth in a desperately poor family, originally from rural China, who are uneducated and think of Americans as “ghosts” – the literal Chinese name for the natives. Her father has a contemptuous attitude to women, and she is treated shabbily in many ways. The memoir is about her conflict between this family and the American world that she enters into. She feels a double alienation. She feels increasingly alienated from her family and the Chinese immigrant community that she grows up in. But she also, initially, feels very lost in the American world which she goes to school in. [source]

33

The I Ching or Book of Changes

John Minford

4.2

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the 1st efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for 3000 years and interest in it has spread in the West.

Set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, the Book of Changes deepened in meaning when ethical values were attached to the oracular pronouncements; it became a book of wisdo

Cover unavailable

34

Wolf Totem

Jiang Rong, Howard Goldblatt

4.2

China's runaway bestseller and winner of the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize

Published in China in 2004, Wolf Totem has broken all sales records, selling millions of copies (along with millions more on the black market). Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem depicts the dying culture of the Mongols--the ancestors of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world--and

Recommended by Isabel Hilton and James Palmer.

Isabel Hilton

Wolf Totem contains certain things that have universal romantic appeal: wolves, tribesmen, and so on. But the message that central Chinese policies have been catastrophic for the people who were China’s neighbours – and who are now incorporated into China – very much needed to be said. And it was a way of criticising the party without it being about Han China. But it spoke for a lot of what had happened in Han China too. [source]

James Palmer

It positions the Mongols as this kind of in-touch-with-nature, fierce, warrior people, like wolves, and the Han as these settled ‘sheeple.’ [source]

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35

China in Ten Words

Yu Hua

4.2

From one of China's most acclaimed writers: a unique, intimate look at the Chinese experience over the last several decades.

Framed by ten phrases common in the Chinese vernacular, China in Ten Words uses personal stories and astute analysis to reveal as never before the world's most populous yet oft-misunderstood nation. In "Disparity," for example, Yu Hua illustrates the expanding gaps that separ

36

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Grace Lin

4.2

In the valley of Fruitless Mountain, a young girl named Minli spends her days working hard in the fields and her nights listening to her father spin fantastic tales about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon. Minli's mother, tired of their poor life, chides him for filling her head with nonsense. But Minli believes these enchanting stories and embarks on an extraordinary journey to find the

Cover unavailable

37

The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun

Lu Xun, Julia Lovell, Yiyun Li

4.2

Lu Xun (1881—1936) is one of the founding figures of modern Chinese literature. His celebrated short stories assemble a powerfully unsettling portrait of the superstition, poverty, and complacence that he perceived in late-imperial China, and in the revolutionary Republic that toppled the last dynasty in 1911. This volume presents Lu Xun's complete fiction, including 'The Real Story of Ah-Q,' 'Dia

Recommended by Ma Jian and Rana Mitter.

Ma Jian

This story is very famous, and also very short. Lu Xun didn’t write much in his life, and wrote both journalism and essays in newspapers, and literature. He was very outspoken in both. If a writer loses his criticism of society, I think that he is afraid to write about the truth. From reading Lu Xun, we can discover how authors must maintain a critical perspective. [source]

Rana Mitter

Lu Xun should be known to a wide range of readers overseas for two reasons. One – in a sense the more boring reason – is that he is politically very important. He’s always been brought up by the Communist Party as being the single most important writer of the 20th century in China. That’s partly because his message is about how China needed to radically reject its past associated with the Confucian system of ethics that underpinned the old empires, and instead embrace something more new and radical. You can see how that appealed to people involved in the Communist project. [source]

38

The Rape of Nanking

Iris Chang

4.2

In December 1937, the Japanese army invaded the ancient city of Nanking, systematically raping, torturing, and murdering more than 300,000 Chinese civilians.

This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety

39

Fortress Besieged

Qian Zhongshu, Jeanne Kelly, Nathan K. Mao, Jonathan Spence

4.2

Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, our hapless hero Fang Hung-chien (á la Emma Bovary), with no particular goal in life and with a bogus degree from a fake American university in hand, returns home to Shanghai. On the French liner home, he meets two Chinese beauties, Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, "With Miss Pao it wasn't a matter of heart or soul. She hadn't any change of heart, since s

40

The Warning Voice (The Story of the Stone #3)

Cao Xueqin

4.2

"The Story of the Stone (c. 1760)", also known by the title of "The Dream of the Red Chamber", is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into five volumes, of which "The Warning Voice" is the third, it charts the glory and decline of the illustrious Jia family (a story which closely accords with the fortunes of the author's own family). The two main characters, Bao-yu and Dai-yu

41

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1 of 2 (chapter 1-60)

Lo Kuan-Chung, C. H. Brewitt-Taylor, Robert E. Hegel

4.2

Recommended by Ma Jian.

Ma Jian

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms only became a book a thousand years after the events which it describes. You could say that its story is the story of all China, passed down from father to son. It is one of China’s four great classical novels, which also include the Journey to the West. But only with Romance of the Three Kingdoms did old Chinese stories really become Chinese literature. It’s also beautifully written. [source]

42

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories

Lu Xun, William A. Lyell

4.2

This collection of short stories by Lu Xun, commonly considered one of the greatest writers in 20th-century China and often referred to as the father of modern Chinese literature, includes the celebrated short story, "A Madman's Diary". This short story is considered to be one of the first and most influential modern works written in vernacular Chinese. "A Madman's Diary" is an attempt by Lu Xun t

Recommended by Chris Livaccari.

Chris Livaccari

Lu Xun is venerated as the first modern Chinese writer. I have a book of his stories in Chinese sitting on my shelf right now, titled “The Father of Modern Chinese Literature”. He uses vernacular language, writes in the tradition of realistic fiction and grapples with the problems of his day. Like many Chinese students and scholars of that period, Lu Xun first went to study overseas in Japan, where he was a medical student during the time of the Russo-Japanese War. [source]

43

The Crab-Flower Club (The Story of the Stone #2)

Cao Xueqin, David Hawkes

4.2

"The Story of the Stone" (c. 1760), also known as "The Dream of the Red Chamber", is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The second part of Cao Xueqin's magnificent saga, "The Crab-Flower Club" continues the story of the changing fortunes of the Jia dynasty. This volume primarily depicts a gilded year at the Rong-Guo mansion. Bao-yu and a bevy of young ladies move into Prospect Garde

44

The Hundred Secret Senses

Amy Tan

4.2

The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no one in Olivia's family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is cheerfully dea

45

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Amy Chua

4.2

An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards—and the costs—of raising her children the Chinese way.

"This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures,

Recommended by Curtis S. Chin.

Curtis S. Chin

What a delight to see @Yale @YaleLawSch professor @amychua again. You might know her from her #TigerMom book 🐯👩🏻, but do read her book #Tribes too. https://t.co/U5IWgrLA6z #Yalies #YaleLaw #YaleSOM @YaleSOMAlumni https://t.co/Sw4YP2pr3O [source]

46

Everything I Never Told You

Celeste Ng

4.2

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family

Recommended by Sherrilyn Ifill.

Sherrilyn Ifill

@BronxRiverBooks @pronounced_ing I love this book. [source]

47

Girl in Translation

Jean Kwok

4.2

When young Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to America, they speak no English and own nothing but debt. They arrive in New York hopeful for a better life, but find instead a squalid Brooklyn apartment and backbreaking labor in a Chinatown sweatshop. Unable to accept this as her future, Kim decides to use her "talent for school" to earn a place for herself and her mother in the

Cover unavailable

48

The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

Xinran

4.1

When Deng Xiaoping’s efforts to “open up” China took root in the late 1980s, Xinran recognized an invaluable opportunity. As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate. Operating within the constraints imposed by

49

Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

Mo Yan

4.1

50

Dreams of Joy (Shanghai Girls #2)

Lisa See

4.1

In her most powerful novel yet, acclaimed author Lisa See returns to the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealis

51

Dream of Ding Village

Yan Lianke, Cindy Carter

4.1

Officially censored upon its Chinese publication, and the subject of a bitter lawsuit between author and publisher, Dream of Ding Village is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke's most important novel to date. Set in a poor village in Henan province, it is a deeply moving and beautifully written account of a blood-selling ring in contemporary China. Based on a real-life blood-selling scandal in eastern Chi

52

笑傲江湖 [The Proud Smiling Wanderer]

金庸Jing Yon

4.1

A new and revised edition of The Proud Smiling Wanderer by Jin Yong. The author's most famous book. The story is different from most of his other books in the way this story has no specific historic background, but an in depth portrayal of human nature with its anti-traditional themes.

《笑傲江湖》是對一般武俠小說所描寫的武林世界表現出明顯質疑的作品，這部小說從根本上解構了江湖神話，書中的江湖∕武林世界，充滿了權力紛爭，充斥著各種謀略、殺戮和血腥，不再是人們想像或夢幻中理想的神聖浪漫天地，書裡所有的人和事，無

53

Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries

Mengzi, Bryan W. Van Norden

4.1

Bryan Van Norden's new translation of the Mengzi (Mencius) is accurate, philosophically nuanced, and fluent. Accompanied by selected passages from the classic commentary of Zhu Xi - one of the most influential and insightful interpreters of Confucianism - this edition provides readers with a parallel to the Chinese practice of reading a classic text alongside traditional commentaries. Also include

Recommended by Andrew Copson, Bryan Van Norden, Daniel A. Bell, and 1 others.

Andrew Copson

Mencius gives the example of a child falling down a well. He says, ‘When a child falls down a well, what do people do? They don’t just run away, they run towards it.’ They almost can’t help themselves–it’s something they just do. And he observes this and builds part of his moral philosophy on it. [source]

Bryan Van Norden

Mengzi argues that we can actually become better people through various activities, and that a kind of ethical transformation is possible. [source]

Daniel A. Bell

Mencius believed that we are born good. He had a fairly optimistic view of human nature as well as the view that the government should rely upon informal means of social control rather than harsh punishment as a way of securing social order and harmony. [source]

Cover unavailable

54

Empress Orchid (Empress Orchid, #1)

Anchee Min

4.1

To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate façade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear

Cover unavailable

55

The Vagrants

Yiyun Li

4.1

Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this powerful and beautiful story, we follow a group of people i

56

Rickshaw

She Lao, Jean M. James

4.1

Rickshaw is a new translation of the twentieth-century Chinese classic Lo-t’o Hsiang Tzu, the first important study of a laborer in modern Chinese literature. While the rest of the Chinese literary world debated hotly, and for years, the value of proletarian literature, Lao She wrote the novel that the left wing insisted on but failed to produce. Published in 1938 and set in Peking, Lao She’s eigh

Recommended by Marianne Bastid-Bruguière.

Marianne Bastid-Bruguière

It’s by Lao She, a famous writer who committed suicide in 1966 because he had been persecuted by the Red Guards. He was a Manchu, who lived in Peking almost all his life but who taught Chinese at SOAS in England in the late 1920s. This novel, published in 1905, is about Hsiang-Tzu, a man who pulls a rickshaw in Peking, at the bottom of society, almost an outcast, and who becomes a victim of his own toiling. It’s a very simple story about all the problems of this very simple man who has nothing, and does the most hard work possible, has a lot of bad fortune, and finally dies on a snowy night all by himself. What is nice in the novel is the description of Peking – of ordinary life and street life there, when it was just a village, a huge village, which it remained until the 1970s. Hsiang-Tzu says that his only true friend is Peking itself, and he has a very particular relationship with it. It’s a picture of the simple things in the city, and the way people live together and talk together, and sometimes help each other or try to find a way, and it’s very telling and touching. It’s full of humour too. It’s constantly humorous and I think it suggests a lot about the way that ordinary Chinese can react to life, especially in modern times when conditions are much more difficult than in the old days. Hsiang-Tzu keeps a distance, and in a way understands that he will never be able to struggle against society, but still he does because it gives a meaning to his life. But he’s not blind, and he accepts his misfortunes and finds his own way of being happy, too, and of having contentment from time to time, even if life is hard to him and he dies alone. It’s about the way people come to grips with misfortune, and manage to give humanity to their lives, which I think is very telling and touching. Read 5 The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu Read [source]

57

The Dreamer Wakes (The Story of the Stone #5)

Cao Xuequin, Gao E, John Minford

4.1

58

Brothers

Yu Hua, Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, Carlos Rojas

4.1

A bestseller in China, recently short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and a winner of France’s Prix Courrier International, Brothers is an epic and wildly unhinged black comedy of modern Chinese society running amok.

Here is China as we’ve never seen it, in a sweeping, Rabelaisian panorama of forty years of rough-and-rumble Chinese history that has already scandalized millions of readers i

59

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Yu Hua

4.1

One of the last decade's ten most influential books in China, this internationally acclaimed novel by one of the mainland's most important contemporary writers provides an unflinching portrait of life under Chairman Mao.

A cart-pusher in a silk mill, Xu Sanguan augments his meager salary with regular visits to the local blood chief. His visits become lethally frequent as he struggles to provide for

Cover unavailable

60

The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China From the Bottom Up

Liao Yiwu

4.1

The Corpse Walker introduces us to regular men and women at the bottom of Chinese society, most of whom have been battered by life but have managed to retain their dignity: a professional mourner, a human trafficker, a public toilet manager, a leper, a grave robber, and a Falung Gong practitioner, among others. By asking challenging questions with respect and empathy, Liao Yiwu managed to get his

Recommended by Marianne Bastid-Bruguière.

Marianne Bastid-Bruguière

It’s a bit like the first one: the writer Liao Yiwu is not much appreciated by the present government – he was put in jail in 1989 because he’d written a poem called ‘The Massacre’, about the 4 June incident in Peking. He spent ten years in jail, where he was put with the ordinary criminals, so he mixed with all kinds of people and interviewed them and recorded their life stories, and it’s an extraordinary testimony about how people live at the bottom of society. Through the story of their lives you have a record of recent Chinese history (some are 60, 70 years old), and so you have an awful lot about the human component of society: a kind of mirror of the life that has been lived by individuals. For instance, he interviewed a schoolteacher, a public toilet manager – the man who does the dirtiest work – and also a professional mourner: a profession that has recently been revived under the Communist regime. [source]

61

Reading and Writing Chinese: Third Edition, HSK All Levels (2,349 Chinese Characters and 5,000+ Compounds)

William McNaughton

4.1

This is a compete and easy–to–use guide for reading and writing Chinese characters.

Used as a standard by students and teachers learning to read Chinese and write Chinese for more than three decades, the bestselling Reading & Writing Chinese has been completely revised and updated. Reading & Writing Chinese places at your fingertips the essential 1,725 Chinese characters' up-to-date definitions, de

62

Chinese Short Stories For Beginners: 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Chinese & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! (Easy Chinese Stories)

Lingo Mastery

4.1

63

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Jamie Ford

4.1

In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his child

64

The True Story of Ah Q

Xun Lu, Gladys Yang, Xianyi Yang, David Pollard

4.1

A towering figure in the literary history of twentieth-century China, Lu Xun has exerted immense and continuous influence through his short stories, which remain today as powerful as they were first written. While echoes of these stories can still be heard in the fictional works from both sides of the Taiwan Strait in the eighties and nineties, "The True Story of Ah Q" has long become an intrinsic

65

Life and Death in Shanghai

Cheng Nien

4.1

A first-hand account of China's cultural revolution.

A first-hand account of China's cultural revolution. Nien Cheng, an anglophile and fluent English-speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 and subsequently jailed. All attempts to make her confess to the charges of being a British spy failed; all efforts to indoctrinate her were met by a

Recommended by Gunhee Park and Rana Mitter.

Gunhee Park

I can’t narrow down one favorite book, but there are a few that have had a strong impact on me over the past few years. Life and Death in Shanghai and Man’s Search for Meaning are great non-business books that have helped me gain a deeper perspective on life. Both books also helps you gain a stronger appreciation of the times we live in today. [source]

Rana Mitter

I think it’s right that Graham Peck was disappointed by the Cultural Revolution. This, of course, was essentially a revolt by Mao against his own party. Mao on one level fears that he is being sidelined by his own party, and on another level feels that the revolution had lost steam 17 years in. A new generation had been born that didn’t remember the struggles of 1949 and it was time to revitalise them and get them on the streets, to feel what a real revolution was like. That was Mao’s intention, and the results – from what we know – pleased him greatly, but they were much more explosive and wide-ranging than perhaps even he would have imagined, with terrible consequences for a very wide variety of people. [source]

66

The Debt of Tears (The Story of the Stone #4)

Cao Xuequin, Gao E, John Minford

4.1

67

天龙八部（全五冊）

jin yong

4.1

北宋年间，外族纷纷觊觎大宋国土，形成汉、胡对立的局面。丐帮帮主乔峰因拒绝副帮主妻康敏之爱遭报复指为契丹人后裔而受尽中原武林人士唾弃。峰为平反遂四出追查身世，期间认识了大理世子段誉及虚竹和尚，并结拜为兄弟。峰追寻身世时屡遭奸人所害，含冤莫白，更错杀红颜知已阿朱，后为救朱妹阿紫寻医至大辽，辗转成为大辽国南院大王，但与中原关系则更趋恶劣。

68

The Search For Modern China (Third Edition)

Jonathan D. Spence

4.1

The leading textbook by the leading scholar.

This text, the classic introduction to modern China for students and general readers, emerged from Spence’s highly successful introductory course at Yale, in which he traced the beginnings of modern China to internal developments beginning in the early 17th century. Strong on social and political history, as well as Chinese culture and its intersections

Recommended by Edward Norton.

Edward Norton

The definitive book about modern Chinese history. [source]

69

Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation

Ken Liu

4.1

Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger gen

70

Front Desk (Scholastic Gold)

Kelly Yang

4.1

Winner of the Asian / Pacific American Award for Children's Literature!

* "Many readers will recognize themselves or their neighbors in these pages." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.

Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its gue

Recommended by Todd Nesloney.

Todd Nesloney

I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to reading #FrontDesk but WOW! This book was full of so much heart and I shed tears throughout. A must read for sure. Get yours here: https://t.co/qstKk5KzOT #SparksInTheDark #kidlit #affiliatelink https://t.co/9fmAWu8a8b [source]

71

Six Records of a Floating Life

Shen Fu, Leonard Pratt, Chiang Su-Hui

4.1

Six Records of a Floating Life (1809) is an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social document written by a man who was educated as a scholar but earned his living as a civil servant and art dealer. In this intimate memoir, Shen Fu recounts the domestic and romantic joys of his marriage to Yun, the beautiful and artistic girl he fell in love with as a child. He also describes oth

Recommended by Marianne Bastid-Bruguière.

Marianne Bastid-Bruguière

This is quite different – it’s a very short book. Shen Fu was a clerk who was born into a family of literati in 1763. What is interesting is that he tells a story of love, and of love between husband and wife, which is quite unusual in Chinese literature. He wrote a story of his life after his wife of 23 years had died, and it wasn’t published at the time but was discovered later and published in 1877. It had enormous success because it was a very candid description of happiness despite misfortunes, and of the enjoyment of all the aesthetic sides of life. He loved painting, travelling, looking at landscape, and he loved looking at the moon with his wife. His wife was, in fact, his cousin, whom he had known since he was 13, and she is a very straightforward and very educated young lady. It’s about the way that intellectual people in China, and also ordinary people – because the young couple often meet peasants when they are looking at the moon – can enjoy everything that is beautiful in life, and the sincerity of the book is something extraordinary. Shen Fu says: ‘I don’t care about conventions.’ But also he’s a very dutiful son and is very faithful to the family. It’s a picture both of the strength of the family and the domination that social ties exert on individuals, and the way that individuals were able to live for themselves, and enjoy simple things, and give a sense to their lives. The description of this love between him and his wife and the way they went on, despite sometimes being very poor and having no money, is a very true picture, and it goes deep inside the individuals and their humanity. [source]

72

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Xiaolu Guo

4.1

When a young Chinese woman, newly arrived in London, moves in with her English boyfriend, she decides it’s time to write a Chinese-English dictionary for lovers. Xiaolu’s first novel in English is an utterly original journey of self-discovery.

73

You Are the Apple of My Eye

Jiu Ba Dao

4.1

74

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Leslie T. Chang

4.1

An eye-opening and previously untold story, Factory Girls is the first look into the everyday lives of the migrant factory population in China.

China has 130 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. In Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang, a former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing, tells the story of these workers primarily through the lives of two young women,

Recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

I love the way it’s written, and the way that Chang blends her own life story in with it. She pairs the story of her family’s migration out of China to the United States, where she grew up, to the movement of young women from rural China to urban China today. And she sets up a parallel between the way that American cities were transformed by overseas immigrants who fuelled the American industrial rise, with the enormous migration today – that doesn’t involve crossing an ocean or leaving one country for another – of rural dwellers to the world of Chinese cities. I also love the way she brings to our attention the distinctive personalities of young Chinese women. She describes them as working in very difficult conditions, but often experiencing them as liberating, because they have so much more freedom and control over their private life than they had in their villages, where male-dominated family structures remain powerful. [source]

75

The Five Chinese Brothers

Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese

4.1

The classic picture-story about five clever brothers, each with a different extraordinary ability, has been in print for over 50 years. "An original nonsense tale told with...spirit and gusto." -- The Horn Book

76

Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

Su Tong

4.0

The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concu

77

天官赐福 [Tiān Guān Cì Fú]

Barend J. ter Haa

4.0

为你，所向披靡！

C天R地小妖精攻×仙风道骨收破烂受

啊那个收破烂的天界公务员，跟鬼界第一大佬有一腿！

"Heaven Official’s Blessing"

Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom; one who was beloved by his citizens and the darling of the world. Unsurprisingly, he ascended to the Heavens at a very young age. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock of all th

78

Peony in Love

Lisa See

4.0

In seventeenth-century China, three women become emotionally involved with The Peony Pavilion, a famed opera rumored to cause lovesickness and even death, including Peony, the cloistered daughter of a wealthy scholar, who succumbs to its spell only to return after her death as a "hungry ghost" to haunt her former fiancé, who has married another.

79

The Ghost Bride

Yangsze Choo

4.0

"One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride..."

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and p

80

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Yiyun Li

4.0

Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in C

81

Lust, Caution: The Story

Eileen Chang, Julia Lovell, Ang Lee

4.0

Now a major motion picture from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II.

In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure wh

Recommended by Paul French.

Paul French

It’s impossible to spend any time in Shanghai without picking up an Eileen Chang book. This is a great novel about Shanghai, and also Hong Kong, at that period when people were forced to make choices. I would suggest Lust Caution as a good way of getting into Eileen Chang because it is a novella, about the shortest thing that she ever wrote, and it’s very Shanghai. [source]

82

Zhuangzi: Basic Writings

Zhuangzi, Burton Watson

4.0

Only by inhabiting Dao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in its unity can humankind achieve true happiness and freedom, in both life and death. This is Daoist philosophy's central tenet, espoused by the person—or group of people—known as Zhuangzi (369?-286? BCE) in a text by the same name. To be free, individuals must discard rigid distinctions between right and wrong, and follow a course of action

Recommended by Stephane Grand.

Stephane Grand

The Zhuangzi, book in which is encapsulated the whole of Chinese culture according to me. [source]

Cover unavailable

83

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Madeleine Thien

4.0

“In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.”

Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations—those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square

84

Family

Pa Chin, Olga Lang

4.0

An essential work for anyone interested in the society and history of modern China! The first half of the twentieth century was a period of great turmoil in China. Family, one of the most popular Chinese novels of that time, vividly reflects that turmoil and serves as a basis for understanding what followed. Written in 1931, Family has been compared to Dream of the Red Chamber for its superb portr

85

Big Breasts and Wide Hips

Mo Yan

4.0

China's most important contemporary literary voice delivers a portrait of twentieth-century China full of historical sweep and earthy exuberance.In his latest novel, Mo Yan—arguably China’s most important contemporary literary voice—recreates the historical sweep and earthy exuberance of his much acclaimed novel Red Sorghum. In a country where patriarchal favoritism and the primacy of sons survive

86

鹿鼎記

金

4.0

87

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Ken Liu

4.0

A publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.

With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken’s award-winnin

88

Summary of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane: A Novel: Conversation Starters

Lisa See

4.0

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane: A Novel by Lisa See: Conversation Starters

A Brief Look Inside:

EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER
than the surface of its pages. The characters and their world come alive,
and the characters and its world still live on.
Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to
bring us beneath the surface of the page
and invite us into the world that l

89

Mao

Jung Chang

4.0

Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before - and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him - this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by ideali

Recommended by Richard Branson and Harry Wu.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Harry Wu

To this day we don’t really know much about Mao’s personal history. The Communist Party portrays him as the Great Leader. His smiling image is everywhere. Even the political system still follows his model. So what Chang did was delve deeper to discover who is the real Mao? You hear from people like his private doctor talking about his personal history [source]

90

Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems

Tu Fu, Li Po, Arthur Cooper

4.0

Li Po (AD 701-62) and Tu Fu (AD 712-70) were devoted friends who are traditionally considered to be among China's greatest poets. Li Po, a legendary carouser, was an itinerant poet whose writing, often dream poems or spirit-journeys, soars to sublime heights in its descriptions of natural scenes and powerful emotions. His sheer escapism and joy is balanced by Tu Fu, who expresses the Confucian vir

91

Journey to the West (4-Volume Boxed Set)

Wu Cheng'en, W.J.F. Jenner

4.0

Cover unavailable

92

Red Azalea

Anchee Min

4.0

Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, she was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame M

93

Journey to the West, Volume 4

Anthony C. Yu

4.0

The Journey to the West, volume 4, comprises the last twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist

94

Frog

Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt

4.0

Mo Yan chronicles the sweeping history of modern China through the lens of the nation’s controversial one-child policy.

Frog opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu—the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist—is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu’s own loyalty to the Party is questioned. Sh

95

Journey to the West, Volume 3

Anthony C. Yu

4.0

The Journey to the West, volume 3, comprises the third twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsuan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhis

96

Half a Lifelong Romance

Eileen Chang, Karen S. Kingsbury

4.0

"Shanghai, 1930s. Shen Shijun, a young engineer, has fallen in love with his colleague, the beautiful Gu Manzhen. He is determined to resist his family's efforts to match him with his wealthy cousin so that he can marry the woman he truly loves. But dark circumstances--a lustful brother-in-law, a treacherous sister, a family secret--force the two young lovers apart. As Manzhen and Shijun go on the

97

Taipei People

Hsien-yung Pai, George Kao, Patia Yasin

4.0

Widely acclaimed as a classic of contemporary fiction in Chinese, Taipei People has been frequently compared to James Joyce's Dubliners. Patrick Hanan praises the volume as -the highest achievement in the contemporary Chinese story.- Henry Miller considers Pai Hsien-yung -a master of portraiture.- Stories from this collection have already been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew

98

The Selected Poems of Li Po

David Hinton

4.0

Presents a translation of Li Po's poetry (AD 701-762). This book features Li Po's work which is suffused with Taoism and Zen Buddhism.

99

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

Wang Anyi, Michael Berry, Susan Chan Egan

4.0

Set in post-World War II Shanghai, "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the "longtong," the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai's working-class neighborhoods.

Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant, and this fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of her life. D

100

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

R. F Kuang

4.0

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally f