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Top Ten Reads
However well you might plan a journey to the East, the only way to immerse yourself in the Chinese places and people distanced from you by time, culture and geography is by letting yourself be transported by the literature of the country itself. Browse the list below to find a book that will whisk you to another time and place.
Wolf Totem
By Jiang Rong
Published in England for the first time having sold 4m copies in China, this sensational story paints aspects of modern China against the backdrop of its apparently idyllic nomadic history.
Click here for an independent review >
By Jiang Rong
Published in England for the first time having sold 4m copies in China, this sensational story paints aspects of modern China against the backdrop of its apparently idyllic nomadic history.
Click here for an independent review >
Red Dust
By Ma Jian
"Red Dust is a powerful and disturbing account of a great country in ferment and of a personal quest for wisdom"
Click here for an independent review >
By Ma Jian
"Red Dust is a powerful and disturbing account of a great country in ferment and of a personal quest for wisdom"
Click here for an independent review >
The Last Empress
By Anchee Min
From the concubine quarters to the world stage, this is the story of Orchid's dramatic transition from an instinctive girl to a wise leader who ruled China for more than four decades.
Click here for an independent review >
By Anchee Min
From the concubine quarters to the world stage, this is the story of Orchid's dramatic transition from an instinctive girl to a wise leader who ruled China for more than four decades.
Click here for an independent review >
CHINA - People, Place, Culture, History
Published by Dorling Kindersley
"The next best thing to actually making the journey."
Click here for an independent review >
Published by Dorling Kindersley
"The next best thing to actually making the journey."
Click here for an independent review >
The Seventy Wonders of China
By Jonathan Fenby
Expert entries pay homage to famous monuments as well as lesser-known sculptures, palaces, tombs, and monasteries. China's fast-growing modern counterparts, Shanghai and Beijing, are also portrayed.
Click here for an independent review >
By Jonathan Fenby
Expert entries pay homage to famous monuments as well as lesser-known sculptures, palaces, tombs, and monasteries. China's fast-growing modern counterparts, Shanghai and Beijing, are also portrayed.
Click here for an independent review >
Sweet Mandarin
By Helen Tse
It is the love of life and food that underlies this true story which spans 100 years and three generations of Chinese women following an extraordinary journey of courage and determination.
Click here for an independent review >
By Helen Tse
It is the love of life and food that underlies this true story which spans 100 years and three generations of Chinese women following an extraordinary journey of courage and determination.
Click here for an independent review >
Raise the Red Lantern
By Su Tong
Su Tong's intriguing fiction of a young woman's tragic decline portrays China's history and traditions against the backdrop of provincial China in the 1930s.
Click here for an independent review >
By Su Tong
Su Tong's intriguing fiction of a young woman's tragic decline portrays China's history and traditions against the backdrop of provincial China in the 1930s.
Click here for an independent review >
Love in a Fallen City
By Eileen Chang
This extraordinary collection of short stories come from one of the great writers of twentieth-century China. These probing, contemporary pieces were written when Eileen was still in her twenties.
Click here for an independent review >
By Eileen Chang
This extraordinary collection of short stories come from one of the great writers of twentieth-century China. These probing, contemporary pieces were written when Eileen was still in her twenties.
Click here for an independent review >
Shanghai Baby
By Zhou Wei Hui
This book, famous for being banned on mainland China due to its explicit tone, describes the self-obsession of the young and holds a place in Chinese literary history.
Click here for an independent review >
By Zhou Wei Hui
This book, famous for being banned on mainland China due to its explicit tone, describes the self-obsession of the young and holds a place in Chinese literary history.
Click here for an independent review >
Return to Dragon Mountain
By Jonathan Spence
Enjoyable and instructive, this book illuminates a culture's transformation and reveals how China's place in the world today is affected by its past.
Click here for an independent review >
By Jonathan Spence
Enjoyable and instructive, this book illuminates a culture's transformation and reveals how China's place in the world today is affected by its past.
Click here for an independent review >
