Recommended Books on China
The Chinese (John Murray, 2000) by Jasper Becker
The best single-volume introduction to the people of China and their world is Jasper Becker's The
Chinese . Longtime resident of Beijing and former Beijing bureau chief for the South China Morning
Post, Becker delivers an immensely readable account of how the Chinese got to be who they are
today; their pre-occupations, thoughts, and fears; and the ludicrous posturings of their leaders.
River Town : Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a
city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
Fascinating interwoven tales of everyday people that the author meets and knows in China with stories
of China's archeological history. One of the most readable accounts of China today.
Mr.China by Tim Clissold
The quintessential book on doing business in China. Anyone who is even thinking remotely about it
should read Mr. China for the full scoop on how it is to do business with locals. It's a hilarious read, but
should make you pause before you dive head-first into a business venture...while there are a billion
customers there are at least as many headaches, or worse.
Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China by John Pomfret
A riveting portrait of the Chinese people and the kind of lives that are making the China of tomorrow.
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence
In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative
richness and efficiency. The book begins with the glory of the Ming dynasty and ends with the opening
of China and the tensions in the final decade's of the 20th century. It is an incredibly vivid and
engaging read.
Foreign Babes in Beijing By Rachel DeWoskin
DeWoskin's memoir about how as a 21-year-old poetry major looking for adventure, she headed to
China and became an overnight sensation as the American vixen of a Chinese soap opera.
Old Beijing can now only be found in literature. The origins of many Western fantasies of the capital,
then called Khanbalik, lie in the ghost-written work of Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo. Dover
Publications' two-volume reprint (1993) of the Yule-Cordier edition is a splendid read (although only
part of Polo's time was spent in Beijing) because of its entertaining introduction and footnotes by
famous explorers attempting to follow his route. Ray Huang's ironically titled 1587, A Year of No
Significance (Yale University Press, 1982) is an account of the Ming dynasty in decline; written in the
first person, it paints a compelling picture of the well-intentioned Wanli emperor trapped by a vast,
impersonal bureaucracy. The parallels with the present regime are striking. Lord Macartney's An
Embassy to China (J. L. Cranmer-Byng [Ed.], Longman, 1962) gives a detailed account of Qing China
and particularly Beijing at the end of the 18th century. This should be compulsory reading for modern
businesspeople, as it prefigures WTO negotiations and the expectations of what will arise from them.
Macartney's prediction that the Chinese would all soon be using forks and spoons is particularly
relevant. Hugh Trevor-Roper's Hermit of Peking (Eland Press, 1976), part history, part detective story,
uncovers the life of Sir Edmund Backhouse, resident of Beijing from the end of the Qing dynasty into
the Republic, who knew everyone in the city at the beginning of the century, and who deceived them
all, along with a generation of China scholars, with his fake diary of a Manchu official at the time of the
Boxer Rebellion. A serviceably translated bilingual edition of Lao She's Teahouse (Chinese University
Press, 2004) succinctly captures the flavor of life in Beijing during the first half of the 20th century. The
helplessness of the characters in the face of political movements is both moving and prophetic. John
Blofeld's City of Lingering Splendour: A Frank Account of Old Peking's Exotic Pleasures (Shambala,
1961) describes the seamier side of Beijing in the 1930s, by someone who took frank enjoyment in its
pleasures, including adventures in "the lanes of flowers and willows" -- the Qian Men brothel quarter.
In the same period, George Kates, an American, lived more decorously in the style of a Chinese
gentleman-scholar in an old courtyard house of the kind now rapidly vanishing, and gives a sensitive
and very appealing portrait of the city in The Years That Were Fat (Harper, 1955; reprinted by Oxford
University Press, 1988). Ann Bridge, the wife of a British diplomat in Beijing, wrote novels of life in the
capital's Legation Quarter in the 1930s (cocktail parties, horse racing, problems with servants, love
affairs -- spicy stuff in its day, and best-selling, if now largely forgotten). Peking Picnic (Chatto and
Windus, 1932; reprinted Virago, 1989) features a disastrous trip to the outlying temples of Tanzhe Si
and Jietai Si (but one well worth undertaking yourself). The Ginger Griffin (Chatto and Windus, 1934;
reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1985) offers the adventures of a young woman newly arrived in
the city who attends the horse races, and has a happier ending.
David Kidd, another American, lived in Beijing for a few years before and shortly after the Communist
victory of 1949, and gives an account of the beginning of the city's destruction in Peking Story (Eland
Press, 1988; originally All the Emperor's Horses, John Murray, 1961). Perhaps the best example of the
"hooligan literature" of the late 1980s is Please Don't Call Me Human (No Exit Press, 2000) by Wang
Shuo. There's little plot to speak of, but it's a devastating and surreal parody of Chinese nationalism,
all the more poignant as the Olympics draw near. Black Hands of Beijing (John Wiley Inc., 1993), by
George Black and Robin Munro, is the most balanced and least hysterical account of the Tian'an Men
incident, putting them in the context of other, better-planned movements for social change, all of which
suffered in the fallout from the chaotic student demonstrations and their bloody suppression. Only one
of Tim Clissold's tales in Mr. China (Constable & Robinson, 2004) is set in Beijing, and the naivety of
the author is at times breathtaking, but his account of setting up joint-ventures from the mid-1990s
onwards is frank testimony that should be read by anyone considering doing business in China.
Chris Elder's Old Peking: City of the Ruler of the World (Oxford University Press, 1997) is a
compendium of comments on the city from a wide range of literary and historical sources, sorted by
topic. For those intent on digging out the last remains of the capitals' ancient architecture, Susan
Naquin's magisterial Peking Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (University of California Press, 2000)
gives a scholarly yet readable background to many buildings now open to the public and many now
long vanished. Frances Wood's Forbidden City (British Museum Press, 2005) is a short and
thoroughly entertaining introduction to Beijing's main attraction.
The Chinese (John Murray, 2000) by Jasper Becker
The best single-volume introduction to the people of China and their world is Jasper Becker's The
Chinese . Longtime resident of Beijing and former Beijing bureau chief for the South China Morning
Post, Becker delivers an immensely readable account of how the Chinese got to be who they are
today; their pre-occupations, thoughts, and fears; and the ludicrous posturings of their leaders.
River Town : Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a
city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
Fascinating interwoven tales of everyday people that the author meets and knows in China with stories
of China's archeological history. One of the most readable accounts of China today.
Mr.China by Tim Clissold
The quintessential book on doing business in China. Anyone who is even thinking remotely about it
should read Mr. China for the full scoop on how it is to do business with locals. It's a hilarious read, but
should make you pause before you dive head-first into a business venture...while there are a billion
customers there are at least as many headaches, or worse.
Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China by John Pomfret
A riveting portrait of the Chinese people and the kind of lives that are making the China of tomorrow.
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence
In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative
richness and efficiency. The book begins with the glory of the Ming dynasty and ends with the opening
of China and the tensions in the final decade's of the 20th century. It is an incredibly vivid and
engaging read.
Foreign Babes in Beijing By Rachel DeWoskin
DeWoskin's memoir about how as a 21-year-old poetry major looking for adventure, she headed to
China and became an overnight sensation as the American vixen of a Chinese soap opera.
Old Beijing can now only be found in literature. The origins of many Western fantasies of the capital,
then called Khanbalik, lie in the ghost-written work of Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo. Dover
Publications' two-volume reprint (1993) of the Yule-Cordier edition is a splendid read (although only
part of Polo's time was spent in Beijing) because of its entertaining introduction and footnotes by
famous explorers attempting to follow his route. Ray Huang's ironically titled 1587, A Year of No
Significance (Yale University Press, 1982) is an account of the Ming dynasty in decline; written in the
first person, it paints a compelling picture of the well-intentioned Wanli emperor trapped by a vast,
impersonal bureaucracy. The parallels with the present regime are striking. Lord Macartney's An
Embassy to China (J. L. Cranmer-Byng [Ed.], Longman, 1962) gives a detailed account of Qing China
and particularly Beijing at the end of the 18th century. This should be compulsory reading for modern
businesspeople, as it prefigures WTO negotiations and the expectations of what will arise from them.
Macartney's prediction that the Chinese would all soon be using forks and spoons is particularly
relevant. Hugh Trevor-Roper's Hermit of Peking (Eland Press, 1976), part history, part detective story,
uncovers the life of Sir Edmund Backhouse, resident of Beijing from the end of the Qing dynasty into
the Republic, who knew everyone in the city at the beginning of the century, and who deceived them
all, along with a generation of China scholars, with his fake diary of a Manchu official at the time of the
Boxer Rebellion. A serviceably translated bilingual edition of Lao She's Teahouse (Chinese University
Press, 2004) succinctly captures the flavor of life in Beijing during the first half of the 20th century. The
helplessness of the characters in the face of political movements is both moving and prophetic. John
Blofeld's City of Lingering Splendour: A Frank Account of Old Peking's Exotic Pleasures (Shambala,
1961) describes the seamier side of Beijing in the 1930s, by someone who took frank enjoyment in its
pleasures, including adventures in "the lanes of flowers and willows" -- the Qian Men brothel quarter.
In the same period, George Kates, an American, lived more decorously in the style of a Chinese
gentleman-scholar in an old courtyard house of the kind now rapidly vanishing, and gives a sensitive
and very appealing portrait of the city in The Years That Were Fat (Harper, 1955; reprinted by Oxford
University Press, 1988). Ann Bridge, the wife of a British diplomat in Beijing, wrote novels of life in the
capital's Legation Quarter in the 1930s (cocktail parties, horse racing, problems with servants, love
affairs -- spicy stuff in its day, and best-selling, if now largely forgotten). Peking Picnic (Chatto and
Windus, 1932; reprinted Virago, 1989) features a disastrous trip to the outlying temples of Tanzhe Si
and Jietai Si (but one well worth undertaking yourself). The Ginger Griffin (Chatto and Windus, 1934;
reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1985) offers the adventures of a young woman newly arrived in
the city who attends the horse races, and has a happier ending.
David Kidd, another American, lived in Beijing for a few years before and shortly after the Communist
victory of 1949, and gives an account of the beginning of the city's destruction in Peking Story (Eland
Press, 1988; originally All the Emperor's Horses, John Murray, 1961). Perhaps the best example of the
"hooligan literature" of the late 1980s is Please Don't Call Me Human (No Exit Press, 2000) by Wang
Shuo. There's little plot to speak of, but it's a devastating and surreal parody of Chinese nationalism,
all the more poignant as the Olympics draw near. Black Hands of Beijing (John Wiley Inc., 1993), by
George Black and Robin Munro, is the most balanced and least hysterical account of the Tian'an Men
incident, putting them in the context of other, better-planned movements for social change, all of which
suffered in the fallout from the chaotic student demonstrations and their bloody suppression. Only one
of Tim Clissold's tales in Mr. China (Constable & Robinson, 2004) is set in Beijing, and the naivety of
the author is at times breathtaking, but his account of setting up joint-ventures from the mid-1990s
onwards is frank testimony that should be read by anyone considering doing business in China.
Chris Elder's Old Peking: City of the Ruler of the World (Oxford University Press, 1997) is a
compendium of comments on the city from a wide range of literary and historical sources, sorted by
topic. For those intent on digging out the last remains of the capitals' ancient architecture, Susan
Naquin's magisterial Peking Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (University of California Press, 2000)
gives a scholarly yet readable background to many buildings now open to the public and many now
long vanished. Frances Wood's Forbidden City (British Museum Press, 2005) is a short and
thoroughly entertaining introduction to Beijing's main attraction.
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |