Resources About China

The following general suggestions of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and film are offered for those interested in learning more about China. They were compiled from faculty recommendations, on-line reviews, and other sources. This list is not intended to represent a comprehensive bibliography.

YaleGlobal articles

Search the YaleGlobal web site for recent articles. Some articles of interest include:

China and the US: to Hedge or to Engage?, by David Shambaugh and Karl F. Inderfurth
America’s China Worries: Part III, by Bertil Lintner
America’s China Worries: Part II, by Bruce Stokes
America’s China Worries: Part I, by Joan Johnson-Freese

How to Deal with NGOs – Part I, China, by Paul Mooney
Educating for the 21st Century - Part I, by Sara Schlemm

Books

General interest

Brooks, Bruce & Taeko 1998 The Original Analects Columbia University Press.

This book on Confucious tries to distinguish layers of accretion in the text by period, more or less as nineteenth-century biblical scholars tried to unwind the scriptures.

Fairbank, John King 1983 Chinabound: A 50 year memoir Harpercollins

Hessler, Peter 2006 Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present

Harper Collins.

Hessler, first wrote about China in his 2001 bestseller, River Town, a portrait of his Peace Corps years in Fuling. His second book reflects the maturity of time and experience.

Huang, Shumin 1998 The Spiral Road Westview Press.

Huang, who studied at a village in Fujian Province expresses his view of traditional village life. This book gives a picture of early Communism in China as seen through interviews with the Communist Party leader in the village.

Johnson, Ian 2005 Wild Grass Penguin.

Three case studies of individual Chinese who have dealt with the emerging structures available for the expression of dissent.

Kynge, James 2006 China Shakes The World Phoenix.

This is a wonderful picture of China’s impact on the world, written in a very engaging way by a major journalist. Won the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs award for the best business book of 2006/07.

Moser, Michael 2006 Foreigners within the Gates, the Legations at Peking Serindia

History, including Chiang Kai Shek’s fascist supporters and the bloodbath known as the Cultural revolution. The chapter, “Looking East –the long View”

Pomfret, John 2006 Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China Henry Holt

Washington Post reporter John Pomfret provides a first-hand account of modern Chinese history as it was lived and experienced by five of the author's 1981 classmates at Nanjing University. (Washington Post)

Naughton, Barry 2007 The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth MIT Press

This book examines different aspects of Modern Chinese economy including patterns of growth including population, rural economy, industrial development and international and foreign trade.

Salzman, Mark 1982 Iron and Silk Vintage.

Yale alumnus Salzman taught English in China after graduation. He also studied martial arts and wrote this wonderful account, in thirty anecdotal chapters, of what he learned. It’s still very fresh today. It was also made into a movie, see below.

Spence, Jonathan 1982 The Gate of Heavenly Peace Penguin.

This book describes the political and social revolution that took place from the end days of the Empire until decades into the PRC. Instead of focusing on already well researched historical figures such as Sun Yatsen and Mao Zedong, Spence looks at the “other” figures that greatly shaped the transformation of China yet never heard of by most people.

Spence, Jonathan 1992 Chinese Roundabout Norton.

A collection of Spence’s writings, this may be a good choice for those seeking a variety of different themes captured in one collection – still in print.

Spence, Jonathan 2001 Search for Modern China Norton.

Spence advocates democracy in China and presents contemporary views of its oppressive history.

Tam, Vivienne 2005 China Chic Regan Books.

Celebrated fashion designer Vivienne Tam shares the rare individuality of her own cross-cultural style, combining traditional eastern elements with a modern Western edge.Tam takes you on a personal journey featuring the people, places and things that inspire her.

Theroux, Paul 1989 Riding the Iron Rooster. Ivy Books.

Especially the chapter, “Night train #90 to Peking.” Theroux spent a year exploring China by Train, and his impressions about what has and has not changed in the country, as gathered in hundreds of conversations with Chinese citizens.

Yan, Yunziang 2003 Private Life Under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949-1999 Stanford University Press (Bartlett)

This book is about the terrific changes away from traditions and respect for parental controls that occurred in the author’s village mainly in the 1990s when he went back seven times to study it. Good outlook on peasant lives and how they may be changing today.

Fiction

Zhou Wei Hui 2003 Shanghai Baby. Constable and Robinson

On the lighter side: Wei Hui delves deep into the dark and glittering heart of Shanghai, as experienced by a hopeful and hedonistic young novelist, Nikki, better known to her friends as Coco.

Dai Sijie 2001 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Vintage

This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the 70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind.

Gao, Xingjian 2001 Soul Mountain Harper Perennial

This is the best-known work by the Nobel prize-winning novelist – browse Amazon to see the range of his works translated and in print.

Poetry

Weinberger, Eliot 2003 The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry New Directions

An excellent chance to investigate Chinese poetry in translation.

Documentary film

China in the Red 2001

The whole PBS series is available at PBS on line.

Feature films

Iron and Silk 1990

A Great Wall 1986

Director Zhang Yimou :