This page lists all recent China books, defined broadly as any English-language book on or from China that was published in the last year. We update this list every other Thursday. If you think we have missed a book, please contact us at listings@chinabooksreview.com, with the publisher link. The categories below are designed to present a large quantity of books by broad groupings, not as a perfect classification, and carousels are capped at 25 titles. Blurbs by Taili Ni, adapted from publisher copy.
Most recent
The Hong Kong Diaries
Chris Patten
The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, documenting the lead up to the colony's passage into Chinese rule.
BuyThe Fragility of China
Breaking Points of an Invincible Regime
Dennis Unkovic
A look into the critical factors and developments that have the potential to derail Xi Jinping's ambitions for China.
BuyIntimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration
Experiences of Ethnic Performers in Southwest China
Jingyu Mao
An exploration of the experiences, work and migration journeys of ethnic performers in a small Chinese city.
BuyMyths of China
Meet the Gods, Creatures, and Heroes of Ancient China
Xiaobing Wang (illus. Katie Ponder)
An introduction for young readers to the world of ancient Chinese myths.
BuyThe Logoharp
A Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121
Arielle Emmett
A science fiction story of a Chinese journalist who can see the future.
BuyDreaming the New Woman
An Oral History of Missionary Schoolgirls in Republican China
Jennifer Bond
An exploration of the experiences of girls who attended missionary middle schools in Republican China, based on extensive oral history interviews.
BuyOcean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea
Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power
Christian Schultheiss
An account of the negotiations between China, Japan, Taiwan the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries about the East and South China Sea disputes.
BuyContest for Citizenship and Collective Violence during China’s Cultural Revolution
Yang Lijun
An exploration of how political struggles within the state, competing sectarian interests and other complex factors intertwined to produce forms of collective violence during China's Cultural Revolution.
BuyThe War for Chinese Talent in America
The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations in the 21st Century
David Zweig
A documentation of China's "no-holds-barred" effort to access U.S. technology, and America's vigorous counterattack and efforts to disrupt the transfer of U.S. technology to China.
BuyMurder in the Maloo
Paul Bevan
A murder mystery unfolding in the gritty underworld of nineteenth-century Shanghai.
BuyHistorical Studies on Comfort Women in Shanghai
A Field Study Approach
Zhiliang Su, Lifei Chen, Yao Fei (tr. Xie'an Huang)
A history of the military comfort women system in China.
BuySino-Muslims, Networking, and Identity in Late Imperial China
Longstanding Natives and Dispersed Minorities
Shaodan Zhang
An exploration of the everday life of Muslims in late imperial China proper, revealing how they integrated themselves into Chinese society, whilst also maintaining distinct Islamic features.
BuyPerspectives on Plagiarism in China
History, Genres, and Education
Yongyan Li
An examination of historical and present Chinese views on plagiarism and the means by which it has been addressed.
BuyLearning to Love
Intimacy and the DIscourse of Development in China
Sonya E. Pritzker
A range of perspectives on the embodied, relational, affective and sociopolitical project of "learning to love", and how this form of self-care exists alongside the fast-moving society of contemporary China.
BuyOther Rivers
A Chinese Education
Peter Hessler
An account of two generations of students in China's heartland, chronicling a country in the midst of tumultuous change through the prism of its education system.
BuyCircular Ecologies
Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China
Amy Zhang
An analysis of Guangzhou's implementation of technologies and infrastructures to modernize the city's waste management system, and the grassroots ecologies politics that emerged in response.
BuyThe Night Ends with Fire
K.X. Song
A fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan that follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny.
BuyThe Dong World and Imperial China’s Southwest Silk Road
Trade, Security, and State Formation
James A. Anderson
An investigation of the principalities, chiefdoms, and market nodes that emerged and flourished in the network of routes that passed through the "Dong world," a collection of Tai-speaking polities in upland valleys from the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China's southern periphery.
BuyCutting the Mass Line
Water, Politics, and Climate in Southwest China
Andrea E. Pia
An exploration of the growing water supply crisis through an ethnographic study of a rural minority community in China threatened by climate change.
BuyFrom Forest Farm to Sawmill
Stories of Labor, Gender, and the Chinese State
Shuxuan Zhou
A description, drawing upon firsthand accounts from Mao era agricultural collectives through Deng era reform, of labor and resistance among Chinese timber industry workers.
BuyGames and Play in Chinese and Sinophone Cultures
Eds. Li Guo, Douglas Eyman, Hongmei Sun
A history of games and gaming in China.
BuyPrivate Revolutions
Four Women Face China's New Social Order
Yuan Yang
A portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society.
BuyThose Who Act Ruin It
A Daoist Account of Moral Attunement
Jacob Bender
A comparison of Daoist principles to similar Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.
BuyMetaphor and Meaning
Thinking Through Early China with Sarah Allan
Constance A. Cook, Christopher J. Foster, Susan Blader
A scholarly application of Sarah Allan's "conceptual metaphor theory" to the study of Chinese philosophy.
BuyThe Boiling Moat
Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan
Ed. Matt Pottinger
A scholarly argument that a robust military strategy for Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Europe is essential for countering Beijing's aggression.
BuyRecent Politics Books
The Fragility of China
Breaking Points of an Invincible Regime
Dennis Unkovic
A look into the critical factors and developments that have the potential to derail Xi Jinping's ambitions for China.
BuyOcean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea
Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power
Christian Schultheiss
An account of the negotiations between China, Japan, Taiwan the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries about the East and South China Sea disputes.
BuyThe War for Chinese Talent in America
The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations in the 21st Century
David Zweig
A documentation of China's "no-holds-barred" effort to access U.S. technology, and America's vigorous counterattack and efforts to disrupt the transfer of U.S. technology to China.
BuyCutting the Mass Line
Water, Politics, and Climate in Southwest China
Andrea E. Pia
An exploration of the growing water supply crisis through an ethnographic study of a rural minority community in China threatened by climate change.
BuyFrom Forest Farm to Sawmill
Stories of Labor, Gender, and the Chinese State
Shuxuan Zhou
A description, drawing upon firsthand accounts from Mao era agricultural collectives through Deng era reform, of labor and resistance among Chinese timber industry workers.
BuyThe Boiling Moat
Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan
Ed. Matt Pottinger
A scholarly argument that a robust military strategy for Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Europe is essential for countering Beijing's aggression.
Buy![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/chinabooksreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/a-tale-of-rice-and-copper.jpg)
A Tale of Rice and Copper
A World-Systems Analysis of Chinese Hegemony in Pakistan
Toufic Sarieddine
An exploration of Chinese investments in, and cooperation with Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative.
BuyChina, Japan, and Senkaku Islands
Conflict in the East China Sea Amid an American Shadow
Monika Chansoria
A study of Sino-Japanese relations in the context of the contested Senkaku Islands.
BuyChina under Xi Jinping
A New Assessment
Eds. Qiang Fang, Xiaobing Li
A look at Xi's China during the pandemic.
BuyThe Latecomer’s Rise
Policy Banks and the Globalization of China's Development Finance
Muyang Chen
A close look at the nature and impact of Chinese development finance.
BuyWhy the World Needs China
Development, Environmentalism, Conflict Resolution & Common Prosperity
Kyle Ferrana
An argument presenting China as the de facto leader of a future multipolar world.
BuyThe Rise of the Semi-Core
China, India, and Pakistan in the World-System
Samee Lashari
An analysis of modern capitalist history that argues that nations must possess both economic and strategic national powers to maintain their hierarchical position.
BuyAflame for Freedom in Tibet
The Origin and Development of the Self-Immolation Movement
Namloyak Dhungser (author, tr.), Joshua Esler (ed. tr.)
An examination of the origins and development of the protest movement in Tibet and around the world.
BuyLost Decade
The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power
Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine
An analysis of the American "Pivot to Asia" that argues that the US lacks a coherent approach to the Indo-Pacific.
BuyChina in Global Capitalism
Building International Solidarity Against Imperial Rivalry
Kevin Lin, Rosa Liu, Eli Friedman, Ashley Smith
An argument that makes the case that workers and socially marginalized people in both the U.S. and China should oppose imperialism in all its forms and construct a movement that centers international solidarity.
BuyPivot of China
Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou
Mark Baker
A look into how China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities, told through the story of the city of Zhengzhou.
BuyHandbook on Climate Change and Environmental Governance in China
Ed. Xiaowei Zang, Ed. Xiaoling Zhang
An examination of the role of politics in Chinese environmental regulation.
Buy![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/chinabooksreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/chinas-economic-miracle.jpg)
China’s Economic Miracle
Experiences for Russia and the World
Sergei Glazyev
A discussion of the Chinese economic miracle and how China has increasingly become the core of a new world economic order.
BuyModernising the People’s Liberation Army
Aspiring to be a Global Military Power
Ed. James Char
An examination of the progress made by the Chinese military as it strives to transform itself into a more capable fighting force.
BuyCrosswinds
Nehru, Zhou and the Anglo-American Competition Over China
Vijay Gokhale
An outline of India's efforts to craft a foreign policy in the context of the Anglo-American competition in the Far East, and how it hoped to enlist China as a partner.
BuyRevolutionary Taiwan
Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order
Catherine Lila Chou, Mark Harrison
A history of how Taiwan was revolutionized over the centuries–from settler colonialism, authoritarianism, democracy, and contested sovereignty.
BuyCritiquing Communication Innovation
New Media in a Multipolar World
Rolien Hoyng, Gladys Pak Lei Chong
An examination of China's growing role in communications technology innovation.
BuyGermany and China
How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security
Andreas Fulda
A close look at the increasingly interdependent relationship between Germany and China, and the danger of this increasing entanglement.
BuyNationalisation, Peasantry and Rural Integration in China I
Xu Yong
An examination of the process of rural reconstruction in China over the course of the twentieth century, taking into account politics, labour and resources, administration, and institutional integration.
BuyRecent History Books
The Hong Kong Diaries
Chris Patten
The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, documenting the lead up to the colony's passage into Chinese rule.
BuyDreaming the New Woman
An Oral History of Missionary Schoolgirls in Republican China
Jennifer Bond
An exploration of the experiences of girls who attended missionary middle schools in Republican China, based on extensive oral history interviews.
BuyContest for Citizenship and Collective Violence during China’s Cultural Revolution
Yang Lijun
An exploration of how political struggles within the state, competing sectarian interests and other complex factors intertwined to produce forms of collective violence during China's Cultural Revolution.
BuyHistorical Studies on Comfort Women in Shanghai
A Field Study Approach
Zhiliang Su, Lifei Chen, Yao Fei (tr. Xie'an Huang)
A history of the military comfort women system in China.
BuyThe Dong World and Imperial China’s Southwest Silk Road
Trade, Security, and State Formation
James A. Anderson
An investigation of the principalities, chiefdoms, and market nodes that emerged and flourished in the network of routes that passed through the "Dong world," a collection of Tai-speaking polities in upland valleys from the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China's southern periphery.
BuySecret Stories on the Silk Road
Symbols, Architectures and Myths between Italy, the Middle East and China
Alessandro Coscia, Sergio Coppola
A photographic documentation of artifacts left from the exchanges between Western and Eastern civilizations along the Silk Road.
BuyTo Be an Actress
Labor and Performance in Anna May Wong's Cross-Media World
Yiman Wang
A study of Chinese American actress Anna May Wong's cross-media and transnational career.
BuyA History of Uyghur Buddhism
Johan Elverskog
A history of Buddhism among the Uyghurs from the ninth to seventeenth century.
BuyChina in Seven Banquets
A Flavourful History
Thomas David DuBois
A journey spanning five thousand years of Chinese culinary heritage, exploring the essense of each era through seven extraordinary meals.
BuyChinese Workers of the World
Colonialism, Chinese Labor, and the Yunnan-Indochina Railway
Selda Altan
A history of worker struggles and labor conflicts along the Yunnan-Indochina Railway constructed between 1898 and 1910.
BuyThe Great Wonders of China
Ed. Jonathan Fenby
An updated and multifaceted account of China's history, religion, philosophy, arts and sciences, and more.
BuyMadmen in Shanghai
A Social History of Advertising in Modern China (1914-1956)
Cécile Armand
A novel perspective on the emergence of Chinese consumer society through a historical investigation of the advertising industry in pre-Communist China.
BuyRevolutionary Stagecraft
Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China
Tarryn Li-Min Chun
A history of Chinese theater that reveals the deep entanglement of technological modernization, political agendas, and the performing arts in modern China.
BuyMao’s Hijacked Generation
Ed. Robin Radin
A look at the zhiqing program in China from 1962-1979, when about half of an entire generation of teenagers from Chinese cities were sent to the countryside for "re-education".
BuyDestination Macao
Paul French
An investigation of Macao containing 18 true stories of people who lived in or visited Macao in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Chinese Computer
A Global History of the Information Age
Thomas S. Mullaney
The untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing.
BuyHedging the China Threat
US-Taiwan Security Relations Since 1949
Shao-cheng Sun
A look at the history of US commitments to Taiwan since the presidency of Harry S. Truman.
BuyStruggle for Empire
The Battles of General Zuo Zongtang
Kenneth M. Swope
A comprehensive modern biography of the late Qing dynasty statesman, strategist, and military commander Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885).
BuyThe Southern Tour
Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future
Jonathan Chatwin
An exploration of Deng Xiaoping's legendary "Southern Tour" and its legacies in China today.
BuySkies of Thunder
The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World
Caroline Alexander
An account of combat and survival in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II.
BuyPerforming Chinatown
Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community
William Gow
An exploration of how in the 1930s, Los Angeles' Chinatown and Hollywood represented the two primary sites where Chinese Americans performed racial difference for popular audiences, and how those representations were connected to the restrictive immigration laws limiting Chinese entry into the U.S.
Buy![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/chinabooksreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/mzd-contemporary-china.jpg)
Mao Zedong and Contemporary China
Exploring the World Where Truth Falls from the Heavens
Katsuji Nakagane
An evaluation of Mao Zedong and what he brought to China.
BuyZhou Enlai
A Life
Jian Chen
A biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss―Chairman Mao.
BuyRebel Island
The Incredible History of Taiwan
Jonathan Clements
A history of Taiwan, from the flood myths of indigenous legend to its Asian Tiger economic miracle, and the renewed threat of invasion by China.
BuyIn the Mind, in the Body, in the World
Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece
Eds. Douglas Cairns, Curie Virág
A volume of essays investigating the discourses of emotions in ancient philosophy, medicine and literature in ancient Greece and China.
BuyRecent Society/Culture Books
Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration
Experiences of Ethnic Performers in Southwest China
Jingyu Mao
An exploration of the experiences, work and migration journeys of ethnic performers in a small Chinese city.
BuyMyths of China
Meet the Gods, Creatures, and Heroes of Ancient China
Xiaobing Wang (illus. Katie Ponder)
An introduction for young readers to the world of ancient Chinese myths.
BuySino-Muslims, Networking, and Identity in Late Imperial China
Longstanding Natives and Dispersed Minorities
Shaodan Zhang
An exploration of the everday life of Muslims in late imperial China proper, revealing how they integrated themselves into Chinese society, whilst also maintaining distinct Islamic features.
BuyPerspectives on Plagiarism in China
History, Genres, and Education
Yongyan Li
An examination of historical and present Chinese views on plagiarism and the means by which it has been addressed.
BuyLearning to Love
Intimacy and the DIscourse of Development in China
Sonya E. Pritzker
A range of perspectives on the embodied, relational, affective and sociopolitical project of "learning to love", and how this form of self-care exists alongside the fast-moving society of contemporary China.
BuyOther Rivers
A Chinese Education
Peter Hessler
An account of two generations of students in China's heartland, chronicling a country in the midst of tumultuous change through the prism of its education system.
BuyCircular Ecologies
Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China
Amy Zhang
An analysis of Guangzhou's implementation of technologies and infrastructures to modernize the city's waste management system, and the grassroots ecologies politics that emerged in response.
BuyGames and Play in Chinese and Sinophone Cultures
Eds. Li Guo, Douglas Eyman, Hongmei Sun
A history of games and gaming in China.
BuyPrivate Revolutions
Four Women Face China's New Social Order
Yuan Yang
A portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society.
BuyThose Who Act Ruin It
A Daoist Account of Moral Attunement
Jacob Bender
A comparison of Daoist principles to similar Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.
BuyMetaphor and Meaning
Thinking Through Early China with Sarah Allan
Constance A. Cook, Christopher J. Foster, Susan Blader
A scholarly application of Sarah Allan's "conceptual metaphor theory" to the study of Chinese philosophy.
BuyChinese Museums
Strategies and Promotion of Contemporary Chinese Art
Ornella De Nigris
An exploration of a range of different approaches to exhibiting and curating art, while also investigating the crucial question of the cultural sustainability of art museums in China.
BuyChristianity and Capitalism in China
A Case Study from the Diaspora
Ottavio Palombaro
An argument for a causal link between a Calvinistic worldview and economic success in contemporary China.
BuyAt the Edge of Empire
A Family’s Reckoning with China
Edward Wong
A dual narrative that tells the story of modern China by braiding an intergenerational family memoir with first-person contemporary reporting by the former New York Times Beijing bureau chief.
BuyInvisible Warfare
How Does a Book Defeat an Empire?
Liao Yiwu (tr. Michael M. Day)
A memoir from writer, poet, musician, and dissident Liao Yiwu, reflecting on his journey from imprisonment in Sichuan to his current life in Berlin.
BuyQueering Kinship
Non-heterosexual Couples, Parents and Families in Guangdong, China
Han Tao
An exploration of tactics queer people employ to have children and form queer families, and how they navigate cultivating or losing kinship relations, based on ethnographic fieldwork in Guangdong.
BuyConfucian Governmentality and Socialist Autocracy in Contemporary China
Chih-yu Shih
An exmaination of the relationship between citizens and leaders in Chinese autocracy, challenging the binary of authoritarianism and democracy.
BuyTaiwan’s COVID-19 Experience
Governance, Governmentality, and the Global Pandemic
Eds. Ming-Cheng M. Lo, Yu-Yueh Tsai, Michael Shiyung Liu
An exploration of how Taiwan navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
BuyChina’s Camel Country
Livestock and Nation-Building at a Pastoral Frontier
Thomas White
A look at how state environmentalism in China has transformed the lives of ethnic Mongol pastoralists and their animals.
BuyThe Precariat in Western China
Poverty, Risks and Influences
Xueyang Ma
An overview of the experiences and dynamics of precarious workers' in-work poverty in western China.
BuySuperstars
My China in Tang Poetry Volume 1
Susan Wan Dolling
A collection of translated poems from Tang poets, accompanied by explanations of the meaning and context of each.
BuyDisorienting Politics
Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements
Fan Yang
An examination of how "Chimerican" (referencing the symbiosis of China and the U.S.) media co-create the figure of rising China and extend a political imagination beyond the conventional ground of the nation.
BuyRecent Fiction Books
The Logoharp
A Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121
Arielle Emmett
A science fiction story of a Chinese journalist who can see the future.
BuyMurder in the Maloo
Paul Bevan
A murder mystery unfolding in the gritty underworld of nineteenth-century Shanghai.
BuyThe Night Ends with Fire
K.X. Song
A fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan that follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny.
BuyOf Jade and Dragons
Amber Chen
A silkpunk fantasy about a girl who must disguise herself as a boy and enter the famed and dangerous Engineer’s Guild trials to unravel the mystery of her father’s murder.
BuyTongueless
Lau Yee-Wa (tr. Jennifer Feeley)
A psychological thriller that sheds light on the current political situation in Hong Kong.
BuyThe Cry of the Silkworm
Shi Naseer
A coming of age novel set in 1990s China and spanning to the turn of the century.
BuyTiananmen Square
A Novel
Lai Wen
A coming-of-age novel about young love and lasting friendships forged in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square student protests.
BuySouls Left Behind
A Novel
Fan Wu (tr. Honey Watson)
A novel about members of the Chinese Labour Corps working in France during World War I.
BuyBanana King Ngôo Tsín-suī
Wang-Tai Lee (tr. Timothy Smith)
A translated Taiwanese novel weaving together actual events, fictional elements, and the culture and politics of Taiwan through the tale of a young banana mogul.
BuyFang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise
A Novel
Yi-han Lin (tr. Jenna Tang)
A fictional account of sexual violence, women's vulnerability and victimization in Taiwan.
BuyDaughters of Shandong
A Novel
Eve J. Chung
A novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China.
BuyShanghailanders
A Novel
Juli Min
A novel that follows a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time, beginning in 2040 and moving through our present and the recent past.
BuyCinema Love
A Novel
Jiaming Tang
A novel about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.
BuyTheir Divine Fires
A Novel
Wendy Chen
A novel interwoven with folktale and myth that tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal.
BuyThe Boy From Clearwater Book II
Yu Pei-Yun (illus. Zhou Jian-Xin, tr. Lin King)
The second half of the story of Kun-lin, picking up after his imprisonment on Green Island during Taiwan's White Terror period.
BuyBorn Naughty
My Childhood in China
Jin Wang, Tony Johnston (illust. Anisi Baigude)
An illustrated memoir for young readers telling the author's story of growing up in Inner Mongolia.
BuyThe Good Women Of Fudi
Liu Hong
A novel of loves lost and gained, set during the aftermath of the Opium Wars.
BuyThe Funeral Cryer
Wenyan Lu
A novel about a professional mourner who has faced social isolation due to the stigma around her job.
BuyHello, Kitty
And Other Short Stories
Anne Stevenson-Yang
A collection of surreal stories depicting a Chinese society in freefall.
BuyThe Book of Secrets
A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China
Xin Ran
A behind-the-scenes account of a family torn apart by the Tiananmen Square massacre and military intelligence officer JIe's attempts to open up the Chinese system to the people.
BuyChamber after Chamber
Saara Myrene Raappana
A narrative told in poems following the narrator and her cousin through China and the U.S.
Buy![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/chinabooksreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/choo-choo.jpg)
Choo-Choo Adventures
Exploring the China-Laos Railway
N/A
A children's picture book following a cast of animals taking a train journey from China to Laos.
Buy