Books prize

Announcing the China Books Prize

A new annual award to celebrate outstanding book-length works on or from China, with shortlists and winners to follow in both nonfiction and translated literature.

What China Read in 2024

Five books published in China last year, from fiction to memoir, reveal a nation still reeling from the pandemic, and finding a new literary voice in its aftermath.

Ep. 16: Oriana Skylar Mastro on China’s Challenge to the U.S.

An expert on China’s military and security policy looks ahead in 2025 to uncertain U.S.-China relations under Trump, and the risk of a war over Taiwan.

Best China Books of 2024

Party luminaries. TV chefs. Poetry. Scandal. Our annual round-up of notable titles on or from China, split across nonfiction and translated literature, nominated by a roster of experts.

China Fiction for the Holidays

Five recent titles bring mystery and magic to the season, from novels of split identity to a children’s book about escaping over-protective parents.

Socialism with Socratic Characteristics

In attempting to justify Communist Party rule, Chinese academics have turned to an unlikely intellectual ally — classical Greek philosophy.

Ian Johnson on China Correspondence, from 1984 to Now

The Pulitzer-winning journalist tells the story of his first trip to China in 1984, and how it changed his views on foreign reporting.

Upcoming books

People’s China at 75

Eds. Keith Bennett, Carlos Martinez

January 1, 2025

Praxis Press

Making Multiple Babies

Chia-Ling Wu

January 1, 2025

Berghahn Books

China’s Stealth Fighter

Abraham Abrams

January 2, 2025

Air World

Taiwan and the Danger of a Sino-American War

Steve Chan

January 2, 2025

Cambridge University Press

Seeing China’s Belt and Road

Eds. Edward Schatz, Rachel Silvey

January 2, 2025

Oxford University Press

Browse more upcoming
Recent books

American Paradiplomacy and Chinese Power

Czeslaw Tubilewicz

December 31, 2024

Routledge

The Road to China’s Economic Powerhouse

Zhanbin Zhan

December 31, 2024

Paths International Ltd.

Tofu

Russell Thomas

December 31, 2024

Reaktion Books

Common Prosperity

Yongnian Zheng (tr. Liu Jia)

December 27, 2024

Palgrave Macmillan

The Identity Factor in Chinese Relations with Europe

Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson

December 26, 2024

Routledge

Browse more recent
Bestselling books

Plan Red

Gordon G. Chang

October 1, 2024

Humanix Books

Chinese Enough

Kristina Cho

September 24, 2024

Artisan

The Fox Wife

Yangsze Choo

February 13, 2024

Henry Holt and Co.

Taiwan Travelogue

Yang Shuang-zi (tr. Lin King)

November 12, 2024

Graywolf Press

Blood Money

Peter Schweizer

February 27, 2024

Harper

Browse more bestselling
Editors' picks

At the Edge of Empire

Edward Wong

June 25, 2024

Viking

Private Revolutions

Yuan Yang

July 2, 2024

Viking

Other Rivers

Peter Hessler

July 9, 2024

Penguin Press

Sound and Silence

Yan Lianke

April 23, 2024

Duke University Press

Growing Up under a Red Flag

Ying Chang Compestine

May 7, 2024

Rocky Pond Books

Browse more picks

From the Archive

Liao Yiwu: The Storyteller

Since the 1990s, Liao Yiwu has been gathering oral histories of Chinese experience, from the everyday to the extraordinary. Then in 2011, harangued by the state, he left China. How does a storyteller find new voice as a dissident?

Dancing To Prison

1983’s Strike Hard Against Crime Campaign led to the arrests of many innocent victims, caught up in a culture of fear. One of them was imprisoned for organizing an unofficial dance party — until he broke out in a daring escape.

Ep. 15: Paul French on Wallis Simpson's China Year

In 1924, an American socialite — who would later cause a scandal by marrying Britain's King — traveled the length of China. Her experience was a window into a nation in disorder.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn on China from 1988 to Now

The Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalists reflect back on their time in Beijing three decades ago, and what has changed since.

How Little We Knew

Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn were the sole New York Times correspondents in Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In his memoirs, he reflects on what they got right — and wrong.

Emily Hahn: China to Me

In her memoir of 1930s and 40s China, the New Yorker correspondent brought the country to life while coming down from opium binges in Shanghai and hiding in bomb shelters in Chongqing.

Can Cultural Exchange Save U.S.-China Relations?

Sino-American ties are reaching new lows. A new book looks back to the 1970s, when the relationship began, to question whether “people’s diplomacy” at sub-governmental levels can influence political trends.

Ep. 14: Kishore Mahbubani on the Asian Century

The Singaporean diplomat and author tells us how Asia’s rise to preeminence is inevitable, and what Western writers get wrong about China.

Don’t Write Off the Mao Dun Literature Prize

Never mind the Booker, Pulitzer and National Book Award — China’s Mao Dun Prize, despite its behind-the-times reputation, can shift the reading habits of a billion people.

Fox Butterfield on Bringing the New York Times to China

The veteran journalist and author tells us about his first trip to China, and how he opened the Beijing bureau of "The New York Times" in 1979.

Translated Chinese Literature: Story and History

Five recent Chinese books in translation apply different prisms — pictures, poetry, fiction, memoir — to draw narratives out of complicated personal and political histories.

Kevin Rudd on What Xi Jinping Thinks

At an Asia Society event, Dr. Kevin Rudd discussed his new book on Xi Jinping’s ideological worldview, and its implications for China’s political direction.

From the Archive

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