Review Essay

What Happened to “Engagement” with China?

Since 1972, the U.S. has hoped that engaging with China would benefit both nations. That dream has burst. A new book performs an autopsy on engagement policy — but is it really dead?

What China's Listening To

We picked five albums that China’s Gen Z are listening to while lying flat, working, involuting, “running” abroad and pushing the envelope.

Dan Wang on Engineers vs. Lawyers

The technology analyst discusses his new book "Breakneck," explaining what America's lawyerly society could learn from China's quest to engineer the future.

The Storytelling Robot

A science fiction story by Fei Dao, translated by Alec Ash — plus a Q&A with the author on the importance of Chinese sci-fi.

David Moser on Performing Comedy in China

The sinologist talks about moving to China in 1989, his first appearance on the Spring Festival Gala in 1999, and learning xiangsheng from the masters.

Empire of Engineers

China has been a nation of engineers, from imperial to communist rule. America’s lawyerly society could learn something from that — but civil and social engineering come at a human cost.

Sima Qian: Records of the Grand Historian

History is supposedly written by the victors. Sima Qian, author of China's original historical classic, showed it could also be written by the condemned.

Recent books

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China and Its Embrace of Offensive Cyberespionage

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You Must Take Part in Revolution

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Breaking the Engagement

David Shambaugh

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Religion, Secularism, and Love as a Political Discourse in Modern China

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Transplants

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From the Archive

Ill Winds In Tibet

A banned Tibetan novel, now published in English, recounts the devastation of Mao's campaigns in the wake of the Amdo Rebellion of 1958.

Ep. 24: China Conspiracy Theories

From Covid as a bioweapon to Chinese soldiers infiltrating America, Alexander Boyd discusses the right-wing conspiracy theories that lead our ranking of bestselling China books.

The Trouble with Chinese Cookbooks

Despite the difficulty of translating Chinese cuisine for Western readers, Chinese cookbooks continue to sell. But just as their form has changed over the decades, so too has their mission.

What America Reads About China

Conspiracy theories and alarmism about Cold War redux are the best selling China books on Amazon.com. We read them so you don’t have to.

Sex Sells

A book on prostitution in China asks sex workers how they see the industry, the state and themselves.

Ep. 23: Mark Kitto on Shanghai in the 2000s

The author and former media mogul explains why he chose fiction as the best way to capture Shanghai’s go-go years in his new novel.

What Happened to China Travel Guides?

Guidebooks for China boomed from the 1980s to the 2010s. Then the Covid pandemic hit. With fewer visitors, and travel guides going out of print in the digital age, what are we missing?

What China's Reading: Amateur Writing

After a plagiarism scandal upended China’s literati, a spate of bestselling books published by amateur writers has changed what Chinese readers consider as literature.

Who Will Be the Next Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama, who just turned 90, writes in his memoir that he will reincarnate in the “free world.” But will his political, religious and moral power transfer with him?

Jane Gardam: The Old Filth Trilogy

A clever skewering of British colonials in pre-handover Hong Kong became a best-seller for its portrait of imperial ruin and class jockeying.

Liang Qichao: Reformer or Revolutionary?

The legacy of the late Qing era intellectual, once exiled in Japan, is overlooked in the West. A new collection of his essays shows a revolutionary spirit that is still alive in dissidents abroad today.

New China Books: High Temperatures

Five recent books on China cover a range of heated topics, from dystopian Hong Kong to the end of Sino-U.S. engagement.

From the Archive

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