Review Essay

What If Hu Yaobang Had Lived?

The former Chinese Communist Party leader’s ousting and death led to the Tiananmen protests, but his life reveals a deeper push and pull between reformist and conservative impulses.

Found in Translation

An award-winning novel set in Japanese-occupied Taiwan explores the relationship between colonizer and subaltern, translator and translated — and how some distances can’t be closed.

Books to Better Understand Taiwan

Five recent titles show there is more to the island than just politics, from historical profiles to a cookbook that sets Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine apart.

Ep. 17: Lau Yee-Wa on Hong Kong Fiction

We talked to the author of "Tongueless" about how Cantonese is disappearing from Hong Kong schools, and what literature can do to raise awareness.

The Thrilling Truth

A new thriller set in 1930s Shanghai includes just enough historical detail to be believable. But is history at risk of being overtaken by fiction?

Eva Dou on Huawei and Chinese Tech

Eva Dou discusses her new history of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant at the center of the U.S.-China tech wars, and the future of Chinese technology in Trump’s America.

The Curse of the "Good Premier”

Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong’s second-in-command, has been lionized as a moderating force who held back Mao’s excesses. But does he deserve that reputation, when he also enabled them?

Upcoming books

Tides of Fortune

Zack Cooper

February 25, 2025

Yale University Press

Bronze Mirrors in Ancient China

Kin Sum Li

February 25, 2025

University of Washington Press

Wisdom Stories of Tibet

Laura Burges, Lama Chonam (illus. Wen Hsu)

February 25, 2025

Bala Kids

The Magpie at Night

Li Qingzhao (tr. Wendy Chen)

February 25, 2025

Penguin Books

Picturing Animals and Plants in Early Modern China and Japan

Eds. Fan Lin, Doreen Mueller

February 26, 2025

Amsterdam University Press

Browse more upcoming
Recent books

Contemporary Chinese Graphic Design Practice

Yun Wang

February 20, 2025

Bloomsbury Visual Arts

Scotland and China

Eds. Li Li, John Corbett

February 20, 2025

Brill

Ecotourism

Wei-Ta Fang, Arba'at Hassan, Max Horng

February 19, 2025

Springer

For now I am sitting here growing transparent

Yau Ching (tr. Chenxin Jiang)

February 18, 2025

Zephyr Press

The Politics of Sorrow

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa

February 18, 2025

Columbia University Press

Browse more recent
Bestselling books

Blood Money

Peter Schweizer

February 27, 2024

Harper

168 Better Than Takeout Chinese Recipes

Mandy Fu

October 9, 2024

Souped Up Recipes

Corky Lee’s Asian America

Corky Lee

April 9, 2024

Clarkson Potter

Homeseeking

Karissa Chen

January 7, 2025

G.P. Putnam's Sons

The Night Ends with Fire

K.X. Song

July 2, 2024

Penguin Random House

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

Granta #169: China

Various

November 12, 2024

Granta

Browse more picks

From the Archive

Graham Peck: Two Kinds of Time

An American writer’s memoir of World War II China remains a timely diagnosis of the pathologies of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of the “loss” of China.

Huawei Goes to Iraq

How the Chinese telecom giant built a global business by chasing contracts in the Middle East — and attracted U.S. regulation in the process.

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.

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.

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.

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.

168 Better Than Takeout Chinese Recipes

From the Archive

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