Excerpt

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.

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.

Recent books

Ability and Difference in Early Modern China

David Robinson

September 11, 2025

Cambridge University Press

Understanding China’s Digital Politics

Tianru Guan

September 11, 2025

Routledge

Unfiltered Regard for China

Peidong Sun

September 10, 2025

Routledge

Mama’s Special Wonton Soup

Wai Mei Wong (illus. Xin Yue Zhu)

September 9, 2025

Lantana Publishing

Bitter Tea and Rock Candy

Yan Gu

September 9, 2025

Henry Holt and Co.

Browse more recent
Upcoming books

China and African Parliaments

Innocent Batsani-Ncube

September 12, 2025

Oxford University Press

Chinese Dialectology

Rujie You

September 13, 2025

Springer

The Empress and the Dragon Throne

Ellen Soulliere

September 14, 2025

Hong Kong University Press

The Legitimacy of China’s Public Diplomacy Discourse

Ibrahim Akbas

September 15, 2025

Palgrave Macmillan

China’s Electric Vehicle Industry

Yingqi Liu

September 15, 2025

Elsevier

Browse more upcoming
Bestselling books

Breakneck

Dan Wang

August 26, 2025

W.W. Norton & Company

168 Better Than Takeout Chinese Recipes

Mandy Fu

October 9, 2024

Souped Up Recipes

Apple in China

Patrick McGee

May 13, 2025

Scribner

Mahjong

Nicole Wong

April 8, 2025

Hardie Grant Books

Strangers in the Land

Michael Luo

April 29, 2025

Doubleday

Browse more bestselling
Editors' picks

You Must Take Part in Revolution

Badiucao, Melissa Chan

March 4, 2025

Street Noise Books

The Milk Tea Allianace

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

June 10, 2025

Columbia Global Reports

Breaking the Engagement

David Shambaugh

June 12, 2025

Oxford University Press

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

Ting Guo

February 13, 2025

Amsterdam University Press

Transplants

Daniel Tam-Claiborne

May 13, 2025

Regalo Press

Browse more picks

From the Archive

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.

The Secret Life of Student Democracy

A scholar’s portrait of student volunteer groups in China is inspirational, but are they really planting the seeds of democratic change?

Ep. 22: Michael Luo on the Chinese-American Story

The New Yorker writer discusses his new history of the Chinese in America, and immigrant identity from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Donald Trump.

How to Hide a Chinese Empire

After millennia of imperial history, China today has distanced itself from the concept of empire. But the new forms of Chinese imperium are more subtle than territorial conquest.

Awards Ceremony for the 2024 Winners

Journalist Edward Wong and translator Lin King talk about their books "At the Edge of Empire" and "Taiwan Travelogue," winners of the first Baifang Schell Book Prize.

Winston Lord's China Bookshelf

The diplomat reflects on books that have guided his thinking ever since he flew to Beijing for a secret meeting that would spark the U.S.-China rapprochement.

Joseph Torigian on Xi Zhongxun

The author and academic discusses his new biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping, and the hidden history of the Chinese Communist Party.

From the Archive

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