Review Essay

Can China Actually Go Green?

China’s environmental strides came out of the clash between grassroots activists and the state, argues a new book by a Chinese journalist. But now that the Party leads all, it's not so simple for economic development to stay green.

China’s Disappearing Countryside, with Colin Flahive

Over the last quarter century, the countryside of southwest China has been transformed. The author of two memoirs reflects on what is lost, and what is gained.

Hong Kong’s Past, Present and Future

Six years after Hong Kong's National Security Law went into effect, we convened a panel of authors to discuss what has changed since.

Stranger Than Life

We recommend five Chinese-language books that draw on real-life experiences, from an LGBTQ short story collection to a reality-TV inspired novel.

The Perfect Dictatorship?

A new book argues that “smart authoritarianism” enabled China's economic growth while keeping draconian control over its society. But is it really possible for the two not to contradict?

Awards Ceremony for the 2026 Winners

Journalist Barbara Demick and translator Michael Berry talk about their winning books "Daughters of the Bamboo Grove" and "The Running Flame," at our prize ceremony.

Tiananmen in Fiction

After 37 years, the Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown of 1989 have been preserved in novels as much as in memory. But does the Anglophone literary imagination get it right?

Recent books

Classical and Modern Plays from China

Eds. R. N. Sandberg, Xiaomei Chen and Ayling Wang

July 23, 2026

Methuen Drama

Writing Empire and Self

Xiaofei Tan

July 21, 2026

Columbia University Press

China and the Rules-Based International Order

Pitman B. Potter

July 20, 2026

University of British Columbia Press

The Scramble for Europe

Dimitar Bechev

July 20, 2026

Oxford University Press

The Cambridge Companion to Song China

Ed. Cong Ellen Zhang

July 18, 2026

Cambridge University Press

Browse more recent
Upcoming books

The Tin Centuries

Yijun Wang

July 28, 2026

University of Washington Press

Silk Roads, Steppe Roads

Jonathan Karam Skaff

July 28, 2026

Princeton University Press

The Unburied

Joohee Suh

July 28, 2026

University of Washington Press

Chinese Christian Cloisonné

Manuel Parada López de Corselas

July 30, 2026

Brill

China +100

Ed. Xueting C. Ni

July 30, 2026

Comma Press

Browse more upcoming
Bestselling books

The Poet Empress

Shen Tao

January 20, 2026

Bramble

Breakneck

Dan Wang

August 26, 2025

W.W. Norton & Company

Made in America

Xi Van Fleet, Yu Jie

January 27, 2026

Center Street

Adrift in the South

Xiao Hai (tr. Tony Hao)

April 7, 2026

Granta

Tao Te Ching

David Bentley Hart

May 19, 2026

Yale University Press

Browse more bestselling
Editors' picks

To Rule All Under Heaven

Andrew Seth Meyer

January 22, 2026

Oxford University Press

Make China Great Again

Rongbin Han

March 31, 2026

Columbia University Press

Why China Needs Democracy

Dongxian Jiang

June 2, 2026

Princeton University Press

Adrift in the South

Xiao Hai (tr. Tony Hao)

April 7, 2026

Granta

Uncanny Beliefs

Ed. Emily Baum and Albert Wu

April 7, 2026

Harvard University Press

Browse more picks

From the Archive

China and the Mediterranean

The Middle Kingdom and the Middle Sea have had contact for millennia. Two books explore how China has viewed the Mediterranean, and the state of the relationship today.

Frank Dikötter on the Rise of the Party

The historian talks about the early days of the Chinese Communist Party, and how they prevailed in 1949, in a China Books Review book talk at Asia Society.

Murder in Hong Kong with Simon Elegant

The Hong Kong-born novelist and journalist talks us through his new novel "City on Fire," a whodunnit thriller set against the 2019 protests.

China’s Workers’ Literature Revival

Once a socialist genre beloved of Mao, laborers’ or “battler” literature has seen a revival in the era of the gig economy. Two new books in translation illustrate the mass appeal.

Xu Zhiyuan on Chinese Intellectuals

A journalist, author, bookstore owner and vlogger talks about the legacy of Liang Qichao, the changing nature of China’s intellectual scene, and whether studying history is escapism.

Love is a Losing Game

A new documentary on young Chinese men’s romantic struggles shows the underbelly of a society where the winners take all.

Endymion Wilkinson’s China Bookshelf

The sinologist and former diplomat walks us through his teak-wood bookshelves on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, and recommends five books out of 4,500.

The Bomb is Back

The myth of China's nuclear restraint obscures the dangers of its rapidly expanding arsenal. A trio of recent books take us from the bomb’s origins in Lop Nur to the present arms race.

Ancient Chinese Politics with Daniel Bell

The Legalists and Confucians still run the show in today’s China, argues a scholar of classical Chinese thought — but the Mohists and Daoists still have a voice in the debate.

Mao’s Doctor Knew Too Much

The memoirs of Li Zhisui, Mao Zedong’s personal physician, tell a life of fatty pork and Daoist sex magic — and explain how to embalm your boss.

Changing China

Five new books deal with efforts to transform China: from the conquests of the Warring States to nationalist internet fantasies, all the way to campaigns against superstition.

2026 Book Prize: Announcing the Winners

Find out who won our two $10,000 awards in the Baifang Schell Book Prize, for nonfiction and literature from or on China and the Sinophone world published in 2025.

From the Archive

Sign up for our newsletter: