This page lists all recent China books, defined broadly as any English-language book on or from China that was published in the last year. We update this list every other Thursday. If you think we have missed a book, please contact us at listings@chinabooksreview.com, with the publisher link. The categories below are designed to present a large quantity of books by broad groupings, not as a perfect classification, and carousels are capped at 25 titles. Blurbs by Taili Ni, adapted from publisher copy.
Most recent
The Southern Tour
Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future
Jonathan Chatwin
An exploration of Deng Xiaoping's legendary "Southern Tour" and its legacies in China today.
BuyRising Power, Limited Influence
The Politics of Chinese Investments in Europe and the Liberal International Order
Eds. Indrajit Roy, Jappe Eckhardt, Dimitrios Stroikos, Simona Davidescu
An edited volume investigating the ways in which China translates its growing resources into effective influence, with varying degrees of success.
BuyPerforming Chinatown
Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community
William Gow
An exploration of how in the 1930s, Los Angeles' Chinatown and Hollywood represented the two primary sites where Chinese Americans performed racial difference for popular audiences, and how those representations were connected to the restrictive immigration laws limiting Chinese entry into the U.S.
BuySkies of Thunder
The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World
Caroline Alexander
An account of combat and survival in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II.
BuyThe Struggle for Taiwan
A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between
Sulmaan Wasif Khan
An account of the events that have left Taiwan a political anomaly, with issues around its status and future continuing to threaten war
BuyChasing Hope
A Reporter's Life
Nicholas D. Kristof
A memoir about a life in journalism from New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winnder and author Nicholas Kristof.
BuyConsumer Nationalism in China
Examining its Critical Impact on Multinational Businesses
Maggie Ying Jiang
An analysis of the different waves of consume nationalism in China.
BuyDaughters of Shandong
A Novel
Eve J. Chung
A novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China.
BuyShanghailanders
A Novel
Juli Min
A novel that follows a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time, beginning in 2040 and moving through our present and the recent past.
BuyBorn Naughty
My Childhood in China
Jin Wang, Tony Johnston (illust. Anisi Baigude)
An illustrated memoir for young readers telling the author's story of growing up in Inner Mongolia.
BuyCinema Love
A Novel
Jiaming Tang
A novel about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.
BuyTheir Divine Fires
A Novel
Wendy Chen
A novel interwoven with folktale and myth that tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal.
BuyThe Boy From Clearwater
Yu Pei-Yun, Zhou Jian-Xin (tr. Lin King)
A graphic novel telling the story of Tsai Kun-lin, a boy growing up in Taiwan through war, Japanese occupation and the White Terror era.
BuyZhou Enlai
A Life
Jian Chen
A biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss―Chairman Mao.
BuyPast Progress
Time and Politics at the Borders of China, Russia, and Korea
Ed Pulford
A history about the projections and disintegrations of forward-oriented ideas in the triple borderlands of China, Russia, and North Korea.
BuyRebel Island
The Incredible History of Taiwan
Jonathan Clements
A history of Taiwan, from the flood myths of indigenous legend to its Asian Tiger economic miracle, and the renewed threat of invasion by China.
BuyBuddhism in Court
Religion, Law, and Jurisdiction in China
Cuilan Liu
A look at the Buddhist campaign for clerical legal privileges that aimed to exempt monks and nuns from being tried and punished in government courts, and its continuing legacy today.
BuyForm Follows Fever
Malaria and the Construction of Hong Kong
Christopher Cowell
An in-depth account of the turbulent years of initial urban settlement and growth of colonial Hong Kong across the 1840s.
BuyIn the Mind, in the Body, in the World
Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece
Eds. Douglas Cairns, Curie Virág
A volume of essays investigating the discourses of emotions in ancient philosophy, medicine and literature in ancient Greece and China.
BuyChina’s Galaxy Empire
Wealth, Power, War, and Peace in the New Chinese Century
John Keane, Baogang He
An argument that China is a newly rising empire of a kind never before witnessed: a galaxy empire.
BuyThe Liu Kuo-sung Reader
Selected Texts on and by the Artist, 1950s-Present
Eds. Eugene Y. Wang, Valerie C. Doran, Alan C. Yeung
An anthology devoted to the painter Liu Kuo-sung, whose career spanned seven decades.
BuyGrowing Up under a Red Flag
A Memoir of Surviving the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Ying Chang Compestine
An illustrated picture-book memoir of the author’s childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
BuyChop Fry Watch Learn
Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food
Michelle T. King
A new history of Chinese food told through an account of the remarkable life of Fu Pei-mei, the woman who brought Chinese cooking to the world.
BuyContemporary Chinese Celebrities
Moral Transgressions, Rights Defence and Public Concerns
Shenshen Cai
An exploration of how in today's China, celebrity figures embody, conflict with and engage with social, civil, moral and economic issues.
BuyRecent Politics Books
Rising Power, Limited Influence
The Politics of Chinese Investments in Europe and the Liberal International Order
Eds. Indrajit Roy, Jappe Eckhardt, Dimitrios Stroikos, Simona Davidescu
An edited volume investigating the ways in which China translates its growing resources into effective influence, with varying degrees of success.
BuyThe Struggle for Taiwan
A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between
Sulmaan Wasif Khan
An account of the events that have left Taiwan a political anomaly, with issues around its status and future continuing to threaten war
BuyChina’s Galaxy Empire
Wealth, Power, War, and Peace in the New Chinese Century
John Keane, Baogang He
An argument that China is a newly rising empire of a kind never before witnessed: a galaxy empire.
BuyWorld on the Brink
How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century
Dmitri Alperovitch, Garrett M. Graff
An argument for how the U.S. can maintain its place as the world's top superpower in the face of a rising China.
BuyRed Dragon Bombers
China's Long-range Bomber Force since 1956
Andreas Rupprecht
An analysis of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's bomber force.
BuyThe Fire of the Dragon
Ian Williams
An examination of the new cold war's many fronts, from Taiwan and the South China Sea to the Indian frontier, the Arctic and cyberspace.
BuyNew Cold Wars
China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West
David E. Sanger
An account of how the U.S. finds itself in a volatile rivalry with Xi Jinping's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia.
BuyCountering China’s Great Game
A Strategy for American Dominance
Michael Sobolik
A plan for American victory over the Chinese Communist Party.
BuyCrony Comprador Capitalism
The Institutional Origins of China's Rise and Decline
Jianyong Yue
A multidisciplinary redefinition of China's model of crony comprador capitalism.
BuyAll That Glistens
Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain
Martin Thorley
An exposé of the secrets behind the Sino-British ‘golden age,' revealing a relationship built on Chinese government influence, corruption and global capitalism.
BuyDivided Isles
Solomon Islands and the China Switch
Edward Acton Cavanough
An explanation of how the Solomon Islands' 2019 switch from recognizing Taiwan to China played out on the ground and its potential consequences.
China’s Age of Abundance
Origins, Ascendance, and Aftermath
Feng Wang
A systematic historical and sociological analysis of China's economic transformation between the 1980s and the present day.
BuySwitching Diplomatic Recognition Between Taiwan and China
Economic and Social Impact
Ed. Chien-Huei Wu
An examination of the economic and social impacts of switching diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China, and vice versa.
BuyThe Belt and Road City
Geopolitics, Urbanization, and China's Search for a New International Order
Simon Curtis and Ian Klaus
An explanation of how China's Belt and Road Initiative seeks to reshape international order and how it has catalyzed a new era of infrastructural geopolitics.
BuyChina’s Rising Foreign Ministry
Practices and Representations of Assertive Diplomacy
Dylan M.H Loh
An investigation of the role of the foreign ministry in Chinese diplomacy.
BuyOne and All
The Logic of Chinese Sovereignty
Pang Laikwan
An analysis of the historical roots of Chinese sovereignty through a survey of the four different political structures of modern China: imperial, republican, socialist and post-socialist.
BuyThe EU and China
Avoiding a New Cold War
Eds. Thomas Meyer and José Luis de Sales Marques
An edited analysis of how the multiple-modernities approach may help strengthen the strategic autonomy of the EU and foster EU-China relations at a time when some believe a new cold war may be on the horizon.
BuyChina-US Rivalry and Regional Reordering in Latin America and the Caribbean
Eds. Li Xing, Javier Vadell
An analytical framework for understanding the reordering process in the Latin American and Caribbean region, driven and shaped by China-US rivalry.
BuyChina’s Asymmetric Statecraft
Alignments, Competitors, and Regional Diplomacy
Yuxing Huang
A scholarly analysis of China's foreign policy and what it means for the future of its international relationships.
BuyDevelopmental Peace
Theorizing China's Approach to International Peacebuilding
Wenting Meng
An exploration of China's approach to peacebuilding through the Developmental Peace framework.
BuyThe Devil and Communist China
From Mao Down to Xi
Steven W. Mosher
An argument that the ancient Chinese political theory Legalism contains diabolical self-aggrandizement that established the totalitarian rule of China today.
BuyWe Win, They Lose
Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War
Matthew Kroenig, Dan Negrea
A look at the "New Cold War" with the People's Republic of China.
BuyRecent History Books
The Southern Tour
Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future
Jonathan Chatwin
An exploration of Deng Xiaoping's legendary "Southern Tour" and its legacies in China today.
BuyPerforming Chinatown
Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community
William Gow
An exploration of how in the 1930s, Los Angeles' Chinatown and Hollywood represented the two primary sites where Chinese Americans performed racial difference for popular audiences, and how those representations were connected to the restrictive immigration laws limiting Chinese entry into the U.S.
BuySkies of Thunder
The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World
Caroline Alexander
An account of combat and survival in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II.
BuyZhou Enlai
A Life
Jian Chen
A biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss―Chairman Mao.
BuyPast Progress
Time and Politics at the Borders of China, Russia, and Korea
Ed Pulford
A history about the projections and disintegrations of forward-oriented ideas in the triple borderlands of China, Russia, and North Korea.
BuyRebel Island
The Incredible History of Taiwan
Jonathan Clements
A history of Taiwan, from the flood myths of indigenous legend to its Asian Tiger economic miracle, and the renewed threat of invasion by China.
BuyBuddhism in Court
Religion, Law, and Jurisdiction in China
Cuilan Liu
A look at the Buddhist campaign for clerical legal privileges that aimed to exempt monks and nuns from being tried and punished in government courts, and its continuing legacy today.
BuyForm Follows Fever
Malaria and the Construction of Hong Kong
Christopher Cowell
An in-depth account of the turbulent years of initial urban settlement and growth of colonial Hong Kong across the 1840s.
BuyIn the Mind, in the Body, in the World
Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece
Eds. Douglas Cairns, Curie Virág
A volume of essays investigating the discourses of emotions in ancient philosophy, medicine and literature in ancient Greece and China.
BuyThe Spray and Pray Squadron
3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II
Margaret Mills Kincannon
A chronicle of the exploits of the 3rd Bomb Squadron of an experimental Chinese-American Composite Wing, in which young men from two nations joined forces to fight a common enemy.
BuyCivilization-States of China and India
Reshaping the World Order
Ravi Dutt Bajpai
An examination of some of the pivotal episodes in the modern history of China and India to argue that their behaviors reflect the self-identity of a civilization-state.
BuyCorky Lee’s Asian America
Fifty Years of Photographic Justice
Corky Lee
A collection of over 200 photos celebrating the history and cultural impact of the Asian American social justice movement.
BuySearching for Billie
A journalist's quest to understand his mother's past leads him to discover a vanished China
Ian Gill
A family story set against the backdrop of China's turbulent century between the Anglo-Chinese wars and the advent of communism.
BuyA Danger Shared
A Journalist's Glimpses of a Continent at War
Melville Jacoby
A visual history of wartime Asia as seen by foreign correspondent Melville Jacoby.
BuyDiplomacy Ends at Midnight
The Long Return of Hong Kong to China
Dalena Wright
A scholarly history of how British and Chinese government actors vied for ownership of Hong Kong in the years leading up to 1997.
BuyRosie Young
A Lifetime of Selfless Service
Moira M.W. Chan-Yeung
A history of Professor Young's remarkable career in medical education and administration at the University of Hong Kong.
BuyTaiwan’s Earthquake Chronicle
The Tremors of Resilience and Historical Struggle
PulsePrint Publishers
A history of earthquakes in Taiwan.
BuyPatterns in the State of Chu
Zhang Qing (tr. Luo Zhongwu)
An exploration of the patterns found on artifacts from China's ancient Chu State.
BuyParallel Lives, Congenial Visions
Christian Precursors of Modernity in China and Japan
Leopold Leeb
A history of cultural exchanges between East Asia and the West through comparative biographical sketches of 60 personalities from China and Japan.
BuyContingent Loyalties
State Agents in the Yunnan Borderlands 1856-1911
Diana Zhidan Duan
A study of the local actors who shaped Yunnan's history, from the mid-19th-century Hui rebellions to the early-20th-century revolutions.
BuyMade in China
When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade
Elizabeth O'Brien Ingleson
A look into how the interests of U.S. businesses and the Chinese state aligned to reframe the China market in the 1970s.
BuySeeking News, Making China
Information, Technology, and the Emergence of Mass Society
John Alekna
A rural and urban history telling the story of the rise of mass society in China through the lens of communication techniques and technology.
BuyThe China Firm
American Elites and the Making of British Colonial Society
Thomas Larkin
An examination of the Hong Kong-based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites made and were made by British colonial society.
BuyProtestant Missionaries in China
Robert Morrison and Early Sinology
Jonathan A. Seitz
An evaluation of the role of 19th century missionaries in the early development of the cross-cultural relationship between China and the English-speaking world, with a focus on Robert Morrison.
BuyFollowing Christ and Confucius
Wang Mingdao and Chinese Christianity
Christopher Payk
A biography and theological analysis of Wang Mingdao, the spiritual father of China's House Church movement.
BuyRecent Society/Culture Books
Chasing Hope
A Reporter's Life
Nicholas D. Kristof
A memoir about a life in journalism from New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winnder and author Nicholas Kristof.
BuyConsumer Nationalism in China
Examining its Critical Impact on Multinational Businesses
Maggie Ying Jiang
An analysis of the different waves of consume nationalism in China.
BuyThe Liu Kuo-sung Reader
Selected Texts on and by the Artist, 1950s-Present
Eds. Eugene Y. Wang, Valerie C. Doran, Alan C. Yeung
An anthology devoted to the painter Liu Kuo-sung, whose career spanned seven decades.
BuyGrowing Up under a Red Flag
A Memoir of Surviving the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Ying Chang Compestine
An illustrated picture-book memoir of the author’s childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
BuyChop Fry Watch Learn
Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food
Michelle T. King
A new history of Chinese food told through an account of the remarkable life of Fu Pei-mei, the woman who brought Chinese cooking to the world.
BuyContemporary Chinese Celebrities
Moral Transgressions, Rights Defence and Public Concerns
Shenshen Cai
An exploration of how in today's China, celebrity figures embody, conflict with and engage with social, civil, moral and economic issues.
BuyAppropriating the Dao
The Euro-American Esoteric Reception of China
Eds. Lukas K. Pokorny, Franz Winter
A collection of contributions addressing the Euro-American esoteric reception and appropriation of China.
BuyA Visual Journey into Yunnan
Lost Horizon Rediscovered
Institute for Planets
A collection of 177 photographs leading readers through Yunnan's stunning landscapes.
BuyA-Gong’s Table
Vegan Recipes from a Taiwanese Home
George Lee
A rendering of food through the memories of family and of home: over 90 plant-based recipes.
Buy50 Useful Tips on China
From a guy who almost got it
Ralph Jennings
A collection of questions and answers about China from an outside perspective.
BuyGlorious Qing
Decorative Arts in China, 1644-1911
Claudia Brown
A comprehensive exploration of the world of Qing dynasty decorative arts, showcasing their craftsmanship, cultural symbolism, and artistic legacy.
BuyHow Australia is Studied in China
Eds. Richard Hu, Diane Hu
A collection of contributions from Chinese and Australian scholars on how Australia is taught, learned, researched, communicated and promoted in China.
BuyChinese Science Fiction
Concepts, Forms, and Histories
Eds. Mingwei Song, Nathaniel Isaacson, Hua Li
A volume that brings together emerging approaches and addresses shifting paradigms in Chinese science fiction studies.
BuySpace Production by Migrants in China’s Urban Villages
The Case of Beijing
Shiyu Yang
A case study of two urban villages in Beijing examining how migrants shape the social production of space.
BuySound and Silence
My Experience with China and Literature
Yan Lianke
A collection of reflections on literary censorship in China from renowned author Yan Lianke.
BuyCritical Plant Studies in Taiwan
Ed. Iping Liang
An historical overview of vegetal ecocriticism in Taiwan.
BuyPsychosis and Schizophrenia in Hong Kong
Navigating Clinical and Cultural Crossroads
Eric Yu Hai, Yvonne Treffurth
A focus on psychosis studies in Hong Kong.
BuyUyghur Women Activists in the Diaspora
Restorying a Genocide
Susan J. Palmer, Dilmurat Mahmut, Abdulmuqtedir Udun
A presentation of the life stories of ten Uyghur women who chose to leave China before 2005.
BuyReading Tolkien in Chinese
Religion, Fantasy and Translation
Eric Reinders
A reading of multiple Chinese translations of Tolkien's writing to uncover new and unique perspectives that enrich the meaning of the original texts.
BuyChina’s Left-Behind Children
Caretaking, Parenting, and Struggles
Xiaojin Chen
A close look at the lives of China's left-behind children – children whose parents migrated to more developed areas and who live with one parent or extended family members.
BuyWe Met in Beijing
Anthony Tao
A collection of poems capturing the cultural and political experience of modern Beijing.
BuyThe Modern Art of War
Sun Tzu's Hidden Path to Peace and Wholeness
Hunter Liguore
A new take on Sun Tzu's The Art of War that challenges readers to see the text not as a tool for warfare but as a guide to inner harmony and personal fulfilment.
BuyWandering from China to America
A Life Straddling Different Worlds
Xiuwu R. Liu
An autobiography exploring simple living, curiosity about the world, Chinese and American societies and more.
BuyAgeing with Smartphones in Urban China
From the Cultural to the Digital Revolution in Shanghai
Xinyuan Wang
An ethnographic study of the smartphone revolution in Shanghai.
BuyRecent Fiction Books
Daughters of Shandong
A Novel
Eve J. Chung
A novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China.
BuyShanghailanders
A Novel
Juli Min
A novel that follows a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time, beginning in 2040 and moving through our present and the recent past.
BuyBorn Naughty
My Childhood in China
Jin Wang, Tony Johnston (illust. Anisi Baigude)
An illustrated memoir for young readers telling the author's story of growing up in Inner Mongolia.
BuyCinema Love
A Novel
Jiaming Tang
A novel about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.
BuyTheir Divine Fires
A Novel
Wendy Chen
A novel interwoven with folktale and myth that tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal.
BuyThe Boy From Clearwater Book II
Yu Pei-Yun (illus. Zhou Jian-Xin, tr. Lin King)
The second half of the story of Kun-lin, picking up after his imprisonment on Green Island during Taiwan's White Terror period.
BuyThe Funeral Cryer
Wenyan Lu
A novel about a professional mourner who has faced social isolation due to the stigma around her job.
BuyThe Book of Secrets
A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China
Xin Ran
A behind-the-scenes account of a family torn apart by the Tiananmen Square massacre and military intelligence officer JIe's attempts to open up the Chinese system to the people.
BuyHello, Kitty
And Other Short Stories
Anne Stevenson-Yang
A collection of surreal stories depicting a Chinese society in freefall.
BuyChamber after Chamber
Saara Myrene Raappana
A narrative told in poems following the narrator and her cousin through China and the U.S.
BuyChoo-Choo Adventures
Exploring the China-Laos Railway
N/A
A children's picture book following a cast of animals taking a train journey from China to Laos.
BuyThe Oxherd Boy
Parables of Love, Compassion, and Community
Regina Linke
An illustrated fable inspired by thousands of years of Chinese thought about a young boy who explores the many ways to make meaning and find joy in the everyday.
BuyThe Water Margin
Outlaws of the Marsh: The Epic Tale of Brotherhood, Bravery and Rebellion in Imperial China
Shi Naian (trans. J.H. Jackson)
A new translation of a Chinese classic tale set in 12th century Imperial China.
BuyMissives from the Masses
Su Tong (tr. Josh Stenberg)
A collection of short stories about the strange accounts of the hidden lives eked out during China's turbulent economic rise.
Chinese Folktales
Ed. J.K. Jackson
A collection of stories drawn from over three thousand years of Chinese folklore.
BuyBatshit Seven
A Novel
Sheung-King
A novel about a millennial living through the Hong Kong protests, as he struggles to make sense of modern life and the parts of himself that just won't gel.
BuyThe Fox Wife
A Novel
Yangsze Choo
A novel that explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection.
BuyPlatinum Bible of the Public Toilet
Ten Queer Stories
Cui Zi'en
A collection of short stories that portray the emergence of queer cultures in postsocialist China.
BuyAftershock
A Novel
Zhang Ling (tr. Shelly Bryant)
A novel about a catastrophic disaster in China that triggers a mother's heartbreaking choice and a daughter's reconcilliation with the past.
BuyThe Enemies of Art
Feng Jicai (tr. Olivia Milburn)
A novel following three young artists in 1960s Tianjin.
BuyStray Dog in China
Vaoese Kava
A story about a Chinese-Samoan boy who meets a stray dog while walking with his grandmother.
Buy