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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.
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...
Human Literature
In the age of artificial intelligence, with publishers turning to AI translation tools, it is more meaningful than ever to read human translations of literature....
Writing from the Margins
From Tibet to Taiwan, Yunnan to yonder, we recommend five Spring Festival reads with a focus on the periphery.
Resolute Reading for 2026
Resolving to read more in 2026? We have you covered with five recommendations, from an essay collection of Tibet to a colloquial history of China’s...
New Fiction from China
2025 has seen a bumper crop for Chinese literature in translation. We recommend five recent titles, from gritty tales of the northeast to conjoined fiction...
Books from the Sinosphere
Five new reads from the wider world of sinophone literature, including a Taiwanese book on Covid quarantine and a Malaysian-Chinese memoir of loss.
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.
The Rise of 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.
Books for 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.
Books for Uncertain Times
China’s economy is unsteady, its publishing industry facing hard times — yet interesting books continue to come out. Here are five of them, from psychotherapy...
Short Chinese Fiction
Short stories are all the rage in Chinese, but get short shrift in the West. We picked five recent translated collections, from riveting horror tales...
