Review Essay Archives | China Books Review

Keeping The Party Going

A French-language biography shows how Hua Guofeng, the oft-maligned successor to Mao, was pivotal in bridging the Party from the madness of the Cultural Revolution...

How Communism Won China

The CCP presents its victory in 1949 as historical inevitability, hard-won after years of struggle. A new book suggests it had more to do with...

Did Peng Zhen Rebel Against Mao?

A startling Chinese-language biography of Mao’s one-time enforcer reveals the folly of hoping that Party officials will break ranks — and the importance of revisionist...

King Lear And China’s Big Leader Kultur

Shakespeare has much to teach us about the hubristic fragility of despotic leaders, from the tyrants of the mid-20th century to those of today. But...

Sins of the Father

Xi Zhongxun, one of China’s early communist revolutionaries, tried to balance reformist instincts with loyalty to the Party. His failure left an indelible mark on...

Yu Hua: Fictional Cities

The bestselling Chinese novelist foregrounds individual suffering in the chaos of modern Chinese history. In his latest novel in translation, gratuitous violence shows the limits...

No Country for Women

Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite Communist Party slogans about women's liberation. Two novels by the Chinese writer Fang Fang...

What Happened to “Engagement” with China?

Since 1972, the U.S. has hoped that engaging with China would benefit both nations. That dream has burst. A new book performs an autopsy on...

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,...

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...

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...

The Life of Saint Xi

China’s official Party press has published a series of oral histories about Xi Jinping’s career, from sent-down youth in Shaanxi to Party Secretary of Shanghai....

China Books Review

Review Essay

Keeping The Party Going

How Communism Won China

Did Peng Zhen Rebel Against Mao?

King Lear And China’s Big Leader Kultur

Sins of the Father

Yu Hua: Fictional Cities

No Country for Women

What Happened to “Engagement” with China?

The Trouble with Chinese Cookbooks

Liang Qichao: Reformer or Revolutionary?

How to Hide a Chinese Empire

The Life of Saint Xi

April 14, 6-7:30pm; Washington, D.C.

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