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The Thrilling Truth
A new thriller set in 1930s Shanghai includes just enough historical detail to be believable. But is history at risk of being overtaken by fiction?
Socialism with Socratic Characteristics
In attempting to justify Communist Party rule, Chinese academics have turned to an unlikely intellectual ally — classical Greek philosophy.
Can Cultural Exchange Save U.S.-China Relations?
Sino-American ties are reaching new lows. A new book looks back to the 1970s, when the relationship began, to question whether “people’s diplomacy” at sub-governmental...
Move Fast and Break Things
Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour of 1992 has been heralded as the unofficial act that kick-started China’s economic miracle. But other voices were also calling for...
China’s New Maritime Order
Asia contends with a complex history of unresolved disputes in the South China Sea. Two new books unpack the challenge posed by Beijing to maritime...
A Record of Old Kashgar
The Uyghur city in Xinjiang has been disrupted by outside forces through history — of which Chinese rebuilding is the latest change. A book of...
Brave Attempt
A new account tells the story of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and their failures, through four individual lives. But we need more unmediated voices...
All We Have to Fear
The Western world has held an outsized fear of Chinese power for centuries. But why? A new book argues that alarmism began in the late...
One for the History Books
How Endymion Wilkinson’s encyclopedia of Chinese history grew from 70,000 words in 1973 to 1.75 million words for its 50th anniversary edition.
Washing History
A new novel about the Chinese Civil War feels true to the author’s experience of it, but also amplifies the Party’s preferred version of the...
Professor Pangloss Goes to Shandong
Daniel A. Bell has been proposing a Confucian, meritocratic alternative to liberal democracy for decades. In a new memoir, his optimism for the China model...
A Contested Century
In China, the 19th century is presented as an era of national humiliation. Two new books and an exhibition attempt to humanize it. But who...
