This page lists our editors’ picks of new China books, defined as any English-language book on or from China or the Sinophone world that was published in recent years, and which we see as having special value that adds to the conversation. We update this list whenever a New China Book column appears by Alec Ash, Jack Hargreaves and Na Zhong, with those lists populating the respective categories below. Please note that these selections are not intended as an authoritative judgment, merely as recommendations of titles that readers may enjoy. Blurbs are adapted from publisher copy.
New China books
At the Edge of Empire
A Family’s Reckoning with China
Edward Wong
A dual narrative that tells the story of modern China by braiding an intergenerational family memoir with first-person contemporary reporting by the former New York Times Beijing bureau chief.
Buy
Private Revolutions
Four Women Face China's New Social Order
Yuan Yang
A portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society.
Buy
Other Rivers
A Chinese Education
Peter Hessler
An account of two generations of students in China's heartland, chronicling a country in the midst of tumultuous change through the prism of its education system.
Buy
Sound and Silence
My Experience with China and Literature
Yan Lianke
A collection of reflections on literary censorship in China from renowned author Yan Lianke.
Buy
Granta #169: China
The Magazine of New Writing
Various
Featuring fiction by Yu Hua, Zou Jingzhi, Yan Lianke, Jianan Qian, Shuang Xuetao, Mo Yan, Zhang Yueran, Ban Yu, Yang Zhihan and Wang Zhanhei.
BuyTranslated Chinese Literature
Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons
New Chinese Writing
Xiao Yue Shan
An anthology of Chinese literature that gathers sixteen Chinese writers in their English debut: eight fiction writers, six poets, and two essayists.
Buy
Cloud Labour
Sabrina Huang (tr. Lin King)
A story set in an unspecified dystopian future in which people known as 'Proxies' are paid handsomely to remove negative emotions from their clients.
Buy
Sinophagia
A Celebration of Chinese Horror
Ed./Tr. Xueting Christine Ni
An anthology of chilling tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the very first time.
Buy
Platinum 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.
Buy
What China's Reading
