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 on a biweekly basis (monthly in the summer). 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 are dapted from publisher copy.
Most recent
Contemporary Chinese Graphic Design Practice
Yun Wang
An exploration of graphic design developments in recent decades in China.
Buy
Scotland and China
Literary Encounters
Eds. Li Li, John Corbett
A survey of the role of China in Scottish literature, and the translation and reception of Scottish literature in China.
Buy
Ecotourism
Environment, Health, and Education
Wei-Ta Fang, Arba'at Hassan, Max Horng
An analysis of various topics and case studies about ecotourism from Sinophone and Taiwanese perspectives.
Buy
For now I am sitting here growing transparent
Yau Ching (tr. Chenxin Jiang)
A collection of poetry by the video artist and queer community organizer Yau Ching.
Buy
The Politics of Sorrow
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
An account of Tibetan religious and political leaders who sought to protect Tibetan culture in exile.
Buy
Sentimental Republic
Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past
Hang Tu
A chronicle of forty years (1978-2018) of bitter cultural wars about the Maoist past.
Buy
Entanglements and Ambivalences
Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture
Eds. Hongwei Bao, Daniel H. Mutibwa
An exploration of the media and cultural exchanges between Africa and China in the 21st century against the backdrop of the rise of Africa and China in global geopolitics.
Buy
The Anaconda in the Chandelier
Writings on China
Perry Link
An essay collection from Perry Link's decades-long career as a sinologist.
Buy
Seven Things You Can’t Say About China
Tom Cotton
An exposé about the threat to American freedom.
Buy
US-China Strategic Competition
Military Strategy and Contemporary Doctrine
Muhammad Ali Baig
A map of the strategic competition between the U.S. and China, its history, and the contemporary outlook of their armed forces.
Buy
I Would Define the Sun
Poems
Stephanie Niu
A collection of poems moving across great distances to include Christmas Island, Chinese-American immigration, and the precarity and abundance of the sea.
Buy
Translingual Catholics
Chinese Theologians before Vatican II
Jin Lu
An exploration of the life experiences and theological writings of twentieth-century Chinese Catholic intellectuals and their impact on global Catholic theory.
Buy
Unequal Learning
Education and Society in Contemporary China
Xin Xiang
An analysis of the different kinds of learning that go on in four drastically different Chinese schools, from a rural school in a mountainous area to a prestigious metropolitan public school.
Buy
Jennie Hudson Taylor
An Adventurous Spirit, Courageous Faith and a Trailblazing Call to China
Marion Osgood
The untold story of the second wife of James Hudson Taylor and her extraordinary ministry with the China Inland Mission.
Buy
Religion, Secularism, and Love as a Political Discourse in Modern China
Ting Guo
A systemic examination of the ways in which the notion of love has been introduced, adapted and engineered as a political discourse while appropriating Confucianism, Christianity, popular religion, socialism, and their religious affects.
Buy
Passenger of Silence
My Quest for the Ancient Arts of China post-Cultural Revolution
Fabienne Verdier
An autobiographical travel journal telling the story of a foreigner determined to learn the secrets of Chinese painting in the early 1980s.
Buy
The World of Wu Zhao
Annotated Selections from Zhang Zhuo's Court and Country
N. Harry Rothschild
An annotated translation of Zhang Zhuo's account of the empire of Wu Zhao, China's first and only female emperor.
Buy
The Extraordinary in the Mundane
Family and Forms of Community in China
Ed. Becky Yang Hsu
A cultural analysis, arguing that Chinese people prefer utilizing social ties, rather than formal organizations in problem solving.
Buy
Dancing for their Lives
The Pursuit of Meaningful Aging in Urban China
Claudia Huang
An appreciation of the "dancing grannies" of China, exploring their passion and motivations for dancing.
Buy
Feminist Explorations of Urban China
Ed. Penn Tsz Ting Ip
An exploration of gender topics related to social transitions and social struggles in the context of the urban transformations accompanying China since 2017.
Buy
Developing China’s Green Trade
Comprehensive Evaluation, Impacts, and Advancement Trajectories
Kangyin Dong, Jiaman Li
An exploration of the dynamics of green trade and its consequences.
Buy
Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan
A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and Practices
Christopher Joby
A study of the reception of Christianity and the epistemic outcomes of contact between Protestant and Catholic missionaries and indigenous Austronesians in seventeenth-century colonial Taiwan.
Buy
China’s European Headquarters
Switzerland and China during the Cold War
Ariane Knǔsel
A history of Sino-Swiss relations during the Cold War.
Buy
Performance and Postsocialism in Postmillennial China
Rossella Ferrari
An examination of performance in postmillennial China through the lens of postsocialism.
BuyRecent Politics Books
Entanglements and Ambivalences
Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture
Eds. Hongwei Bao, Daniel H. Mutibwa
An exploration of the media and cultural exchanges between Africa and China in the 21st century against the backdrop of the rise of Africa and China in global geopolitics.
Buy
US-China Strategic Competition
Military Strategy and Contemporary Doctrine
Muhammad Ali Baig
A map of the strategic competition between the U.S. and China, its history, and the contemporary outlook of their armed forces.
Buy
China’s European Headquarters
Switzerland and China during the Cold War
Ariane Knǔsel
A history of Sino-Swiss relations during the Cold War.
Buy
The Idea of a China Arrest Warrant
Surrender of Fugitive Offenders between Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau
Yanhong Yin
A theoretical model for extradition between China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Buy
Chinese Investments and the Economic Security Turn in Europe
Francesca Ghiretti
An analysis of how European states' economic interactions with China have become a security issue.
Buy
Planning for War at Sea
400 Years of Great Power Competition
Eds. Paul M. Kennedy, Evan Wilson
An account of four centuries of naval warfare addressing how effectively or ineffectively Russia, China and the United States have configured themselves during the post-Cold War era in preparing for future great power conflict.
Buy
Information War
How Artificial Intelligence is Driving U.S.-China Military Competition
Tom Stefanick
An analysis of the struggle to control information, and how that will be at the heart of a U.S.-China military competition.
Buy
Ecological Conservation and Environmental Protection in China, 1978-2018
Eds. Pan Jiahua, Zhuang Guiyang
A review of the history of China's experience in ecological conservation and environmental protection in China under reform and opening-up, lessons learned, and obstacles and challenges the country is facing.
Buy
Chinese Grand Strategy in the 21st Century
According to Plan
Thomas M. Kane, Noah Falkovich
An examination of the state of China's grand strategy in the 21st century, including political, military and economic factors.
Buy
Why Taiwan Matters
A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future
Kerry Brown
An analysis of the history of Taiwan and the danger of a Chinese takeover.
Buy
Through the India-China Border
Kalimpong in the Himalayas
Prem Poddar, Lisa Lindkvist Zhang
A look at the Tibet question in China-India relations focused on the Himalayan border town of Kalimpong from the 1920s to 1962.
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The Eurasian Century
Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World
Hal Brands
A framework for understanding the origins and stakes of global conflict with China, Russia, and Iran.
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The United States-Japan-China Triangle in the Post-Cold War Early Decades
A Case Study of Applied Political Science
Jalel Ben Haj Rehaiem
An examination of the post-Cold War U.S.-Japan-China triangle through the lens of two international relations variables: power and security.
Buy
The Authoritarian Commons
Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
Shitong Qiao
An ethnographic account of how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy in and beyond their condominium complexes.
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Is China a Menacing Empire?
Han Shih Toh
An analysis of the criticisms officials and politicians have made of China's global economic practices.
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Under the Nuclear Shadow
China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security
Fiona S. Cunningham
An analysis of how and why China has pursued information-age weapons to gain leverage against its adversaries.
Buy
Taiwan and the Danger of a Sino-American War
Steve Chan
A presentation of contrarian arguments contesting mainstream U.S. views on the danger of a Sino-American war over Taiwan's status.
Buy
Seeing China’s Belt and Road
Eds. Edward Schatz, Rachel Silvey
A collection of perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative from leading field researchers, focusing on different "downstream" contexts.
Buy
People’s China at 75
The Flag Stays Red
Eds. Keith Bennett, Carlos Martinez
A collection of essays, organized by the Friends of Socialist China, aiming to challenge misconceptions about China's unprecedented economic development.
Buy
American Paradiplomacy and Chinese Power
Demystifying US-China Subnational Relations
Czeslaw Tubilewicz
An investigation of contemporary U.S.-China subnational relations.
Buy
The Road to China’s Economic Powerhouse
Zhanbin Zhan
An exploration of China's transformation from a planned economy to a global economic leader.
Buy
Common Prosperity
A Chinese Approach to Inclusive Growth
Yongnian Zheng (tr. Liu Jia)
An analysis of China's drive for common prosperity from an insider's perspective.
Buy
The Identity Factor in Chinese Relations with Europe
China and the Barbarian Civilization
Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson
An analysis of the identity factor in China-Europe relations.
Buy
China’s Digital Expansion in the Global South
Eds. Richard Heeks, Christopher Foster, Ping Gao, Xia Han, Nicholas Jepson, Seth Schindler
An analysis of China's digital impact in Latin America, North Africa and Asia.
Buy
The Myth of War in the Taiwan Strait
Taiyi Sun
A proposed framework of the "Yizhou dilemma" to capture the conundrum faced by a hegemony (the U.S.), a rising power (Mainland China), and the weaker third entity (Taiwan).
BuyRecent History Books
The Politics of Sorrow
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
An account of Tibetan religious and political leaders who sought to protect Tibetan culture in exile.
Buy
Sentimental Republic
Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past
Hang Tu
A chronicle of forty years (1978-2018) of bitter cultural wars about the Maoist past.
Buy
Translingual Catholics
Chinese Theologians before Vatican II
Jin Lu
An exploration of the life experiences and theological writings of twentieth-century Chinese Catholic intellectuals and their impact on global Catholic theory.
Buy
Jennie Hudson Taylor
An Adventurous Spirit, Courageous Faith and a Trailblazing Call to China
Marion Osgood
The untold story of the second wife of James Hudson Taylor and her extraordinary ministry with the China Inland Mission.
Buy
The World of Wu Zhao
Annotated Selections from Zhang Zhuo's Court and Country
N. Harry Rothschild
An annotated translation of Zhang Zhuo's account of the empire of Wu Zhao, China's first and only female emperor.
Buy
Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan
A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and Practices
Christopher Joby
A study of the reception of Christianity and the epistemic outcomes of contact between Protestant and Catholic missionaries and indigenous Austronesians in seventeenth-century colonial Taiwan.
Buy
Gendered Memories
An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs
Xian Wang
A collection of stories of Chinese female revolutionary martyrs told through a mixture of historiography and personal narratives.
Buy
Reimagining the International
Chinese World Ordering before the West
Yongjin Zhang
An examination of Chinese world ordering before the West as both intellectual history and institutional practices in deep world history.
Buy
House of Huawei
The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company
Eva Dou
The untold story of Huawei, the mysterious company that shook the world.
Buy
Sit, Cinderella, Sit
A Mostly True Story
Lisa Cheek
A memoir about a woman who flew to rural China and edited a Cinderella story film.
Buy
Environmental Foundations to the Rise of Early Civilisations in China
Yijie Zhuang
A study arguing that environmental conditions and subsistence adaptations are two of the engines driving the increased socioeconomic complexity and rise of civilizations in late prehistoric China.
Buy
Island Tinkerers
Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan's Computing Industry
Honghong Tinn
The story of how Taiwan rose to global prominence in high tech manufacturing, from computer maker to the world's leading chip manufacturer.
Buy
China’s Stealth Fighter
The J-20 'Mighty Dragon' and the Growing Challenge to Western Air Dominance
Abraham Abrams
The story of the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter.
Buy
Discovered but Forgotten
The Maldives in Chinese History, c. 110-1620
Bin Yang
A look into China's relations with the Maldives and Sino-Indian Ocean interactions, offering new ways to understand Chinese maritime exploration and the global history of the Indian Ocean.
Buy
Three Impeachments
Guo Xiu and the Kangxi Court
Robert K. Guy, R. Kent Guy
A probe into corruption in late imeprial China.
Buy
Confucianism at War
1931-1945
Shaun O'Dwyer
A study of wartime Confucianism, providing insights into key developments in Confucian thought and ideology in East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.
Buy
The Archaeology of Han China
Alice Yao, Wengcheong Lam
An overview of the archaeology of the Han Empire.
Buy
Maoism with Italian Characteristics
China's Global Influence and the Italian Left, 1956-1976
Marco Gabbas, Lorenzo M. Capisani
A historical study investigating why Mao's thought took root in Italy, how it developed, and its emergence in opposition to the Italian Communist Party.
Buy
Images of War
The Cultural Construction of Qing Martial Prowess
Ma Ya-Chen
A history of Manchu rule informed by art history.
Buy
Ancient China
An Illustrated Introduction to the History, People, Culture and Beyond
Zhaoyang Zhang, Yi Zou, Biyan Li
An illustrated book chronicling major events which led to the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties.
Buy
Tea, Fragrance and Music
Ephermeral Arts and the Formation of Scholar-artist Communities in Northern Song China
Kin Sum Li
A study on the formation of scholar-artist communities.
Buy
Ancient Salt Roads of China
Kui Zhao
The comprehensive story of the ancient Chinese salt industry.
Buy
Recent Society/Culture Books
Contemporary Chinese Graphic Design Practice
Yun Wang
An exploration of graphic design developments in recent decades in China.
Buy
Scotland and China
Literary Encounters
Eds. Li Li, John Corbett
A survey of the role of China in Scottish literature, and the translation and reception of Scottish literature in China.
Buy
Ecotourism
Environment, Health, and Education
Wei-Ta Fang, Arba'at Hassan, Max Horng
An analysis of various topics and case studies about ecotourism from Sinophone and Taiwanese perspectives.
Buy
The Anaconda in the Chandelier
Writings on China
Perry Link
An essay collection from Perry Link's decades-long career as a sinologist.
Buy
I Would Define the Sun
Poems
Stephanie Niu
A collection of poems moving across great distances to include Christmas Island, Chinese-American immigration, and the precarity and abundance of the sea.
Buy
Unequal Learning
Education and Society in Contemporary China
Xin Xiang
An analysis of the different kinds of learning that go on in four drastically different Chinese schools, from a rural school in a mountainous area to a prestigious metropolitan public school.
Buy
Religion, Secularism, and Love as a Political Discourse in Modern China
Ting Guo
A systemic examination of the ways in which the notion of love has been introduced, adapted and engineered as a political discourse while appropriating Confucianism, Christianity, popular religion, socialism, and their religious affects.
Buy
Passenger of Silence
My Quest for the Ancient Arts of China post-Cultural Revolution
Fabienne Verdier
An autobiographical travel journal telling the story of a foreigner determined to learn the secrets of Chinese painting in the early 1980s.
Buy
The Extraordinary in the Mundane
Family and Forms of Community in China
Ed. Becky Yang Hsu
A cultural analysis, arguing that Chinese people prefer utilizing social ties, rather than formal organizations in problem solving.
Buy
Dancing for their Lives
The Pursuit of Meaningful Aging in Urban China
Claudia Huang
An appreciation of the "dancing grannies" of China, exploring their passion and motivations for dancing.
Buy
Feminist Explorations of Urban China
Ed. Penn Tsz Ting Ip
An exploration of gender topics related to social transitions and social struggles in the context of the urban transformations accompanying China since 2017.
Buy
Developing China’s Green Trade
Comprehensive Evaluation, Impacts, and Advancement Trajectories
Kangyin Dong, Jiaman Li
An exploration of the dynamics of green trade and its consequences.
Buy
Performance and Postsocialism in Postmillennial China
Rossella Ferrari
An examination of performance in postmillennial China through the lens of postsocialism.
Buy
Chinese Animation
Multiplicities in Motion
Eds. Daisy Yan Du, John A. Crespi, Yiman Wang
An edited volume that explores the multiple histories, geographies, industries, technologies, media, and transmedialities of Chinese animation.
Buy
Across Time and Space
Re-visiting Twentieth-Century Chinese Oil Paintings
Ed. Shuo Hua
A collection of Chinese oil paintings capturing the development of the medium in China and its cultural importance.
Buy
Couplet Pair Rebus
The Principle of Cause and Effect in Art
Harald P. Kraemer
A collection of calligraphy and Chinese art woven together by essays on artistic philosophy.
Buy
Ethnic Minority Cinema in China’s Nation-State Building
Kwai-Cheung Lo
An exploration of the interaction between Chinese ethnic minority cinema and the state, whose efforts to shape minority cinema have affected how ethnic minorities are perceived in modern China.
Buy
Pro-Democracy Contention in Hong Kong
Relational Dynamics Between the Umbrella Movement and the Anti-Extradition Protests
Francis L F Lee
An analytical account of the relational dynamics linking the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019 anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong.
Buy
Literature for Little Bodhisattvas
Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan
Natasha Heller, Mark Michael Rowe
An academic's examination of Buddhism as practiced in Taiwan.
Buy
Masculinity, Marriage, and Rural Men in Urban China
Modest Expectations
Sarah Gosper
An exploration of the relationship between three so-called "crises" facing Chinese society: a crisis of marriage, a crisis of masculinity and a crisis of mobility.
Buy
A Reference Grammar of Jixi Hui
Wang Jian
A comprehensive grammar and description of a Hui language.
Buy
Satirical Tibet
The Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo
Timothy Thurston
A look at the powerful role humor plays in Tibetan life.
Buy
Geographies of Gender
Family and Law in Imperial Japan and Colonial Taiwan
Tadashi Ishikawa
A look at perceptions and practices of gender in the Japanese empire on the occasion of Japan's colonization of Taiwan.
BuyRecent Fiction Books
For now I am sitting here growing transparent
Yau Ching (tr. Chenxin Jiang)
A collection of poetry by the video artist and queer community organizer Yau Ching.
Buy
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
Mother River
Can Xue (tr. Karen Gernant, Chen Zeping)
A translated collection of 13 stories challenging our perceptions of time, identity, and existence.
Buy
Taipei at Daybreak
Brian Hioe
A coming-of-age novel set among the social protests of the early 2010s in East Asia.
Buy
Elephant Herd
A Novel
Guixing Zhang (tr. Carlos Rojas)
A novel following a young Malaysian-Chinese man's journey upriver deep into the Sarawak rainforest of northwest Borneo in search of his uncle, the leader of a Communist guerilla group.
Buy
The Envelopes
Hasu August
A novel examining how far love and devotion can go in the struggle between good and evil, set in China in the 2010s.
Buy
Homeseeking
Karissa Chen
A tale of one couple across 60 years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.
Buy
The Lotus Shoes
A Novel
Jane Yang
A tale of two women from opposite sides of Chinese society and their extraordinary journey of sisterhood, betrayal, love and triumph.
Buy
Dead Souls
Han Song (tr. Michael Berry)
The final installment in Han Song's Hospital trilogy, following Yang Wei's journey through a dystopian hospital system.
Buy
In the Face of Death We Are Equal
Mu Cao (tr. Scott E. Myers)
A magical realist novel that explores the exploitation of the young living in China's poor countryside.
Buy
The Second Journey
Joel Bigman
A Chinese-Jewish historical fantasy following the monk Xuanzang, Monkey and Pigsy on an adventure to get the Hebrew Scriptures.
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
Wu River Variations
Pang Bei (tr. James Trapp)
A novel about PLA codebreakers during The Long March.
Buy
Taiwan Travelogue
A Novel
Yang Shuang-zi (tr. Lin King)
A bittersweet story of love between two women, nestled in an exploration of language, history and power.
Buy
Be Careful, Xiao Xin!
小心 小心！
Alice Pung (Il. Sher Rill Ng)
An illustrated children's story of a little boy who must learn to overcome his fears.
Buy
The Conspiracies of the Empire
A Judge Dee Investigation, 2
Qiu Xiaolong
A mystery set in ancient China, featuring the semi-fictional historical character Judge Dee.
Buy
Sunset at Lion Rock
A Novel
Matthew Wong Foreman
A novel that navigates a shifting culture on the eve of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
Buy
Nothing but the Now
Seven Short Stories by Wen Zhen
Wen Zhen (tr. Dave Haysom)
A collection of of seven short stories that offer a look into various facets of contemporary life in China.
Buy
The Choice
Zhang Ping (tr. James Trapp)
A novel of corruption and deceit set in a Chinese manufacturing town.
Buy
Masquerade
A Novel
Mike Fu
A queer coming-of-age mystery about a lovelorn bartender and his complex friendship with a volatile artist.
Buy
Hutong Heartthrobs
How an American Academic and a Chinese Migrant Worker Found Love in Beijing's Alleyways
Tammy Treichel
A story about an American academic and a Chinese migrant worker who find love in Beijing.
Buy
Faces in the Crowd
54 Extraordinary Tales of Tianjin
Feng Jicai
A collection of 54 short stories set in Tianjin at the time of the Boxer Rebellion.
Buy
Fate Rewritten
Dong Xi (tr. John Balcom)
A novel following the journey of a top student struggling to escape his humble roots and break into the upper echelons of Chinese society.
Buy