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
The Phoenix and the Firebird
Alexis Kossiakoff, Scott Forbes Crawford
A young adult fantasy novel set in warlord-era China.
Buy
The New Cold War
How the Contest Between the US and China Will Shape Our Century
Robin Niblett
An exploration of the similarities of between the Cold War and present US-China relations, drawing prescriptions for present policy from this historical mirror.
Buy
Chinese Rules and Procedures for Addressing Mass Actions
A Juridification Account
Cong-rui Qiao
A legal exploration of the history and evolution of governance norms in contemporary China.
Buy
Age of Exploration
How Chinese Scientists and Administrators Discovered China
Eds. Elisabeth Kaske, Elisabeth Köll
A collection of nine case studies showing how a new cohort of professional Chinese explorers traveled, studied, appropriated, and reshaped national space from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Buy
Essence of China
100 Recipes and 10 Legends: Discover the Heart of Chinese Cuisine
Gabriele Berthelot
A collection of Chinese recipes and legends.
Buy
The Art of State Persuasion
China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes
Frances Yaping Wang
A look into pacification campaigns to enhance understanding of Chinese state propaganda, challenging the traditional view of China's propaganda as uniformly aggressive.
Buy
When Food Became Scarce
How Chinese Peasants Survived the Great Leap Forward Famine
Yixin Chen
A grassroots-level analysis of why some peasants perished during China's Great Leap Forward, while others survived.
Buy
Understanding the Communist Party of China
Ed. Chuntao Xie
An exploration of the Communist Party of China's history, governing philosophy, governing strategies, and remarkable achievements.
Buy
Living the Asian Century
An Undiplomatic Memoir
Kishore Mahbubani
A memoir from a politician and diplomat, tracing the transformation of the Republic of Singapore from a poor colony into an Asian powerhouse.
Buy
Hong Kong as an Actor in International Economic Law
Multilateralism, Bilateralism, and Unilateralism
Julien Chaisse
An assessment of the unique economic position of Hong Kong, and of the legal and political challenges it faces.
Buy
Complexity Thinking and China’s Demography Within and Beyond Mainland China
A Geopolitical Overview
Ed. Armando Aliu
A multidisciplinary perspective to demographic trends and social transformations in China and across the world.
Buy
The Political Economy of Science, Technology, and Innovation in China
Policymaking, Funding, Talent, and Organization
Yutao Sun, Cong Cao
An understanding of the development of science and technology in post-1978 China, focusing on the state's role.
Buy
Love Becomes Her
A Fable for the Ages
Yun Rou
A magical-realist depiction of Lao Tzu as a legendary figure in search of a soulmate.
Buy
Agak Agak
Everyday Recipes from Singapore
Shu Han Lee
A collection of loosely structured Singaporean recipes.
Buy
The Women Who Ruled China
Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century
Stephanie Balkwill
A history of Empress Dowager Ling, the Buddhist female ruler of the Northern Wei dynasty.
Buy
The Xi Jinping Effect
Eds. Ashley Esarey, Rongbin Han
A collection of contributions exploring the relationship between Xi Jinping and multiple areas of political and social transformation.
Buy
This Is a Book About Street Food
Brendan Pang
A restauranteur's collection of Chinese street food recipes.
Buy
A Trip to China and Taiwan
Discovering Ancient Wonders and Modern Marvels in the Heart of Asia
Bulat Hametov, Aroosha Saeed
A children's tale whisking young readers away to China and Taiwan.
Buy
China’s Aging Population
Development and Policy Options
China Development Research Foundation
An academic exploration of the challenges posed by, and the best economic and political responses to, China's aging population.
Buy
The Whirlpool That Produced China
Stag Hunting on the Central Plain (Suny Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)
Tingyang Zhao, Edmund Ryden
A philosophical interpretation of Chinese history, arguing that its expansion came not from the lure of expansionist behavior, but rather from the offerings of surrounding contenders.
Buy
Relations and Roles in China’s Internationalism
Rediscovering Confucianism in a Pluriversal World
Chih-Yu Shih
A demonstration of how Confucianism can critique and work beside liberalism, overcoming the East versus West philosophical dichotomy.
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 Regulation of Prostitution in China
Law in the Everyday Lives of Sex Workers, Police Officers, and Public Health Officials
Margaret L. Boittin
An exploration of prostitution in China and how it shapes the lives of those involved in it, using a case study of the role of law in everyday life and its impact on female sex workers, police officers, and public health officials.
Buy
Young and Restless in China
Informal Economy, Gender, and the Precariat
Xiaoshuo Hou
An exploration of the institutional and individual processes that lead to informal employment and the clustering of of the migrant workers who are disappointed by exploitative factories and thus choose short-term employment and day labor.
Buy
Environmental Narratives in the Huainanzi and the Anthropocene
Matthew James Hamm
A contextualized reading of the Huainanzi (an eastern Eurasian text from the second century BCE), and a use of it as a theoretical lens to read Anthropocene scholarship.
BuyRecent Politics Books
The New Cold War
How the Contest Between the US and China Will Shape Our Century
Robin Niblett
An exploration of the similarities of between the Cold War and present US-China relations, drawing prescriptions for present policy from this historical mirror.
Buy
Chinese Rules and Procedures for Addressing Mass Actions
A Juridification Account
Cong-rui Qiao
A legal exploration of the history and evolution of governance norms in contemporary China.
Buy
The Art of State Persuasion
China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes
Frances Yaping Wang
A look into pacification campaigns to enhance understanding of Chinese state propaganda, challenging the traditional view of China's propaganda as uniformly aggressive.
Buy
Hong Kong as an Actor in International Economic Law
Multilateralism, Bilateralism, and Unilateralism
Julien Chaisse
An assessment of the unique economic position of Hong Kong, and of the legal and political challenges it faces.
Buy
The Political Economy of Science, Technology, and Innovation in China
Policymaking, Funding, Talent, and Organization
Yutao Sun, Cong Cao
An understanding of the development of science and technology in post-1978 China, focusing on the state's role.
Buy
The Xi Jinping Effect
Eds. Ashley Esarey, Rongbin Han
A collection of contributions exploring the relationship between Xi Jinping and multiple areas of political and social transformation.
Buy
COVID-19 and U.S.-China Relations
Zheng Wang
An examination of the impact of COVID-19 on U.S.-China relations in areas from public health to trade to rising nationalism and more.
Buy
The Fragility of China
Breaking Points of an Invincible Regime
Dennis Unkovic
A look into the critical factors and developments that have the potential to derail Xi Jinping's ambitions for China.
Buy
Ocean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea
Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power
Christian Schultheiss
An account of the negotiations between China, Japan, Taiwan the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries about the East and South China Sea disputes.
Buy
Wolf Warrior Diplomacy and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
From Policy to Podium
Yaoyao Dai, Lu Wei Rose Luqiu
An examination of the evolution of China's foreign policy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, focusing on the domestic and international role aggression plays in the diplomacy of the Chinese Communist Party.
Buy
The War for Chinese Talent in America
The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations in the 21st Century
David Zweig
A documentation of China's "no-holds-barred" effort to access U.S. technology, and America's vigorous counterattack and efforts to disrupt the transfer of U.S. technology to China.
Buy
China’s Arctic Approach
Nakul Rajput
An analysis of China's interests, activities and strategies in the Arctic region.
Buy
Cutting the Mass Line
Water, Politics, and Climate in Southwest China
Andrea E. Pia
An exploration of the growing water supply crisis through an ethnographic study of a rural minority community in China threatened by climate change.
Buy
From Forest Farm to Sawmill
Stories of Labor, Gender, and the Chinese State
Shuxuan Zhou
A description, drawing upon firsthand accounts from Mao era agricultural collectives through Deng era reform, of labor and resistance among Chinese timber industry workers.
Buy
The Boiling Moat
Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan
Ed. Matt Pottinger
A scholarly argument that a robust military strategy for Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Europe is essential for countering Beijing's aggression.
Buy
A Tale of Rice and Copper
A World-Systems Analysis of Chinese Hegemony in Pakistan
Toufic Sarieddine
An exploration of Chinese investments in, and cooperation with Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Buy
China, Japan, and Senkaku Islands
Conflict in the East China Sea Amid an American Shadow
Monika Chansoria
A study of Sino-Japanese relations in the context of the contested Senkaku Islands.
Buy
China under Xi Jinping
A New Assessment
Eds. Qiang Fang, Xiaobing Li
A look at Xi's China during the pandemic.
Buy
Why the World Needs China
Development, Environmentalism, Conflict Resolution & Common Prosperity
Kyle Ferrana
An argument presenting China as the de facto leader of a future multipolar world.
Buy
The Latecomer’s Rise
Policy Banks and the Globalization of China's Development Finance
Muyang Chen
A close look at the nature and impact of Chinese development finance.
Buy
The Rise of the Semi-Core
China, India, and Pakistan in the World-System
Samee Lashari
An analysis of modern capitalist history that argues that nations must possess both economic and strategic national powers to maintain their hierarchical position.
Buy
Aflame for Freedom in Tibet
The Origin and Development of the Self-Immolation Movement
Namloyak Dhungser (author, tr.), Joshua Esler (ed. tr.)
An examination of the origins and development of the protest movement in Tibet and around the world.
Buy
Lost Decade
The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power
Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine
An analysis of the American "Pivot to Asia" that argues that the US lacks a coherent approach to the Indo-Pacific.
Buy
China in Global Capitalism
Building International Solidarity Against Imperial Rivalry
Kevin Lin, Rosa Liu, Eli Friedman, Ashley Smith
An argument that makes the case that workers and socially marginalized people in both the U.S. and China should oppose imperialism in all its forms and construct a movement that centers international solidarity.
BuyRecent History Books
Age of Exploration
How Chinese Scientists and Administrators Discovered China
Eds. Elisabeth Kaske, Elisabeth Köll
A collection of nine case studies showing how a new cohort of professional Chinese explorers traveled, studied, appropriated, and reshaped national space from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Buy
When Food Became Scarce
How Chinese Peasants Survived the Great Leap Forward Famine
Yixin Chen
A grassroots-level analysis of why some peasants perished during China's Great Leap Forward, while others survived.
Buy
Understanding the Communist Party of China
Ed. Chuntao Xie
An exploration of the Communist Party of China's history, governing philosophy, governing strategies, and remarkable achievements.
Buy
The Women Who Ruled China
Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century
Stephanie Balkwill
A history of Empress Dowager Ling, the Buddhist female ruler of the Northern Wei dynasty.
Buy
The Whirlpool That Produced China
Stag Hunting on the Central Plain (Suny Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)
Tingyang Zhao, Edmund Ryden
A philosophical interpretation of Chinese history, arguing that its expansion came not from the lure of expansionist behavior, but rather from the offerings of surrounding contenders.
Buy
Environmental Narratives in the Huainanzi and the Anthropocene
Matthew James Hamm
A contextualized reading of the Huainanzi (an eastern Eurasian text from the second century BCE), and a use of it as a theoretical lens to read Anthropocene scholarship.
Buy
The Hong Kong Diaries
Chris Patten
The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, documenting the lead up to the colony's passage into Chinese rule.
Buy
Dreaming the New Woman
An Oral History of Missionary Schoolgirls in Republican China
Jennifer Bond
An exploration of the experiences of girls who attended missionary middle schools in Republican China, based on extensive oral history interviews.
Buy
Contest for Citizenship and Collective Violence during China’s Cultural Revolution
Yang Lijun
An exploration of how political struggles within the state, competing sectarian interests and other complex factors intertwined to produce forms of collective violence during China's Cultural Revolution.
Buy
Historical Studies on Comfort Women in Shanghai
A Field Study Approach
Zhiliang Su, Lifei Chen, Yao Fei (tr. Xie'an Huang)
A history of the military comfort women system in China.
Buy
The Dong World and Imperial China’s Southwest Silk Road
Trade, Security, and State Formation
James A. Anderson
An investigation of the principalities, chiefdoms, and market nodes that emerged and flourished in the network of routes that passed through the "Dong world," a collection of Tai-speaking polities in upland valleys from the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China's southern periphery.
Buy
Global History in China
Xin Fan
An exploration of global history as an emerging field of scholarly studies in China today.
Buy
Making Mao’s Steelworks
Industrial Manchuria and the Transnational Origins of Chinese Socialism
Koji Hirata
A history of China's accelerated industrialization and the complex interplay of transnational influences in Mao-era China.
Buy
Secret Stories on the Silk Road
Symbols, Architectures and Myths between Italy, the Middle East and China
Alessandro Coscia, Sergio Coppola
A photographic documentation of artifacts left from the exchanges between Western and Eastern civilizations along the Silk Road.
Buy
To Be an Actress
Labor and Performance in Anna May Wong's Cross-Media World
Yiman Wang
A study of Chinese American actress Anna May Wong's cross-media and transnational career.
Buy
A History of Uyghur Buddhism
Johan Elverskog
A history of Buddhism among the Uyghurs from the ninth to seventeenth century.
Buy
China in Seven Banquets
A Flavourful History
Thomas David DuBois
A journey spanning five thousand years of Chinese culinary heritage, exploring the essense of each era through seven extraordinary meals.
Buy
Chinese Workers of the World
Colonialism, Chinese Labor, and the Yunnan-Indochina Railway
Selda Altan
A history of worker struggles and labor conflicts along the Yunnan-Indochina Railway constructed between 1898 and 1910.
Buy
The Great Wonders of China
Ed. Jonathan Fenby
An updated and multifaceted account of China's history, religion, philosophy, arts and sciences, and more.
Buy
Madmen in Shanghai
A Social History of Advertising in Modern China (1914-1956)
Cécile Armand
A novel perspective on the emergence of Chinese consumer society through a historical investigation of the advertising industry in pre-Communist China.
Buy
Revolutionary Stagecraft
Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China
Tarryn Li-Min Chun
A history of Chinese theater that reveals the deep entanglement of technological modernization, political agendas, and the performing arts in modern China.
Buy
Mao’s Hijacked Generation
Ed. Robin Radin
A look at the zhiqing program in China from 1962-1979, when about half of an entire generation of teenagers from Chinese cities were sent to the countryside for "re-education".
Buy
Destination Macao
Paul French
An investigation of Macao containing 18 true stories of people who lived in or visited Macao in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Chinese Computer
A Global History of the Information Age
Thomas S. Mullaney
The untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing.
Buy
Hedging the China Threat
US-Taiwan Security Relations Since 1949
Shao-cheng Sun
A look at the history of US commitments to Taiwan since the presidency of Harry S. Truman.
BuyRecent Society/Culture Books
Essence of China
100 Recipes and 10 Legends: Discover the Heart of Chinese Cuisine
Gabriele Berthelot
A collection of Chinese recipes and legends.
Buy
Living the Asian Century
An Undiplomatic Memoir
Kishore Mahbubani
A memoir from a politician and diplomat, tracing the transformation of the Republic of Singapore from a poor colony into an Asian powerhouse.
Buy
Complexity Thinking and China’s Demography Within and Beyond Mainland China
A Geopolitical Overview
Ed. Armando Aliu
A multidisciplinary perspective to demographic trends and social transformations in China and across the world.
Buy
Agak Agak
Everyday Recipes from Singapore
Shu Han Lee
A collection of loosely structured Singaporean recipes.
Buy
This Is a Book About Street Food
Brendan Pang
A restauranteur's collection of Chinese street food recipes.
Buy
China’s Aging Population
Development and Policy Options
China Development Research Foundation
An academic exploration of the challenges posed by, and the best economic and political responses to, China's aging population.
Buy
Relations and Roles in China’s Internationalism
Rediscovering Confucianism in a Pluriversal World
Chih-Yu Shih
A demonstration of how Confucianism can critique and work beside liberalism, overcoming the East versus West philosophical dichotomy.
Buy
The Regulation of Prostitution in China
Law in the Everyday Lives of Sex Workers, Police Officers, and Public Health Officials
Margaret L. Boittin
An exploration of prostitution in China and how it shapes the lives of those involved in it, using a case study of the role of law in everyday life and its impact on female sex workers, police officers, and public health officials.
Buy
Young and Restless in China
Informal Economy, Gender, and the Precariat
Xiaoshuo Hou
An exploration of the institutional and individual processes that lead to informal employment and the clustering of of the migrant workers who are disappointed by exploitative factories and thus choose short-term employment and day labor.
Buy
China’s Heritage through History
Yujie Zhu
An analysis of how the interpretation of history has been used culturally and for political ends throughout the Chinese past.
Buy
Myths of China
Meet the Gods, Creatures, and Heroes of Ancient China
Xiaobing Wang (illus. Katie Ponder)
An introduction for young readers to the world of ancient Chinese myths.
Buy
Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration
Experiences of Ethnic Performers in Southwest China
Jingyu Mao
An exploration of the experiences, work and migration journeys of ethnic performers in a small Chinese city.
Buy
Perspectives on Plagiarism in China
History, Genres, and Education
Yongyan Li
An examination of historical and present Chinese views on plagiarism and the means by which it has been addressed.
Buy
Sino-Muslims, Networking, and Identity in Late Imperial China
Longstanding Natives and Dispersed Minorities
Shaodan Zhang
An exploration of the everday life of Muslims in late imperial China proper, revealing how they integrated themselves into Chinese society, whilst also maintaining distinct Islamic features.
Buy
Learning to Love
Intimacy and the DIscourse of Development in China
Sonya E. Pritzker
A range of perspectives on the embodied, relational, affective and sociopolitical project of "learning to love", and how this form of self-care exists alongside the fast-moving society of contemporary China.
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
Circular Ecologies
Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China
Amy Zhang
An analysis of Guangzhou's implementation of technologies and infrastructures to modernize the city's waste management system, and the grassroots ecologies politics that emerged in response.
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
Games and Play in Chinese and Sinophone Cultures
Eds. Li Guo, Douglas Eyman, Hongmei Sun
A history of games and gaming in China.
Buy
Those Who Act Ruin It
A Daoist Account of Moral Attunement
Jacob Bender
A comparison of Daoist principles to similar Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.
Buy
Metaphor and Meaning
Thinking Through Early China with Sarah Allan
Constance A. Cook, Christopher J. Foster, Susan Blader
A scholarly application of Sarah Allan's "conceptual metaphor theory" to the study of Chinese philosophy.
Buy
Chinese Museums
Strategies and Promotion of Contemporary Chinese Art
Ornella De Nigris
An exploration of a range of different approaches to exhibiting and curating art, while also investigating the crucial question of the cultural sustainability of art museums in China.
Buy
Christianity and Capitalism in China
A Case Study from the Diaspora
Ottavio Palombaro
An argument for a causal link between a Calvinistic worldview and economic success in contemporary China.
Buy
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
Invisible Warfare
How Does a Book Defeat an Empire?
Liao Yiwu (tr. Michael M. Day)
A memoir from writer, poet, musician, and dissident Liao Yiwu, reflecting on his journey from imprisonment in Sichuan to his current life in Berlin.
BuyRecent Fiction Books
The Phoenix and the Firebird
Alexis Kossiakoff, Scott Forbes Crawford
A young adult fantasy novel set in warlord-era China.
Buy
Love Becomes Her
A Fable for the Ages
Yun Rou
A magical-realist depiction of Lao Tzu as a legendary figure in search of a soulmate.
Buy
A Trip to China and Taiwan
Discovering Ancient Wonders and Modern Marvels in the Heart of Asia
Bulat Hametov, Aroosha Saeed
A children's tale whisking young readers away to China and Taiwan.
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 Logoharp
A Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121
Arielle Emmett
A science fiction story of a Chinese journalist who can see the future.
Buy
Murder in the Maloo
Paul Bevan
A murder mystery unfolding in the gritty underworld of nineteenth-century Shanghai.
Buy
The Barter Trade
A Novel
Chris Ruffle
A Le Carre-esque drama of love and espionage in 1980s China.
Buy
The Night Ends with Fire
K.X. Song
A fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan that follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny.
Buy
Of Jade and Dragons
Amber Chen
A silkpunk fantasy about a girl who must disguise herself as a boy and enter the famed and dangerous Engineer’s Guild trials to unravel the mystery of her father’s murder.
Buy
Tongueless
Lau Yee-Wa (tr. Jennifer Feeley)
A psychological thriller that sheds light on the current political situation in Hong Kong.
Buy
The Cry of the Silkworm
Shi Naseer
A coming of age novel set in 1990s China and spanning to the turn of the century.
Buy
Tiananmen Square
A Novel
Lai Wen
A coming-of-age novel about young love and lasting friendships forged in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square student protests.
Buy
Souls Left Behind
A Novel
Fan Wu (tr. Honey Watson)
A novel about members of the Chinese Labour Corps working in France during World War I.
Buy
Banana King Ngôo Tsín-suī
Wang-Tai Lee (tr. Timothy Smith)
A translated Taiwanese novel weaving together actual events, fictional elements, and the culture and politics of Taiwan through the tale of a young banana mogul.
Buy
Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise
A Novel
Yi-han Lin (tr. Jenna Tang)
A fictional account of sexual violence, women's vulnerability and victimization in Taiwan.
Buy
Daughters of Shandong
A Novel
Eve J. Chung
A novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China.
Buy
Their Divine Fires
A Novel
Wendy Chen
A novel interwoven with folktale and myth that tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal.
Buy
Shanghailanders
A Novel
Juli Min
A novel that follows a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time, beginning in 2040 and moving through our present and the recent past.
Buy
Cinema Love
A Novel
Jiaming Tang
A novel about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.
Buy
The Boy From Clearwater Book II
Yu Pei-Yun (illus. Zhou Jian-Xin, tr. Lin King)
The second half of the story of Kun-lin, picking up after his imprisonment on Green Island during Taiwan's White Terror period.
Buy
Born Naughty
My Childhood in China
Jin Wang, Tony Johnston (illust. Anisi Baigude)
An illustrated memoir for young readers telling the author's story of growing up in Inner Mongolia.
Buy
The Good Women Of Fudi
Liu Hong
A novel of loves lost and gained, set during the aftermath of the Opium Wars.
Buy