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The Bomb is Back
The myth of China's nuclear restraint obscures the dangers of its rapidly expanding arsenal. A trio of recent books take us from the bomb’s origins...
Mao’s Doctor Knew Too Much
The memoirs of Li Zhisui, Mao Zedong’s personal physician, tell a life of fatty pork and Daoist sex magic — and explain how to embalm...
Jonathan Cheng on North Korea’s Past and China’s Present
The Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief, author of a new biography of Kim Il Sung, spoke at Asia Society about the DPRK's ruling dynasty...
Colonial Adventures
When a British diplomat was found murdered in southwest China in 1875, near the Burmese border, a political spat was triggered that would have wide-ranging...
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...
A Chinese Intellectual in Oxford
In the 1930s Chiang Yee, a Chinese writer and artist, moved to England. His work, and that of his wartime circle of Chinese literati, deserve...
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...
Sir Edmund Backhouse: Decadent Imagination
Historical witnessing or salacious slash fiction? The memoirs of an English eccentric in Beijing during the last days of the Qing remain controversial, but are...
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...
Logging Unpaid Hours
When a state-run sawmill from the Mao era privatized and eventually closed, its female workers were denied fair compensation. Its story doubles as an alternate...
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...
