About a week ago, I did a post entitled “The Five+ Best Books for Understanding China.” The post was a public response to a very good friend of mine who, in turn, had a reporter friend who will soon be stationed in China. My friend wanted me to list “3-5 good books to read to understand China that are contemporary, but also something providing some historical perspective to current doings … what are your favorites?”
I listed the following five:
- China in the 21st Century, by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
- Out of Mao’s Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Phillip Pan
- Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, by John Pomfret
- Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China, by James Fallows
- One from the following: Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, by Peter Hessler
I then added that if he wants to read a book on China business he should read one of two business classics: James McGregor’s One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China or Tim Clissold’s Mr. China: A Memoir.
We received many great comments on that post and those convinced me to develop this post.
My intention for this post is that it will become a forum for an ongoing discussion regarding English language books on China. More than anything, I would like to see this post become a prime source for those seeking help on what they should be reading to better understand China. Though it presently mostly focuses on books, I heartily welcome suggestions on all good readings. I also welcome criticisms of what others (or I) have chosen.
Let me first explain a bit more my previous book picks. Above all else, I wanted to pick fun and enjoyable books that can be read from beginning to end in ten hours or less. I wanted one book to serve as a broad introduction to China and I wanted the rest to “give a feel” for the country. Again, though, I wanted to make sure that the reader would enjoy my recommended books and that meant that they had to be well written.
I picked Wasserstrom’s book as the “broad-brusher” because though very brief (less than 200 pages), it makes for an excellent introduction to various aspects of China. It is the perfect first read and I have since learned from one of the comments, that it is required reading at Johns Hopkins’ Nanjing program.
I picked the other four books because, above all else, they are extremely well written. And by well written, I mean that they make you feel as though you are there and that you know and understand and want to learn more about the people described in them. They have character development. I know this sounds trite, but if you read these four books, you will never be able to view China as an amorphous mass of 1.3 billion people who think alike. I chose these four books because I believe they give quick and enjoyable insights into China’s people. Was I right or wrong to focus so much on this one thing? Was I right or wrong in choosing these four books for that one thing?
Here is some of what readers said, followed in some instances by my own comments.
Some readers recommended Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China’s Most Wanted Man, by Oliver August, Iron and Silk, by Mark Salzman, I do not know these books and would love to hear reader thoughts on them.
Many mentioned On China, by Henry Kissinger. I thought about listing this book, but chose not to for two reasons. First, I have yet to read it. Second (and I hesitate to comment on a book I have not read), I figured it would deal a lot with U.S.-China relations and I figured this reporter (being a reporter) would be less in need of this than of information on China itself. I plan to read this book soon.
The Search for Modern China, by Jonathan Spence. Undoubtedly a classic. I actually thought long and hard about including this book, but in the end chose not to do so simply because it is not exactly light reading. It was my final cut.
One reader recommended Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang I remember reading many positive reviews when this book first came out last year and resolving to read it. Unfortunately, I have yet to do so.
Don Clarke of Chinese Law Prof Blog recommends Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform, by Kenneth Lieberthal, because it “tells you about the relationship between the center and the provinces, the role of the PLA, or what the Standing Committee of the Politburo does. No China correspondent, especially a political correspondent, can afford to be ignorant of this stuff.” He also wrote that when it comes to books about China’s economy, none (to my knowledge) surpasses Barry Naughton’s “The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth.” It’s not light airplane reading, but required in any serious China library. Yasheng Huang’s book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State, is great, too, but Naughton’s is more foundational.
What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard. I read a number of reviews when this first came out and I recall people I respect saying it was a bit simplistic. Is this true?
The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, by Richard McGregor. I have heard nothing but great things about this book, but I have yet to read it, though I absolutely plan to do so. Speaking of a book I want to read and of which I have heard nothing but great things: Factory Girl, by Leslie Chang.
Another reader mentioned China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World, by Bill Dodson. This is a great book. I put it in the same category as China Shakes the World, by James Kynge and The China Price, by Alexandra Harney. I loved all three books and I strongly recommend them. They all provide an excellent top level view of China’s business/economy. In the end though, I chose not to list any from this category, simply because I thought that they were too micro to serve as a general introduction to China. My sense is that Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, by Tom Doctoroff, fits into this same category, but I have never read it.
Where East Eats West, by Sam Goodman. A reader described this book as containing “all of the major ingredients as the many China 101 books, but in a way that at least makes you smile, like getting a lolly after your shots: it still hurts, but at least you have a lolly, right?” I completely agree and I have recommended this book countless times to clients. But in the end, its real value is as a how to conduct business in China, which does not make it the right book for a fledgling China reporter. Someone suggested Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China’s Consumers, by Lawrence L. Allen, and described it as a “great case study.” I agree and this is another book I am always recommending. If you want to know how to sell to the Chinese consumer, buy this book.
A number of readers recommended “old” books and talked of how they are still plenty topical. Thunder Out of China, by Theodore H. White and Analee Jacoby, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, by Barbara Tuchman, Forever China, by Robert Payne, and Two Kinds of Time by Graham Peck, The reader who recommended Peck’s book described it as “written in Chongqing in 1944 and still valid today. Tells you more about China and how it works than anything by Edgar Snow, Mark Kitto or Peter Hessler.” Is that true?
The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985 by John King Fairbank, also got a mention. I know this is a great book, but because I had to read so much Fairbank in college, I have bad memories.
Chiang Kai Shek: China’s Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost, by (former South China Morning Post editor) Jonathan Fenby. A reader described this book as “not just a biography, but literally the best history of the Chinese civil war and world war two in China that I have been able to find in English.” I have never read it. Is it really that good?
One reader (FOARP) extolled avoiding books on either China’s “imminent or eventual collapse” or dominance. FOARP used Gordon Chang’s The Coming Collapse of China as an example on how China is inevitably going to run the world and used Martin Jacques’s When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, as an example of the other extreme. Though I have not read either of those books, and though I generally disagree with both authors regarding much of what they say about China, I am not so quick to write them off; their conclusions may be faulty, but much of their analysis is not.
One reader wrote that he thinks it is a mistake “to limit his reading to books. He would do well to read this and various other blogs, including, Danwei, Shanghaiist, Peking Duck, China Hearsay, and China Smack, among others.” I agree and I like his list. I am sure there are more blogs to add to it, but instead of doing so, I will throw out the newspapers worth reading for China news: Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Times, Washington Post, South China Morning Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. Did I miss any?
Another reader recommended China Road, by Rob Gifford, Red China Blues by Jan Wong and Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang, which he described as “three excellent memoir-esque observations of the changes in China.”
Another reader wrote of a “recent publication by Dr. Kevin Fountain, “How Chinese Think and How to Deal With China and extolled Dr. Fountain’s “over 30 years experience living/dealing with the Chinese. His book is a must read for anyone who is planning a visit to China. It’s not just informative, it’s interesting. A good read – not at all dry.” Who is this guy and what is this book?
UPDATE: The goal of this post was to turn it into an ever evolving forum for books on China. Towards that end, I am updating it now (6-14-2011) by discussing some of the comments received, ;isting out additional books or commenting on those already listed.
Jeffrey Wassestrom (who wrote China in the 21st Century) suggested we should add Factory Girls:From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang. Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in Modern China, by Ian Johnson, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed, by Michael Meyer, “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China, by Lijia Zhang. I have heard nothing but great things about all four of these books and I have been meaning to read all of them. Thanks Jeff for making me feel guilty for not having done so.
Jeff also reccommends China Candid: The People on the People’s Republic, by Sang Ye, Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China, by Jianying Zha, which just recently came out.
Jeff also puts in a plug for his local newspaper, the Los Angeles Times (especially Barbara Demick) and for the Guardian newspaper out of London. I agree with Jeff about the LA Times (especially Ms. Demick) and the only reason I did not mention it (or the Boston Globe) is because they do not have as much China coverage as the others. By the same token, the Seattle Times (which I love to loath and which has an editorial page that appears to have been written by 9th and 10th graders) has an excellent China writer in Kristi Heim.
Jeff also recommends the Economist Magazine and American Public Radio (NPR/Marketplace). I wholeheartedly agree with Jeff’s Economist recommendation and I wholeheartedly disagree with his NPR/Marketplace recommendation. I stopped listening to NPR the day Michael Jackson died, when NPR covered that non-story my entire ride to work. I got a satellite radio for my car and I have been listening to the BBC ever since and I cannot stress enough how much better it is than NPR. Yes, I realize BBC is too British and too liberal and it has its fair share of other biases as well, but damn it, it is the only radio station that really goes into depth on what is going on in the world, including China. NPR trots out the same people again and again to talk on China (and I say this without bitterness because both co-blogger Steve Dickinson and I have been on there plenty of times, though that will no doubt change after this), but it really is not a leader on China. The beauty of radio and TV news is that it can be so immediate. NPR is not even that. I will also note (not without a bit of over the pond jealousy) that BBC listeners who call in are about two levels up from those at NPR. Listen to a few days of “World Have Your Say” at BBC and then do not even try to dispute me on this.
If you switch from NPR to BBC, I guarantee you will never go back.
Jeff also recommends the “New York Review of Books” (especially now that Howard French and Ian Johnson have been added to the set of China-focused contributors) and the New Yorker (where Evan Osnos has taken the baton from Peter Hessler)” and “The China Digital Times (an aggregator and selector rather than a blog per se).” I agree on all counts.
John Xenakis suggested we all read the following:
- Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962, by Frank Dikotter, which he describes as “a great historical, well researched book [that also] … helped explain some cultural aspects of modern China.”
- The China Fantasy, by James Mann, which “is looking more and more prophetic”
- Tide Players by Jianying Zha (see above)
- China Inc., by Ted C. Fishman
- Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise, by Carl E. Walter and Fraser J.T. Howie. “Fascinating book on China banking system. Banks loan to SOEs who lose money. Gov’t bails out banks b/c of NPL’s from SOEs. Pretty technical but very in depth and eye opening.”
- The Beijing Consensus, by Stefan Halper. On the “theory that Beijing’s model of gov’t/state led economic growth might take hold in the developing world, specifically Africa/SE Asia.”
Fabrizio recommends “anything by Hessler” and also “Rebecca E. Karl’s Mao Zedong and China in the 20th Century World: A Concise History, which “does an excellent job of conveying a broad and extremely complex set of years while managing to use language that I found to be very accessible.”
Dan Berg calls us on to read Imperial China, 900-1800, which he says will “REALLY change the way you perceive China.”
Chris Waugh says “Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk (see above) is an excellent book, but perhaps a bit too focused on a personal experience of Changsha in the early 80s to suit the purposes here.”
Kumar checked in to express his appreciation for our including fiction, which he says “does not always get the recognition they deserve.”
G. Hurst takes us to task for not mentioning any of the excellent legal or tax publications by CCH or LexisNexis. My response to that is that this is not the place for that. If you want to read about legal books, I suggest you check out this post, setting out some of the best business law books on China.
Martyn Link, who blogs on China Life Sciences at The Foresighter, checked in to thank us for this post.
Comparibus odium mentioned two China blogs of which I was previously unaware: Sinologistical Violoncellist and Justrecently’s Weblog.
Tarrant Mahony relates on how he assigns six books for his MBA class and that his list looks “quite a lot like” ours. He assigns Mr. China” and One Billion Customers (for the business coverage), Out of Mao’s Shadow and The Party (for the political coverage) and Chinese Lessons and The Chinese Dream (for general social observation).” He then goes on to recommend Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing, by Alan Paul, “which is an engaging story of expat life in China with a twist — he founded a blues band and became a big hit, hence the title. The book is a great read and it is very contemporary, i.e., most of the places he mentions still exist!”
DaMn asks why we had not mentioned Managing the Dragon, by Jack Perkowski, which I so vigorously extolled when it first came out. DaMn asks whether anything has changed. No DaMn, nothing has changed. I still recommend Managing the Dragon to businesses who want to know quickly what China’s business landscape is really like. It is a great business “how to” book (much like East Eats West), but I do not think that it (nor any other book of its ilk) should go on a top five list for a reporter moving to China.
Please keep the comments coming.
