So, I am studying Chinese in a rather intensive language course, and it was suggested that I find some books about China to read to give me a better background for what the language deals with, to give me some context for the language to work with and to help me deal with the instructors.
Basically, I need books about any number of topics, history, culture, current events, politics, whatever, all in English of course (they give me plenty enough in Chinese to read).
The only one that springs from my mind is Red Star Over China. It’s continuously in print.
Another good choice, by which I mean it was recommended to me by the same guy who recommended Red Star Over China to me, is Mao and Deng: the New Emperors.
If you want some serious Chinese literature, the best are, of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Water Margin, the Journey to the West, and the Dream of the Red Lantern.
Once you do learn to read Chinese well, anything by Lu Xun is a dream. A lot of his work is available online for free.
Here’s a link to more books than you can shake a stick at and all for free: http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/ebooks.htm Jaochai is correct that Lu Xun is freaking awesome but he’s a difficult read and you really have to understand the context to fully understand what a great write he is. Lao She, Bai Jun are two others from the same “Spring” movement. All of which you can read in mediocre English translations listed above (and there are no good translations I’ve ever read). There are copies as well of the classics mentioned by Jaochai, but note they are *really * long and translations are a bit stilted.
It really depends on what timeframe you’re looking at. Early historic, qing dynasty, over throw of the Qing, the “republican era”, civil war, PRC, the opening in the 1980’s, “modern china” etc.
Simon Leys wrote great books on modern China that are still relevant today. However, these are at least a decade out of date.
Watch the “Temple of Heavenly Peace” by Hinton to get a good historic view of China in the past 100 years as a backdrop to what happened in tian’anmen. You can read her father’s book “Fanshen” to understand life in a village and what happend with the communist takeover. He details the whole struggle and rooting out of the exploitive landlord class in a village setting.
while Red Star Over China is interesting, it was a set up. As in, the communists knew Edgar Snow was a reporter and went to great lengths to manipulate him.
I would avoid anything by Jung Chung (Wild Swans, and especially Mao the Untold Story). Most of her stuff is fiction. There are plenty of unflattering books on Mao available so you don’t need to read this crap.
Life and Death in Shanghai is pretty interesting, but again is about a specific point in time and not that relevant to now.
So, it would be a helpful if you could pin down a little bit more closely your interest. The OP is kinda like “recomend me a book on western civilization.”
I’m not disagreeing, but can you elaborate on how much of Wild Swans is bullshit? It was a fascinating read, but even without any outside knowledge of what went on in those particular places at those specific times, I was a bit skeptical of certain bits.
I recommend “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”, and “Shadow of the Silk Road”.
I read it once, soon after it came out, recommended as “you gotta read this” by someone that new jack about China, and now 10+ years later off the cuff disclaimer out of the way:
Her mother and grandmother stuff was family legends. Without knowing the details and not having researched her family or anything, but the accounts are a complete whitewash. IIRC, Her father was the party secretary or number 2 of Sichuan Province. She grew up calling Deng xiaoping “Uncle.” Somehow that translated into miraculously her co-workers in bumfuck nowhere in bumfuck nowhere province being so impressed with her socialist attitude and self sacrifice, that she alone was selected only on her ability and merits to study abroad when China first opened up. Everyone else at that time who “earned the merit” were middle aged scholars who’s families were effectively held hostage for their return. Jung Chung (and her name is some bastardized romanization) was a single woman in her 20’s that got it solely through her merits.
No doubt she is talented and has at least a hundred million more dollars than I do, but puh-leeze, a little honesty would be nice. A nod to some historic standards would also help.
She was the privledged off spring of a man who was in the top 500 most powerful people in China list. Her accounts are questionable at best. She was absolutely one of the Red Guard elites used by Mao to start his political game, and as soon as her usefulness was over, was sent out to the countryside. But not too far, and obviously, since she was sent abroad as a single woman in her 20’s in the first wave of “scholars” this a reward from Uncle Deng or those currying Uncle Deng’s favors.
Jung Chang doesn’t own up to any of this in her book. Wild Swans reads like Forrest Gump with her family as the heroines when the reality was a lot different. I’d say her book is about as accurate on China as Forrest Gump is on America.
The Man Who Stayed Behind by Sidney Rittenberg is an awesome read - he’s a former American communist who was present at some historic events, and spent a lot of time in Mao’s jails too.
I also liked Red China Blues by Jan Wong - another disillusioned communist, this time hailing from Canada.
If you’re just looking for general histories of China, you might check out some of the books by the late John King Fairbank: China: A New History, The Cambridge History of China, Chinese Thoughts & Institutions, The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985, and The United States and China are some of his books.
China Wakes, by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn. An analysis of where China has come from culturally, where they are now, and how far they have to go, from a human rights and socioeconomic standpoint. It covers everything from the still-existing clan/village structure in rural China to the capitalist-in-all-but-name (and massively corrupt) big cities.
The authors, who are married, won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Tiananmen Square in 1989, and they alternate chapters - Kristoff from his Western lawyer, and WuDunn from her Chinese-American MBA perspective.
I second Red China Blues, a very good read about a westerner and Chinese culture and history.
China’s Stockmarket for a good description on how a stockmarket developed in China and how it works today.
Another one that I think is a vital read in understanding China, albeit somewhat peripherally, is Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French, the former chairman of the Free Tibet movement in the UK.
It’s the most (seemingly - I have no first-hand knowledge to genuinely back up my opinion) honest description of the history and present situation in Tibet, and China’s place in the occupied and subsumed country’s history. IMO this is a truly stunning work, and should be required reading for anyone who expresses an opinion about the situation. Though you’re probably in no danger, I wouldn’t try to bring it into China, though, just in case.
I enjoyed these a lot:
Oracle Bones and River Town by Peter Hessler
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.
I was really impressed by One Thousand Pieces of Gold by Adeline Yen Mah, which describes Chinese history through its proverbs, pointing out the link between them (and relating them to her own life).
I really enjoy Jonathan Spence. His books deal with older history rather than modern China, but they are well written and offer a fascinating insight into the culture.
Also, as I recall Wild Swans, she does talk about how high up in the party her father was, and the intraparty politics that brought him down. Several Chinese people I know told me it was a very accurate portrayal of the Cultural Revolution from the inside.
I agree that Mao, the Untold Story, is pretty much unreadable. She hates the man so much that objectivity and reality got left behind.
A very, very good book, and a classic of French literature, is Man’s Fate by André Malraux.
Actually, if you have any good, brief books about western civilization…
But yeah, bascially, we’re encouraged to just read in general about our target language and culture. Stuff like current events I can probably get from skimming Xinxua, and for my purposes, stuff like modern history, more recent military stuff (I’m particularly interested in their officer training program and their efforts in modernizing and expanding their Navy and Air Force that I’ve heard vague mentions of in class), and general cultural things like popular kids stories or TV shows and such that they might make references to.
I’m not sure if this is what you’re after, but I sure enjoyed Paul Theroux’s Riding the Iron Rooster.