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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

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Chinese Lessons, Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

Chinese Lessons, Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

by John Pomfret

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Pomfret chronicles the lives and fates of his classmates from the University of Nanjing, where he was an exchange student in 1981, in this dramatic account of tumultuous change. (CHN382, $16.99)

China Shakes the World

China Shakes the World

by James Kynge

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 270 PAGES

China Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, Beijing-based Kynge brings experience and perspective to this very readable, enlightening report on the transformation of China today. (CHN353, $14.95)

China Road

China Road

by Rob Gifford

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

NPR's Gifford writes with warmth and affection of his encounters with truckers, small farmers and regular folk along fabled Route 312 from Shanghai to the border of Kazakhstan. (CHN433, $17.00)

Dragon Rising, An Inside Look at China Today

Dragon Rising, An Inside Look at China Today

by Jasper Becker

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 264 PAGES

Asia scholar Jasper Becker examines the pertinent questions and issues facing modern China and its relationship to the global economy. (CHN365, $18.95)

The State of China Atlas

The State of China Atlas

by Robert Benewick | Stephanie Donald

  • REFERENCE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 128 PAGES

A bold visual survey of political, economic and social change in China. (CHN68, $21.95)

Culture Smart! China

Culture Smart! China

by Kathy Flower

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

Take along this handy guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (CHN434, $9.95)

 
As China Goes, So Goes the World, How Chinese Consumers Are Transforming Everything

As China Goes, So Goes the World, How Chinese Consumers Are Transforming Everything


by Karl Gerth

  • REFERENCE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Gerth shows the growing impact of Chinese consumer choices on the world economy. (CHN667, $16.00)

Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai

Eyewitness Guide Beijing and Shanghai


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

This superb guide features color photography, excellent maps and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood overview of each city. (CHN385, $23.00)

Eyewitness Guide China

Eyewitness Guide China


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 672 PAGES

This hefty illustrated guide to sites, attractions and places throughout China features excellent maps and hundreds of color photographs and site diagrams. (CHN242, $30.00)

Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook

Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook


by Hua-Yuan L. Mowry | Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

A handy phrasebook for basic Mandarin, focusing on pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (CHN72, $8.99)

Pocket China Atlas, Maps and Facts at Your Fingertips


by Stephanie Hemelryk Donald

  • REFERENCE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 64 PAGES

With 25 full-color topical maps, clear graphics and an informative, readable text, this volume charts the profound changes within China and traces their implications for the world at large. (CHN485, $17.95)

About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship With China

About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship With China


by James Mann

  • HISTORY
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

A history and analysis of Chinese-American relations. (CHN111, $17.95)

China in Ten Words

China in Ten Words


by Allen Barr

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

"Like ten pairs of eyes -- to scrutinize the current China under ten different angles," Yu Hua traces the transformation of life in China since the Cultural Revolution though key words. (CHN680, $15.00)

China in the 21st Century, What Everyone Needs to Know

China in the 21st Century, What Everyone Needs to Know


by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

Wasserstrom puts China's policies, industrialization and international relations in the context of its history and culture in this concise, illuminating introduction. (CHN587, $16.95)

China the Balance Sheet, What the World Needs to Know about the Emerging Superpower


by Bates Gill | C. Fred Bergsten

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

A fact-filled, academic report on Chinese colossus by teams at the Centre for Strategic International Studies and the Institute for International Economics, both think tanks on international economic policy in Washington D.C. (CHN354, $13.95)

China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power

China Wakes, The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power


by Nicholas Kristoff | Sheryl WuDunn

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 501 PAGES

The authors journeyed from Tibet to Tiananmen, reporting in depth on contemporary China and its cultural dissidents. An engrossing portrait of a nation struggling to hold onto tradition while modernizing its economy. (CHN33, $16.95)

China's Rise in Historical Perspective


by Brant Womack

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 286 PAGES

Leading experts contribute to this engaing primer on the politics and economy of contemporary China. (CHN703, $29.95)

China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World

China, Inc. How the Rise of the Next Superpower Changes America and the World


by Ted C. Fishman

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

An economist and former commodities trader, Ted Fishman draws on statistics, case studies and interviews in this lively economic history and guide to understanding China's spectacular economic growth and future prospects. (CHN305, $17.00)

Civilization, The West and the Rest

Civilization, The West and the Rest


by Niall Ferguson

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 402 PAGES

The Harvard historian argues that six key concepts -- competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic -- have contributed to the rise of the West. (WLD230, $18.00)

Day of Empire, How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall


by Amy Chua

  • HISTORY
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

Chua looks to the histories of Persia, Rome, China, the Mongols, the Dutch, the British, and the United States, arguing that pluralism and tolerance contributes to the making of a super power. (CHN702, $16.95)

Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic

Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic


by Betty Bao Lord

  • HISTORY
  • 1991
  • PAPER
  • 242 PAGES

A memoir of contemporary China, interweaving a family tale with interviews and testimony. (CHN84, $19.00)

Modern China, The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present


by Johnathan Fenby

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 816 PAGES

Jonathan Fenby tells the turbulent story of modern China with personality and a journalist's eye for historical panorama. (CHN542, $34.95)

On China

On China


by Henry Kissinger

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 608 PAGES

Kissinger examines how China has approached diplomacy, strategy and negotiation throughout its history, and reflects on the consequences for the global balance of power in the 21st century. (CHN683, $18.00)

Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones


by Peter Hessler

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 512 PAGES

In this fine portrait of tumult and tradition, Hessler (River Town) finds clues to modern China's realities in the personal stories of peasants, scholars, day laborers and activists. (CHN316, $15.99)

Out of Mao's Shadow, The Struggle for the Soul of a New China


by Philip P. Pan

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 349 PAGES

A former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief's frank but sobering account of the iniquity underpinning China's lurch towards capitalism. Pan crisscrossed the vast nation to reveal "the moral drift of a cynical society" presided over by a corrupt oligarchy. (CHN723, $16.00)

Popular China, Unoffical Culture in a Globalizing Society

Popular China, Unoffical Culture in a Globalizing Society


by Paul G. Pickowicz | Richard P. Madsen | Perry Link

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

A reader on manifestations of popular culture in contemporary China, including chapters by both Chinese and western contributors. (CHN259, $34.95)

Postcards from Tomorrow Square

Postcards from Tomorrow Square


by James Fallows

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

Ranging from politics to society and business, these richly observed, candid essays capture the complexity, tumult and promise of modern China. A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, where these essays first appeared, Fallows moved with his wife to China in 2006. (CHN559, $15.00)

Red Capitalism


by Carl E. Walter

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 234 PAGES

Walter illuminates the fragile financial foundation of China's extraordinary rise in this insider's view of the the banking system. (CHN694, $29.95)

Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space


by Wu Hung

  • HISTORY
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Author Hung witnessed firsthand the the reinvention of Beijing since the Communist revolution. Focusing on Tiananmen Square, Hung chronicles its evolution from an ancient Imperial site to a political public space, and its shift from an official socialist monument to a place for protestors and demonstrators. (CHN415, $35.00)

Shanghai Modern, The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945


by Leo Ou-Fan Lee

  • HISTORY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

A scholarly look at Chinese urban culture in pre-war Shanghai. (CHN64, $34.00)

Shower


by Zhang Yang

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2000
  • DVD

In this film by Zhang, a succesful Shenzhen businessman reluctantly returns to his childhood home in Beijing when he hears his father has died. When he discovers that his father is in fact alive, he is forced to reexamine his relationships with his father and brother and the decisions that have kept him away from home for so long. (CHN326, $29.95)

The Gate of Heavenly Peace, The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980

The Gate of Heavenly Peace, The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980


by Jonathan Spence

  • HISTORY
  • 1982
  • PAPER
  • 516 PAGES

Jonathan Spence, a prolific scholar of Chinese history at Yale, delivers a portrait of Chinese revolution, combining straightforward political history with an intriguing selection of materials by poets, artists and intellectuals. (CHN195, $20.00)

The Great Wall, China Against the World, 1000 BC - 2000 AD

The Great Wall, China Against the World, 1000 BC - 2000 AD


by Julia Lovell

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 412 PAGES

The Who, Why and Wherefore of the Great Wall, this marvelous history demolishes myths (no, the wall is not a continuous structure of great antiquity, as much of it was built in the 1600s) with fresh insight and wit. (CHN308, $15.00)

The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds

The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds


by David M. Lampton

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Clear, comprehensive, and well-balanced, this assessment takes the measure of what is arguably the most important geopolitical development in today's world: the growth of China's power. (CHN541, $29.95)

Tide Players, The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China

Tide Players, The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China


by Jianying Zha

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 224 PAGES

A Beijinger raised during the Cultural Revolution, who studied in South Carolina in the 1980s and demonstrated in Tiananmen Square, Jianying Zha understands both worlds intimately. In these portraits of six remarkable individuals, she tracks the lives and stories of six remarkable individuals, including the rags-to-riches tale of an unlikely real estate couple, a publishing maverick and business tycoon along with writers and dissidents, including her brother, jailed for nine years as a founder of the China Democracy Party. (CHN665, $24.95)

Tracking Bodhidharma, A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture

Tracking Bodhidharma, A Journey to the Heart of Chinese Culture


by Andy Ferguson

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 288 PAGES

Ferguson's evocative journey on the trail of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, takes him deep into the heart of Chinese culture old and new. (CHN707, $26.00)

Understanding China

Understanding China


by John Bryan Starr

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

The Yale professor's essential primer on the history, politics and economy of China. A succinct and refreshingly forthright best-selling guide, this third edition brings us right up to date with events in the rapidly evolving nation. (CHN196, $17.95)

Will the Boat Sink the Water?, The Life of China's Peasants

Will the Boat Sink the Water?, The Life of China's Peasants


by Chen Guidi | Wu Chuntao

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 229 PAGES

The husband and wide journalists demonstrate the devastating impact of the revolution on ordinary Chinese, showing too of the dark side of Chine's recent rocketing economic growth. Banned in China (where it has sold millions of copies on the black market). (CHN489, $15.95)

Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana

Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana


by Stephanie Elizondo Griest

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

The offbeat memoirs of a Texan who spent four years as a volunteer in Moscow, a propaganda officer in Beijing, and a belly dancer in Havana. (RUS242, $14.95)

Confessions, An Innocent Life in Communist China

Confessions, An Innocent Life in Communist China


by Zhengguo Kang

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 455 PAGES

Kang, now a professor at Yale, writes with verve and immediacy in this remarkable memoir of coming of age in Mao's China. (CHN500, $15.95)

Foreign Babes in Beijing, Behind the Scenes of a New China

Foreign Babes in Beijing, Behind the Scenes of a New China


by Rachel DeWoskin

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 332 PAGES

DeWoskin entertainingly illuminates Chinese versus Western perceptions in this enlightening memoir of her experiences in Beijing (where she landed a role in a soap opera of the title). (CHN478, $21.95)

Looking for Chengdu, A Woman's Adventure in China

Looking for Chengdu, A Woman's Adventure in China


by Hill Gates

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Anthropologist Hill Gates sets off on a series of excursions through the inland province of Sichuan. Gates is especially curious to learn how the economic boom has effected the women of Sichuan, which was the birthplace of Chinese economic reforms in the 1970s. (CHN74, $28.50)

Lost on Planet China

Lost on Planet China


by J. Maarten Troost

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Lost on Planet China finds the irrepressible J. Maarten Troost dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai; eating Yak in Tibet; deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as Cattle Penis with Garlic); and visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead, very orange). He's not just funny, he's a guide to mixed-up modern China. (CHN496, $16.00)

Mr. China's Son, A Villager's Life

Mr. China's Son, A Villager's Life


by He Liyi

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Written with warmth, humor and an admirable lack of bitterness, this autobiography by a villager from Yunnan is a poignant glimpse into the rural experience in China over 50 years, including the Japanese invasion, Communist revolution, and time in reeducation camps. (CHN399, $43.00)

Mr. China, A Memoir

Mr. China, A Memoir


by Tim Clissold

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 262 PAGES

An excellent portrait of contemporary China. Clissold writes with humor and insight in this entertaining account of his encounters with the Chinese and the Chinese way of doing business. (CHN306, $14.99)

Red Dust, A Path Through China

Red Dust, A Path Through China


by Ma Jian | Flora Drew

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 324 PAGES

An astounding memoir by an urban poet, painter and writer on the road to Tibet. A vagabond, rebel and Buddhist, Jian abandons his Beijing life for a 3-year southwestern journey through Tibet, Burma and Guizhou Province. (CHN150, $16.00)

Socialism Is Great!, A Worker's Memoir of the New China

Socialism Is Great!, A Worker's Memoir of the New China


by Lijia Zhang

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

A student who joined the Tiananmen Square protest, Lijia Zhang traces her coming of age in Nanjing in the 1980s in this spirited memoir. (CHN501, $15.00)

The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City

The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City


by Michael Meyer

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Meyer's lovely memoir of the hutong (ancient lane) where he taught school captures the rhythms, traditions and spirit of the alleyways, gardens and courtyard houses of Beijing's traditional neighborhoods south of Tiananmen. (CHN493, $18.00)

Wuhu Diary, On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China


by Emily Prager

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

An account of a two-month trip to China in 2001. (CHN210, $13.00)

Beijing Coma

Beijing Coma


by Ma Jian

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 624 PAGES

In this remarkable novel former Tiananmen Square protester Dai Wei awakens after a decade, learning that his mother had sold one of his kidneys to finance his care, and that the China he knew has undergone radical change. (CHN502, $18.00)

Streetlife China

Streetlife China


by Michael Dutton

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

A scholarly collection of essays about the realities of living in modern-day China, by a variety of contributors. (CHN222, $36.99)

The Beijing of Possibilites

The Beijing of Possibilites


by Jonathan Tel

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

Combining elements of the surreal with carefully observed details of present-day Beijing, Tel's entertaining short stories offer a rich portrait of the city and the tensions between its history and present. (CHN556, $14.95)

Waiting

Waiting


by Ha Jin

  • LITERATURE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 308 PAGES

A spare, haunting story of a military doctor who tries for 18 years to divorce his peasant wife so he can marry a more sophisticated nurse at his hospital. Greatly evocative of quotidian life in China during the Cultural Revolution and after. (CHN80, $16.00)

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