Books about China

It is a super short read. Within 150 pages, this book provides a quick and absorbing introduction to more than 4000 years of history, covering stories of famous emperors, artists, philosophers and so on, and describing the amazing technological advances China have had. 

This book also captures well the turbulent times, wars, famines, rebellions, movements and aspirations Chinese people have experienced throughout the history. 

For anyone who is curious to know the conflicts that China and the West have had dating back to the Qing Dynasty and China’s internal struggles over the past few centuries, this is the book to start. It provides a good account of major characters and events starting around 1600, and sheds light on the current issues and problems China is facing.

The stories Spence narrated are multi-faceted, not only covering what the West’s point of views but also what the Chinese was experiencing. The only drawback of the book is that it does not have much information in terms of individual small people’s lives and their personal life stories. But with already more than 700 pages to read, we will content us with the big pictures Spence painted.

This book is often credited as being the first one to present the West a detailed account of Mao Zedong. But this is not the reason why it is recommended here. 

A remarkable achievement of this book is its descriptions of all kinds of people, both the famous ones and the insignificant ones who left a record in the history by pure chance. It is fascinating to read Snow’s personal experience of what it was like in the blockaded Red area during the 1930s. He gave a detailed account of the political climate and the complicated relationship of the various parities of the time. Also, Snow showed us a good example of searching for the truth and answers when fake news were permeated.