Rating: 8.1/10. An introductory book to Du Fu, a poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty and is considered one of the greatest in China’s history. He was known as the ‘Poet Historian,’ with poems that chronicle many of the situations of poor people and daily life in an era full of warfare. The book…
Category: China
Trade Wars Are Class Wars by Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis
Rating: 8.1/10. Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace by Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis Book by two economists and analyzes the macroeconomic situation of trade wars, primarily between the US and China, but also involving other countries. The root of these trade conflicts is…
China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty by Mark Edward Lewis
Rating: 7.5/10. An academic history book about everything you wanted to know about the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), considered one of the Chinese Golden Ages, is organized by topic and written in a fairly academic tone. It may be a bit long-winded for a casual audience, as it makes an effort to be detailed rather…
The Party by Richard McGregor
Rating: 7.5/10. The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor Book by an Australian journalist describing the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party. The politburo (“The Party”) is a secretive organization, out of sight of the common people. It comprises of only a handful of elite individuals, who are seldom…
Fortress Besieged (围城) by Qian Zhongshu
Rating: 8.0/10. A classic Chinese novel of the 20th century, set in 1937, a period of chaos and disorder in Chinese history when it was being invaded by the Japanese. The main character, Fang Hongjian, is a student who studied in Europe for a few years but drifted around without earning a degree and ended…
AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee
Rating: 7.9/10. Book Review: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee Book by Taiwanese CEO and venture capitalist working in China, talking about the differences in AI in China and the US, as well as the future of AI in society. Lee starts the book with the AlphaGo matches,…
Traditional Government in Imperial China (中国历代政治得失) by Ch’ien Mu
Rating: 7.8/10. Book about how the government and its institutions functioned during several ancient Chinese regimes: the Han, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The author Ch’ien Mu (钱穆) was born at the end of the Qing dynasty and is considered one of the greatest Chinese historian / philosophers of the 20th century; this book…
Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick
Rating: 7.7/10. Summary Book by an American journalist, about the history of modern Tibet, from the 1950s until today. The book focuses on the Ngaba region in Sichuan, which was famous recently for its political activism and monks setting themselves on fire. Ngaba (also called Aba) is technically in the province of Sichuan, but most…
Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦) by Cao Xueqin
Rating: 7.2/10. One of the four great classic novels of Chinese literature, written in the 18th century. The novel has several English names: it is most commonly known as Dream of the Red Chamber, but also Story of the Stone. It spans 2500 pages over 5 volumes (David Hawkes’s translation), I got through about 200…
1587: A Year of No Significance (万历十五年) by Ray Huang
Rating: 7.8/10. In the year 1587, nothing really major happened in China, but in a lot of ways, this year marks the point of no return for the Ming dynasty. Even though there’s still another 50 years until the dynasty collapses, it’s already clear by this point that the bureaucracy and institutions are no longer…
The First Emperor by Sima Qian
Rating: 7.7/10. Translation of a few sections of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian. The whole Shiji is very long, so this work only translates the sections relating to the Qin dynasty. Sima Qian is a historian in the Han dynasty court, but his role was to collect anecdotes about historical…
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler
Rating: 7.2/10. A bunch of stories about China that personify the country’s rapid development into the modern age. The author Peter Hessler is an American journalist for the New Yorker magazine, who speaks Chinese fluently and spent a lot of time in China. There are various story arcs and the book switches back and forth…