Read the World: China

Books by authors from China or set in/about China.

Updated February 16, 2024
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Dragon seed
Buck, Pearl S.
Paper Book
The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last empress in China. In the novel, Nobel Prize Winner, Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most interesting rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Pearl S. Buck's knowledge of and fascination with the Empresses' life are contagious. She...
The story of paper
Compestine, Ying Chang.
Paper Book
After the Kang brothers get in trouble at school, the devise a way to make paper, which will make things easier for both their teacher and themselves.
Homesick my own story
Fritz, Jean
Paper Book
"Fritz draws readers into scenes of her youth in the turbulent China of the mid-twenties. . . . the generous affection of her nurse/companion . . . her mother's grief over losing a second child, the dynamics of asuffering population venting its hostility on foreigners, and most of all, the...
Soul mountain
Gao, Xingjian.
Paper Book
"If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and Soul Mountain have succeeded spectacularly." -- Washington Post Book World An extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound...
Celebrated cases of Judge Dee = Dee goong an an authentic eighteenth-century Chinese detective novel
Gulik, Robert Hans van, 1910-1967
Paper Book
Long before Western writers had even conceived the idea of writing detective stories, the Chinese had developed a long tradition of literary works that chronicled the cases of important district magistrates. These judges held a unique position. As "fathers to the people" they...
The haunted monastery a Judge Dee mystery
Gulik, Robert Hans van, 1910-1967 author, illustrator.
Paper Book
Judge Dee and his entourage, seeking refuge from a mountain storm, become trapped in a Taoist monastery, where the Abbott Jade mysteriously dies after delivering an ecstatic sermon. The monks call it a supernatural experience, but the judge calls it murder. Recalling the allegedly accidental...
My Bejing : four stories of everyday wonder
Jun, Nie
Paper Book
A 2019 Batchelder Honor Book Yu'er and her grandpa live in a small neighborhood in Beijing--and it's full of big personalities. There's a story around every corner, and each day has a hint of magic. In one tale, Yu'er wants to swim in the...
The piano teacher a novel
Lee, Janice Y. K.
Paper Book
In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong. In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair...
Yeh-Shen a Cinderella story from China
Louie, Ai-Ling
Paper Book
Told with beauty and grace, this Cinderella story from Ai-Ling Louie is brought vividly to life by Caldecott Medal-winner Ed Young's soft, glowing illustrations. Half-starved and overworked by her stepmother, Yeh-Shen's only friend is a fish with golden eyes. When the stepmother...
The moon in the palace
Randel, Weina Dai
Paper Book
A thrilling work of historical fiction, bringing romance, intrigue, and the unexpected rise of an Empress to intoxicating life under the inscrutable moon. In Tang Dynasty China, a concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the Emperor's attention. Many...
Snow flower and the secret fan a novel
See, Lisa.
Paper Book
Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound...
The kitchen god's wife
Tan, Amy.
Paper Book
With the same narrative skills and evocative powers that made her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, a national bestseller, Tan now tells the story of Winnie Louie, an aging Chinese woman unfolding a life's worth of secrets to her suspicious, Americanized daughter.
Grandmaster of demonic cultivation: mo dao zu shi (the comic / manhua), volume 1 [electronic resource].
Xiu, Mo Xiang Tong.
Paper Book
HAUNTED BY SIN Following the trail of a dismembered corpse, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at the gates of Yi City: an old, abandoned town shrouded in mist and restless spirits. A fiendish foe awaits them in the shadows, heralding a tale of heartbreak and tragedy. When the...
Song of the Silk Road
Yip, Mingmei.
Paper Book
In this richly imaginative novel, Mingmei Yip--author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Petals From the Sky--follows one woman's daunting journey along China's fabled Silk Road. As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert--its long,...
Love in a fallen city
Zhang, Ailing.
Paper Book
Masterful short works about passion, family, and human relationships by one of the greatest writers of 20th century China.  A New York Review Books Original   "[A] giant of modern Chinese literature" -The New York Times   ...

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