{"id":1238,"date":"2023-10-24T03:59:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/best-books-about-modern-china\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T17:54:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T09:54:49","slug":"best-books-about-modern-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/best-books-about-modern-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Books About Modern China"},"content":{"rendered":"

China baffles many newcomers with the complexities of its history, language, and culture. Many aspects of daily life in China leave foreigners scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

A success-driven expat must place their nose in a book and seek to understand the int<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

China baffles many newcomers<\/a> with the complexities of its history, language, and culture. Many aspects of daily life in China leave foreigners scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

A success-driven expat must place their nose in a book and seek to understand<\/a> the intricacies of Chinese culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The books below should be on every expat\u2019s bookshelf.<\/p>\n

\n

On China<\/strong>\u00a0by Henry Kissinger<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curious about what it\u2019s actually like to negotiate and work with China? Take it from a guy who lived it. Henry Kissinger is one of the most influential architects of modern US-China relations, and in On China he goes under the hood of our countries\u2019 diplomatic ties to reveal how China thinks and how we\u2019ve worked together in the past (from the Sino-Soviet days to Nixon\u2019s famed trip), and he offers a prognosis on how our two nations will interact in years to come.<\/p>\n

-Signature Reads<\/p>\n

\"Book1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Henry Kissinger dines with Zhou Enlai<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Breitbart<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0China in Ten Words by Yu Hua<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organized into essays built around ten common Chinese phrases, award-winning writer Yu Hua\u2019s China in Ten Words addresses a variety of topics that are front of mind for most contemporary Chinese. His writing is fearless and thoughtful and humorous, all at once.<\/p>\n

-Signature Reads<\/p>\n

\"Book2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image: smithsonianapa.org<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

China Witness by Xinran<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her book China Witness, journalist and charity founder Xinran sets out to present a full understanding of the nation of China through the stories of its elders. While travel<\/a>ing throughout the country, she met with the men and women who witnessed firsthand all that modernity has brought to this part of Asia.<\/p>\n

-Signature Reads<\/p>\n

\"Book3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image: fantasticfiction.co.uk<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Country Driving by Peter Hessler<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might as well pick up all three of Hessler\u2019s books on China, which are elegantly written, hilariously funny, and deeply insightful. The third, Country Driving, provides an on-the-ground account of the rapid industrialization in China that foreigners often read about but rarely see. (A bra-parts factory producing thin-steel rings for straps\u2014and only those rings\u2014is one of the memorable businesses.) As the title suggests, the book is partly a study of China\u2019s new driving culture\u2014it might be worth the Amazon price alone for an extended version of Hessler\u2019s story about earning his Chinese driver\u2019s license\u2014but it also illustrates how industries across the country, far away from the glitzy skylines of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, continue transforming China with consequences both positive (new-found wealth) and negative (a carelessness about pollution).<\/p>\n

-Fortune<\/p>\n

\"Book4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image: China Daily<\/p>\n

\n

The Party, Richard McGregor<\/p>\n

The Communist Party is ubiquitous in China, but it\u2019s often hard to see from the West behind the veneer of publicly listed companies, Shanghai skyscrapers, and record-setting IPOs. In amazing detail McGregor pulls back the curtain on the CCP to describe the party\u2019s influence on all levels of Chinese life. Nothing better has been written about inner workings of the CCP: You can\u2019t talk about China without the party, and McGregor\u2019s reporting reveals just how powerful it<\/p>\n

-Fourtune<\/p>\n

\"Book5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image: weltbild.de<\/p>\n

Sources: Signature Reads and Fortune<\/p>\n

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