A memoir of the first 50 years of China's existence through the eyes of an American-educated child who returned in 1950 and ended up as English interpreter for Mao and Zhou and other top leaders. He is present at almost every major turning point in US-Chinese history, notably the Nixon visit of 1972. A real page turner, it reads like a novel.

In new China's first decades, its government included a handful of American and British intellectuals who were sympathetic to the socialist cause. Rittenberg was one, and suffered two extended unjust political imprisonments. Fascinating, if grim, but revealing in many ways of the hopes and paranoia that marked the Mao years.

This Academy Award-winner starring Van Johnson is about the first World War II bombing raid against Tokyo. The plan was for the bombers to land in China but most crashed and many American pilots were rescued by the Chinese. This is a beautiful story of the warmth and friendship that existed between the Chinese and American people before the Cold War.

Gorgeous, powerful story set in the 1920s about a young girl forced to become a concubine for a wealthy landlord. Considered one of the greatest films set in China of all time, it was shot in an actual palace in China and is much-loved by the Chinese themselves.

The best book about the insane period of the Cultural Revolution, which anyone who is interested in understanding China should be familiar with since it helped destroy many of the positive aspects of the Chinese character and interrupted the entire educational system for a decade. This is the inside story of how it came to be, why it came to be, and how bad it really was.