 | The Search for Modern China (Second Edition) by Jonathan D. Spence
Buy new: $41.52 / Used from: $23.99 Big and dense and thick, but still the BEST all-around book on Chinese history since the fall of the Qing
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 | The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.94 Beautifully written and amazingly researched--the full story of Japan's actions in Nanjing during WW2. It's disturbing and graphic--don't read it before bed, but read it.
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 | Shanghai: Electric & Lurid City
Buy used from: $68.93 History and prose mix to form a wonderful anthology about Shanghai
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 | Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now by Jan Wong
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $1.62 The hands-down BEST memoir about Communist China, written by an ethnically Chinese Canadian who moved to China during the Cultural Revolution and stayed.
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 | Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism by Edgar Snow
Buy new: $11.22 / Used from: $5.15 Written during the Communist Revolution--see why and how it succeeded and why it could have been a good thing.
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 | Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused: Fiction from Today's China
Buy new: $10.92 / Used from: $2.96 Recent fiction from Chinese authors.
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 | Red Sorghum: A Novel of China by Mo Yan
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $1.11 This prose has a lushness lacking in a lot of Chinese literature--the movie doesn't begin to do the writing or the story justice.
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 | Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas by Tong Su
Buy used from: $1.81 A compelling read you can finish in an afternoon.
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 | The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry
Buy new: $11.97 / Used from: $6.34 Also known as the "Classic of Poetry" Waley's translation is often considered the best.
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 | Shih-ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius by Ezra Pound
Buy new: $20.00 / Used from: $6.25 What Pound's translations lack in accuracy, they more than make up for the poetry, beauty. and attention to form. Use with the Waley translation.
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 | Let's Go 2002: China (Let's Go. China) by Let's Go Inc.
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $0.01 Better than Lonely Planet, but the prices are a bit off.
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 | The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran Xinran
Buy used from: $2.44 I read the British paperback, but this book offers chapter-length glimpses into the lives of modern Chinese women. Rather depressing, but a good read.
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