S earching for an immersive new novel? Here are eight works of historical fiction , set in China—both classic texts set further into the past and novels by contemporary writers drawn from archival research.
“I read this book when I was about nine years old. It just made such an impact on me. O-Lan, the mother in this book, gives birth to two sons and two daughters, one of whom she strangles in infancy because there is not enough food to sustain the family. She’s born a slave. She’s plain and coarse. She toils silently and stoically all her life to provide for her family and is basically never rewarded. When her husband gets a little wealthier, virtually the first thing he does is take in a concubine. O-Lan has stuck with me for all these years.” Read more...
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Amy Chua ,
Lawyer
“There’s one other novel I’ve just started, Peach Blossom Paradise , a brand new historical novel with fanciful elements by Ge Fei that is set close to 1900 as well. It looks very good, but I’m not far enough along to be able to recommend it yet. I’ll be able to tell you more about that next time we speak.” Read more...
Best China Books of 2020
Jeffrey Wasserstrom ,
Historian
“I normally only read non-fiction books but, as you can see, this novel is exceptional…It is all about family life in a Chinese village before and after the 1949 revolution. These are ordinary people and the book looks at how they survive this very difficult period in Chinese history. This was the time of endless political war between the 1940s to the 1980s.” Read more...
The best books on Understanding China
Xinran ,
Nonprofit Leaders & Activist
“The Water Outlaws never slows its pace. Huang makes it clear early on in the novel that horrific things can and will happen to people in this world, and are difficult to predict, depending as they do on the whims of the powerful. This ensures your rapt attention at every half-sign of danger. The bandits are loveable and varied, the villains truly teeth-grindingly villainous.” Read more...
New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Novels: The 2024 Nebula Awards Shortlist
Sylvia Bishop ,
An immersive historical novel set in 15th-century China, based on the true story of Tan Yunxian, a female physician who devoted her life to woman's healthcare. Kirkus called it "engrossing": "Women's friendships in a world where they have little freedom shape a quietly moving book."
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Pictured is volume one of Moss Roberts’s translation of the Three Kingdoms. There is also an abridged edition, which is excellent (and still comes in at 400+ pages).
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“You could say that its story is the story of all China, passed down from father to son. It is one of China’s four great classical novels, which also include the Journey to the West . But only with Romance of the Three Kingdoms did old Chinese stories really become Chinese literature. It’s also beautifully written. A reader can harvest a lot of history and knowledge from this book, because it chronicles all aspects of China. You can discover in it the entirety of the Chinese character, ancient and modern. All Chinese people today can find themselves in the Three Kingdoms , whether you are rich or poor, old or young.” Read more...
The Best Chinese Dissident Literature
Ma Jian ,
Novelist
“The Poppy War is about 19th and 20th century Chinese history, in a fantasy world. We’re imagining what it would be like if Chairman Mao was a teenage girl in a medieval fantasy setting. It begins very un-grimdark-ly, in this Harry Potterish magical school. Our hero Rin is taken off to this school, where she is ridiculed by most of the other people because she’s from the peasant class…She’s writing about the experience of someone who is trying, genuinely trying, to save her country and liberate it from colonialism. By the time you get to the end of the trilogy, there are armies which are being sponsored by foreign powers, who are coming into her country. She writes about the experience of China during the Second World War; she writes horribly about the Nanjing Massacre, and about the violence that was inflicted on China in the 19th century by Europe, and then in the 20th century by Japan. But she’s also writing about the resistance to it, generating the need for extreme action. Her character Rin is not an Aragorn or Harry Potter-like ‘decent person’. She’s driven, she’s violent, she’s not a pleasant character.” Read more...
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Anna Smith Spark ,
Novelist
“This book is believed by many to be the greatest Chinese novel ever written. For me, it is like a bible for everything to do with Chinese culture. Cao belonged to the Han Chinese clan and the book is a huge family novel written in the 18th century…It really is a wonderful book which has been translated by Penguin since 1970 and reprinted again and again. But many Westerners don’t know about this book, which is a shame because it is such a powerful book” Read more...
The best books on Understanding China
Xinran ,
Nonprofit Leaders & Activist
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