Listmania!
Best books about modern China History, Culture and Politics
Great Leap Forward: Harvard Design School Project on the City (Taschen specials)Great Leap Forward: Harvard Design School Project on the City (Taschen specials)
Buy new: £9.99 / Used from: £15.69
Most imaginative and innovative book about modern China, from a totally new perspective - the organisation of China's urban space
The Burning Forest: Essays on Chinese Culture and PoliticsThe Burning Forest: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics by Simon Leys
Buy used from: £6.74
Wonderfully witty, a take on China immediately Post Mao, and still a good starting point for centering oneself now
The Chinese Box (China Coast Trilogy 2)The Chinese Box (China Coast Trilogy 2) by Christopher New
Buy used from: £17.99
Perhaps the only novel about China by a foreigner to capture the experience of engaging with the challanges and paradoxes of contemporary China
China Shakes The World: The Rise of a Hungry NationChina Shakes The World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation by James Kynge
Buy new: £12.49 / Used from: £0.01
A good practical account of the impact of China's economic growth on Chinese, and the world. The case stufy of Lifan is particularly interesting
China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental AutocracyChina's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy by M Pei
Buy new: £36.05 / Used from: £26.22
An account by a Chinese economist of the position China is currently in - the world's first rich-poor country
China at the CrossroadsChina at the Crossroads by Peter Nolan
Buy new: £17.09 / Used from: £16.00
Provocative look at the challenges facing China at the opening of the 21st century, Anything by Nolan is worth looking at - one of the few writers who uses a good evidence base to write about China.
Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges (East Gate Books)Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges (East Gate Books) by Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Buy new: £76.90 / Used from: £57.03
A bang up to date account of China's new leadership, by one of the most experienced commentators on modern China
Struggling Giant: China in the 21st CenturyStruggling Giant: China in the 21st Century by Kerry Brown
Buy new: £9.52 / Used from: £6.58
I would suggest this! But it contains a personal perspective on what are the unique contradictions of China in the modern period, and how we have to engage.