Rating: 8.5/10. A very tragic novel — the protagonist is an old man telling the story of his life when he was young. In the beginning, he was born into a rich family, he gambled all day. He lost all his family’s property gambling and they had to move into a small hut. At this…
Category: China
China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs To Know by Arthur R. Kroeber
Rating: 8.3/10. Book describing all aspects of China’s economy; unlike the previous book (“China Emerging“), this book was written by a Western author, and presents a balanced view of the situation. Since the economic reforms in 1978, the country has gotten a lot better, but the growth is uneven, with high levels of inequality. Still,…
China Emerging by Wu Xiaobo
Rating: 7.6/10. I got this book in Shenzhen, one of the few English books about China in the bookstore. It describes the history of China from 1978 to today. In 1978, China was very poor, having experienced famines and the cultural revolution under Mao Zedong’s rule. The early 1980s was a turning point for China,…
Sky Burial by Xinran Xue
Rating: 8.7/10. [WARNING: SPOILERS!] In this novel, a Chinese women, Shu Wen from Suzhou, travels to Tibet to search for her missing husband. This was in 1958, when the Chinese Communist Party annexed Tibet. On the way there, she picks up a Tibetan woman, Zhuoma. They get into some trouble in the mountains and meet…
Tao Te Ching (道德经) by Laozi
Rating: 8.5/10. Another major work of Chinese philosophy, forming the basis of Taoism, written in the 6th century BC (before Confucius). It’s fairly short, about 20 pages. In some ways it’s similar to Analects, which I read not too long ago, but there are some key differences. This is in some sense the eastern version…
Analects (论语) by Confucius
Rating: 8.5/10. The Analects (论语) is a book of philosophy by Confucius and lays down the groundwork for much of Chinese thinking for the next 2500 years. It’s the second book I’ve read in ancient Chinese literature after the Art of War. It’s written in a somewhat different style — it has 20 chapters of…
Three Body Trilogy by Liu Cixin
Rating: 8.7/10. [WARNING: SPOILERS!] Science fiction trilogy that was originally written in Chinese, and recently translated to English. It’s a hard sci-fi novel but quite good, hard to summarize because so much happened in the 3 books. I felt that the ending of the third book was a bit rushed and not satisfying. I’ll just…
The Art of War (孙子兵法) by Sun Tzu
Rating: 7.8/10. Classic treatise on war by ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu who lived in 500BC. It’s 13 short chapters, totaling about 50 pages, and can be read in 2-3 sittings. Some very famous quotes come from this book, like “if you know the enemy and yourself, you will win every battle; if you know…