Reccomend a book about china

rivers

hi, could anyone reccomend to me a good book on the politics, economy, etc. of China in recent years?
thanks

jackbhoy

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang/Jon Halliday.

Not exactly about modern day but fantastic insight into 20th century China and Mao's influence, which is still powerful today. Well written if not entirely unbiased. I'm sure there are dozens of books about the Chinese economic "miracle" but this tells about what came before and how things have changed since.

Extreme-LoopZ

also Wild Swans by Jung Chang is brilliant, her biography....

rivers

Yea i have that Mao biography. havent read it though yet. I've heard that its very biased against poor old mao. I'll give it a read sometime.
anyway about economics or politics, there's so many books out there on this subject its difficult to tell which are the good ones...

Conchords

I came across this thread looking for tips on books about China. Seems like it didn't inspire great responses when initially posted so here's my own favourites, for what they are worth:

'China Shakes the World' - by an FT journalist - is good for economic background but it's over a year old. China is changing pretty fast so plenty has changed even since this was published.

'China Road' is a very personal journey across China with a good insights into the Chinese mindset.

'Beijing for Beginners: an Irishman in the People's Republic' is much more entertaining than the two titles above but not as heavyweight on economics. Plenty of info packed in there too and it's by an Irish author.

'Mao' is heavy going but worth it. It says a lot about how modern China came to be but is necessarily focused on the past. Painstakingly researched but heavy going.

gaf1983

What does China think? by Mark Leonard, a short and readable summary of some of the policy debates that have been taking place about the way the country's going in recent years.

Would also like to add my voice of approval to Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

tHE vAGGABOND

There is another one I read on Mao written by his longtime Doctor [who was an American].

Its called, "The private Life of Chairman Mao"

There was another good one called "Red China Blues" which talks about life of an ordinary person pre-cultural revolution and then the hell during it..

randomguy

There was a great line in a review of that Mao: The Unknown Story, which went along the lines of:
The tragedy of China is that Mao killed 30 million victims; the tragedy of this book is that the authors try to tell the story of every single one of them.

I think the reviewer found it a bit too long and detailed.

Amazotheamazing

China Shakes the World, mentioned above, is a great read.

mlelsc

Richard Baum: The Political Impact of China's Information Revolution.

Hard reading but the best that' out there at the moment.
Good luck.