In anticipation of the Olympic Games, The Guardian's book blog showcased "Catherine Sampson's top 10 books on Beijing":- Beijing Coma by Ma Jian
- Please Don't Call Me Human by Wang Shuo
- A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
- The Uninvited by Yan Geling
- The Crazed by Ha Jin
- The Last Empress by Anchee Min
- Serve the People by Yan Lianke
- I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen
- The Dragon's Tail by Adam Williams
- Beijing Doll by Chun Sue
I can vouch for The Crazed, but I haven't yet read any of the others unfortunately.
4 comments:
The Last Empress was great!
I recommend Geling Yan's work and encourage anyone interested in finding out more about it to go to her website, www.redroom.com/author/geling-yan
Not fiction, but a fascinating and hilarious memoir I recommend: Red China Blues, by Jan Wong. Amazing 1st person account of a Canadian-Chinese who studied in China during the Cultural Revolution and who revisited China over the decades. Wong is a great writer and dramatically shows how living in China both brainwashed her and made her skeptical about politics. Here's an interview she did with Frontline PBS . Of course, this is nonfiction, but her story is still a lot of fun. (She studied in Beijing as a student in the 1970s and visited there several times).
Thanks for the great recommendations!
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