Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
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The Garlic Ballads, by Mo Yan (2006—new ed.)
Mo Yan (Red Sorghum) writes with aching, even shocking lyricism about a garlic farmer's plight against a corrupt government when his lover dies and he is wrongfully imprisoned.
The Drink and Dream Teahouse, by Justin Hill (2001)
Novel traces how three generations are affected by the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and other late 20th-century events. Cast of sweet and funny rural eccentrics wryly illustrate clash between Communism and capitalism, traditional and modern, young and old.
Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present, by Peter Hessler (2006)
A loose collection of well-observed essays about contemporary China by a Beijing correspondent and decade-long American expat.
The Past and the Punishments: Eight Stories, by Yu Hua (1996)
These contemporary short stories by Yu Hua (To Live) are preoccupied with the meaning and dissemination of punishment, in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution.
Rice: A Novel, by Su Tong (2004)
Personal melodrama reflected extreme social turbulence in the literature of 20th-century China. Accordingly: adultery, blackmail, murder, and incest pervade this dark novel by Su Tong (Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas), about a depraved 1930s gang leader exacting pricey revenge against society.
Waiting, by Ha Jin (2000)
Far from home, a married doctor falls in love with a single nurse. Year after year, he returns home to ask his wife for a divorce. Beautifully calibrated modern-day novel about the perseverance and endurance of passion and the Chinese spirit.
