An old saying suggests that those who have been in China for a day, write a book; those who stayed for a month,  write a page, while those who stayed longer find it all too complex to explain. Due to its complexity, no single book can provide the definitive guide to China. The good news, however, is that some 'Old China Hands' have defied the conventional wisdom and wrote about personal experiences and views.

In my view, China may best be approached like the infamous five blind men approaching the elephant - everyone explored a part and together they obtain a reasonable image. Thus, I recommend to read around the topic - read history and autobiographies, economic studies and novels, especially by local authors. Here are a few books that I have enjoyed over the years:

Contemporary Society

Good books on contemporary China are scarce because it rather difficult to write a balanced analysis of today's Chinese society without being out of date very quickly. There are a number of journalistic books that selectively report negative aspects, but that miss the bigger picture; I don't recommend that sort of book. There are also propaganda pieces that I don't value much either. Hence, the selection that I have here is short and starts with a book that starts with a lot of history.

On China,

Henry Kissinger is both a highly acclaimed political scientist, and a pivotal player in U.S.-Chinese diplomatic relations in the 1970s. His combination of deep scholarly knowledge and practical experience in diplomacy are integrated in this volume, probably one of the best contemporary books explaining Chinese history and politics to Western audiences.

About one third of the book is dedicated to explaining how Chinese, especially Chinese leaders, see their own history and hence the role of China in the global society. Historically, China saw itself at the centre of the world, and as the most advanced economy: At its peak in the late 18th century it probably accounted for more than a quarter for worldwide GDP. From this perspective, the relative decline of the 19th and 20th century is an anomaly; hence most Chinese leaders over recent decades see their rightful place on par with the big powers. Kissinger artfully outlines Chinese history from this perspective, skillfully outlining the broad lines without getting stuck on details.

From 1970, Kissinger was deeply involved in establishing diplomatic ties between the U.S. and China, including a secret visit in 1971 preparing president Nixon's historic visit in 1972. In this book, he recounts his conversations and the diplomatic thinking of the Nixon administration that led to those historical events, and a tacit (though never formalized) alliance between socialist China and capitalist America against their common foe, the Soviet Union. For the latter parts of the book, Kissinger interprets world politics since that time to the present day in light of both Chinese history and the events of the 1970s.

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

How China is really ruled is a puzzle for most Western observers, even for many Chinese themselves. The party appears to be everywhere, yet at the same time it does not have the same degree of micro-control that authoritarian regimes elsewhere in the world may have. After several years as Financial Times correspondent in China, Richard McGregor put together his insights on the party in a lively and very insightful book.

Extracting key insights from the book however is difficult, for two reasons. First, the interfaces of the party with virtually every major organization in China are complex and hard to capture in a few sentences. Second, McGregor's writing style is not very helpful in that he is meandering, jumping from one anecdote (experience, news item, personal interview) to another and back again, emphasizing the every present nature of the party - but not presenting what evidence he has systematically, or explaining the logic of how it works. By journalists' standards he does reasonably well (you probably expect me to call for more systematic presentation of facts and more systematic analysis, given that I am an academic).  However, the subject itself deliberately obscures itself such that such systematic evidence is hard to come by (for a good attempt see Brodsgaard, China Quarterly, 2012). Yet, there are a few journalistic generalizations, even polemics, which make it too easy for those aligned with the party to dismiss the book as poorly researched propaganda.

Understanding the role of the party also greatly helps explaining why it is an uphill struggle to contain corruption, even though it is prioritized by the new leadership in 2012. Essentially, Chinese provinces enjoy a lot of autonomy, even tough their leaders are rotated around the country, and power is highly concentrated - the government, police heads, judges and even journalists are in one way or another dependent one the same party leaders. Hence, China does not have what in the West since the French revolution is called the 'separation of powers'. This makes it very difficult to launch an independent investigation into any government mis-behavior (e.g. shady land deals), and corrupt officials tend to 'fall' only when they either fall out of favor politically (like Bo Xilai), or when they overdo the corruption and the display of wealth.

There is much more to this book that this small review can't capture. It is a worthwhile, perhaps even required, reading for those engaging with China, though not an easily digestible read.

How can a political system by authoritarian, yet stable? For decades Western observers have predicted the demise of Chinese political regime  because of it non-democratic nature and the changing needs of an increasingly affluent urban society. This study offers an answer to the puzzle by explaining the role of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Rory Truex, an Assistant Professor at Princeton, argues that China's system of "representation within bounds" is based on four principles: 1) representatives, i.e. NPC members, are encouraged to convey opinions of the people of their constituency to the leaders, but only on 'low preference issues'. The critical condition here is 'low preference issue' which means issues that are not central to the views of the autocrat - say, the need for better water irrigation, a new school building, or resolution of an environmental issue locally. 2) representatives face penalties if the challenge 'high preference issues', which in the Chinese context refer to the legitimacy of the rule of the party, the legitimacy of individual leaders, and any issues remotely related to the boundaries of China. 3) representatives are incentivized to show 'selective empathy' with their constituents, i.e. effectively representing their interests on low preference issues, while representing the party line when it comes to high preference issues. 4) Representatives will be rewarded for their loyalty, for example by re-appointment or through indirect benefits arising from the networks created as a NPC member.

Overall, based on my own numerous communications with lots of people in China, the findings and the theoretical argument explaining them is highly credible. Hence, if you worry how stable China is politically, read this book.

Trouble in the Middle: American Chinese Business Relations: Culture, Conflict, and Ethics

Steven Feldman set out to study Chinese-American business relationship through interviews in both business communities, and presents a profoundly insightful description and analysis not only how both business communities operate, but how they think about each other, and how they manage to do businesses despite deep gulfs between their practices and value systems. His central thesis is that the middlemen, who are so often managing the interfaces between American and Chinese sides in a business, face most of the moral dilemmas, while American business persons pretend to know anything of practices that would be unethical or illegal in the USA.

Feldman focuses on the ethics of practices in use. He starts from the recognition that ethical standards are part of culture, and therefore not universal. Individuals from different cultures, and hence ethical value systems, thus necessarily encounter situations where their value systems do not match. He thus observes that in this situation step "middlemen, who specialize in developing relationships with both cultures so as to bridge the relationship between them. But from an ethical point of view, the situation does not develop community, ... the middleman keeps the two business cultures apart. Since the ethical context for each culture is different, keeping the sides apart keeps the seeds of a new moral community from developing, ... it keeps the parties wary and distrustful." (page 37).

Using his interviews as a starting point, Feldman explores and analyses both Chinese business culture and the perceptions and actions of US businessmen in China by setting them in broader sociological and historical perspectives. This leads him to explain the extensive use of  personal relationships (the book cover features the characters for guanxi 关系), and of bribes, as an outcome of not only cultural values but of power relationships (including those in the political sphere), and of legacies of an unprocessed recent history. Overall, thus, he ends up being very critical of US businessmen compromising their values (while formally complying with the US foreign corrupt practice act), and pessimistic regarding the evolution of a moral common ground that would allow US-Chinese business relationship to prosper based on a common understanding of what is and what is not permissible.

Business:

I am not a great fan of 'Doing Business In' books, yet the following books provide rounded insights into business in China that is informed by both first-hand experiences and a broader vision of the Chinese context.

China Entrepreneur: Voices of Experience from 40 International Business Pioneers, by Juan Antonio Fernandez and Laurie Underwood, published by Wiley, 2009.

This book systematically reviews all aspects of doing business in China for foreign businesses, while providing hands on experience and anecdotes and short case studies. The authors are a professor and a journalist, and the book brings out the best of both professions by being both systematic and accessible. Empirically, the book is grounded in fairly detailed interviews with 40 entrepreneurs.

The focus is on an unusual sort of international business, individuals who set up their own entrepreneurial business in China. They thus operate like a Chinese entrepreneur, yet coming from the outside with all the advantages (e.g. international linkages) and disadvantages (e.g. lack of local guanxi) that come with it. While challenging, it is possible, as all these entrepreneurs have a track record of survival.

The hands-on character of the book is at its best when tackling sensitive issues, where generalizations are difficult. Fernandez and Underwood let their interviewees do the talking, relaying very rich experiences that they had in dealing with local business partners, employees, and authorities. There overall message is one of optimism "it can be done - if you know what fallacies to avoid". For example in the chapter on "Ethics and Corruption", they tell stories of individuals who have been (or felt) cheated at some stage, but have learned their lessons, and prevailed. The authors draw their own suggested lessons, but the best preparation for a diverse and unpredictable environment may be to know a lot of stories to be recalled when facing a difficult situation.

Entrepreneurs have become drivers of change in many industries, and thus of society, in China. Edward Tse emphasized their entrepreneurial spirit, and their evolving business models over the past three decade - along with institutional change in the country. He attacks in particular the assumption in American media and talk shows that Chinese businesses are all about copying. To the contrary, he argues, Chinese entrepreneurs are engaged in very fast paced innovation processes. Their innovations are however primary in business models and processes rather than in technology per se, and perhaps for that reason not so evident from a distant. Yet, competition is intense in China, and only those who continuously come up with new product variations can stay ahead.

Tse is taking an uncompromisingly optimistic view of both the power of entrepreneurship and of the evolution of Chinese economy and its regulatory environment in the future. No space for critical reflections here. I guess consultants are like that. This is refreshing in its contrast to other books I find on American airport bookshops. Yet, in my own view, Tse underrates the tensions and risks faced by Chinese entrepreneurs, not only due to volatility of the economy, but also because the path of regulatory reform is in many sectors hard to predict - it is often two steps forward, one step back - or even three steps back (say, on internet regulation). The two steps forward are important, but only part of the story. Entrepreneurs in China face a tenuous relationship with the authorities that to manage is an important skill required to succeed in China. Tse cites Wang Jianlin, CEO of the real estate group Dalien Wanda, advising "be close to government, but far from politics"; a very insightful comment indeed.

China's Management Revolution: Spirit, Land, Energy, by Charles-Edouard Bouée, published by Palgrave, 2011.

This book advances the central hypothesis that China economic advance experienced a fundamental shift in the year 2008. From 1978 to 2008, the author argues, China has essentially tried to emulate the American model of capitalism, see it as a means to overcome its own economic backwardness. Yet, in 2008n three events happened that changed the way Chinese people - and their government in particular - view the world and themselves. Firstly, the Sichuan earthquake which was handled by the authorities in a relatively mature manner, second, the Olympic Games in Beijing which demonstrated to Chinese people themselves their coming off age, and, third, the world financial crisis which undermined the role model function of Anglo-American capitalism. In consequence, China has become less likely to adopt lessons from the USA (let alone listen to them), and more focused on developing its indigenous approaches to developing its economy. This is a very important hypothesis, and, if correct, the consequences for the world economy are both profound and hard to foresee.

The hypothesis is outlined in chapter 2. The rest of the book, however, while generally knowledgeable about China, did not tell me many new insights. The author does not discuss the consequences of his important hypothesis. Moreover, I got very irritated by his US-centric way of interpreting China. For example, he calls the 1978-2008 period "The American Experiment", and constantly refers to the US as the only relevant version of capitalism (except for a brief remark in the penultimate chapter on page 162). In my understanding, the Chinese authorities have always been highly selective when it came to adopting imported ideas, and they have been looking at the experience of more than one other country. While such US-centric may be sadly common among Harvard MBA graduates of that generation, I kept wondering how a leader in world-famous consultancy with responsibility for France, Belgium and North Africa - and a French name - can fail to realize that there is more than one version of capitalism in this world? 

(Auto-)Biographies: Western Perspectives

Personal experiences are often the richest and most practical avenue to build an understanding, provided they are written with a healthy degree of humility and self-reflection. China is changing so rapidly that some may dismiss the relevance of past decades. Yet, the past informs peoples' views of the world, and their perception of the presence. Older autobiographic stories thus complement recent ones.

Go Gently through Peking, by Lois Fisher, first published by Souvenir Press, London, 1979. (In the US, it was published as "A Peking Diary" 1980; I read the German translation "Alltag in Peking" published by Fischer TB)

In 1973, few foreigners were allowed into China. As one of the first Western journalists, Gerd Ruge reported for German television from Beijing during Mao's final years. His American wife, Lois Fisher, joined him and had to organize their lives under tight official restrictions and poor general living conditions. Her autobiographic report tells of the joys and frustrations of live in Beijing - from finding a flat to live, to shopping where Westerners had not ventured before. She makes friends with Chinese people and provides insights in their lives that official reports - even journalists - can rarely capture.

Her story culminates in the events surrounding Mao's funeral, and the dawn of a new time. Reading this autobiography three decades later, one can only be amazed of the transformation that Beijing has gone through since that time - not only in high profile business and politics, but in everyday lives. For example, bicycles have been replaced but cars - creating traffic jams unimaginable in 1973.

China nach dem Sturm (China after the Storm), by Klaus Mehnert, published by DVA Stuttgart, 1971; Published in English by Dutton as "China Returns", 1972.

"Until recently, China was almost as unknown as the moon", Klaus Mehnert writes in his introduction in 1971. Hard to imagine today, China was entirely closed to foreigners during the Cultural Revolution, and Mehnert was one of the first foreigner to receive a visa and the permission to travel across the country. Yet, this was not his first visit to China; he had visited it several times from 1929 to 1957, and spend World War II as university teacher in Shanghai. He was an established scholar of the socialist countries when he took off for a month-long visit in 1971.

The account of his journey provides a unique immediacy of experiences, observations and conversations with people with and without power. They are set in the context of the evolution of the socialist regime under Mao Tse-Tung (who was still alive), including the Great Leap Forward, the centrally coordinated push for industrialization, and the Cultural Revolution. 

(Auto)biographies: Chinese Perspectives

Chinese people recounting their own live provide not only insights the practicalities of live in China in the recent past, but in the Chinese ways of thinking. Often, I found the most interesting biographical stories to be written by Chinese who eventually settled outside China, and thus write in a way that makes their experiences accessible to Western readers.

The books starts as an autobiography of a banker who followed a somewhat unconventional career-path, moving from a well paid investment banking position in Hong Kong to a micro-credit organization in China, before loosing hope that micro-credit might actually do something substantial for the better of business in China. The book then offers wide ranging reflections over the state of the Chinese financial sector, pointing out risks but concluding that the situation is far from hopeless. 

The pivotal experience recounted in the this book is Zhang's role as Chairman of a small Guangzhou based micro-credit institution. He joined with the expectation that the development of the micro-credit sector in China might be the key to advancing small entrepreneurs and businesses similar to the famous Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. However, he encountered an an industry straight-jacketed by regulation, yet at the same time subject to extensive bad practices: Whom you know often counts for more than the quality of your business plans when it comes to getting a loan. Zhang spares not with blunt comments about what Indians might call the 'license raj', with overlapping responsibilities of multiple regulators.

His wider reflections offer some insights about the bubbles that many observers nowadays (2013) believe to be present in the Chinese financial markets, including local government loans and the housing market in at least some cities. The government is actively intervening to prevent bubbles from bursting, but interventions lead to flows of easy money elsewhere. At the same time, the main (state-owned) banks sit comfortably on attractive business models, getting savings at a regulated low interest rates, and lending out to the lowest risk customers. Higher risk customers, that's small business in particular, find it difficult to get loans from the big banks, while the sorts of organizations that do offer them loans operate at the borderline of legality and charge immense fees. Liberalization of the interest rate and easier entry for private banks may address these issues, but are politically not en vogue, yet.

Joe Zhang has also been blogging on shadow banking.

The Good Women of China and Miss Chopsticks by Xinran, translated by Esther Tyldesley, published in 2002 and 2007 by Random House.

The Good Women of China and Miss Chopsticks are like yin and yang; neither is complete without the other, either one alone would remain unbalanced. The Good Women of China is one of the most depressing books I have ever read; it gives voice to women who could not talk about their lives in a repressed society, until a late-night radio host listened, recorded and collected their stories. Many lives were touched, if not destroyed, by the cultural revolution and its side effects. The short stories are true stories recorded by the author during her work as a journalist.

Miss Chopsticks sets an optimistic tone for a new generation of country girls who succeed in the city life. Woven into the tale of three girls are subtle descriptions of Nanjing and its people. Their story illustrates more than scholarly work ever could how wide the gulf is between city and country in China even today. Pictures and TV provide nice images, yet only a book can convey the differences in hearts and minds.

Also see Xinran's personal homepage, and The Economist's recommendation of her latest book "China Witness" (2008) which is based on interviews with the older generation of Chinese.

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Philip P. Pan, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008.

As Journalist for the Washington Post in Beijing, Philip Pan recorded stories of people who stood up and suffered under the Chinese communist party. Most of the stories explore periods of Chinese history that are many Chinese still feel uncomfortable discussing, or in fact know little about, including the rightist movement and the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s, the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s as well as the events surrounding the Tian-An Men protests of 1989. A central chapter introduces the life of Lin Zhao, a female Peking University student who was imprisoned during the anti-rightist movement in the 1950s and executed in 1965. Pan brings her live alive through the eyes of Hu Jie, a passionate documentary film maker who for five years collected information about her life, traced down and interviewed people who had known her, and gradually pieced together her life, and personality, and eventually distributed his documentary film through informal channels. 

Pan's American-style journalism with sensationalist terminology, and the weaving of interpretations with reports of the people portrayed sometimes confused me whether the book is telling the views of the journalist, or of his interviewees. Yet, this stylistic concern not-withstanding, this book brings to life the lives of people whose history deserves not to be forgotten, even though telling it may still be painful as many of the scares of the violence decades ago have not healed yet. The author has a website to accompany the book.

German tourists have a bad reputation, especially in Southern Europe, for always trying to evaluate everything, for being rather direct with their critique - even if they may be right - and for being somewhat insensitive to the feelings of their hosts. After reading this book, I learned that there is one group of people that is even worse than German tourists: Chinese nouveaux riche! My Huang traveled first class to see the UNESCO world heritage sites in Germany, and this book is his diary: a blend of reminiscences his experiences, conversations with people he met - including a fair number of local VIPs, historical backgrounds of the heritage sites, and plenty of grumbles about lousy service. The intended audiences is other potential Chinese tourists (presumably those able to afford first class), the German translation thus gives insights on how one Chinese communicates to other Chinese, rather than to German audiences.

The most interesting bits are the encounters with people, be it ordinary people on the street or local dignitaries, with whom he discusses a wide variety of topics, and offers reflections on both contemporary Germany and contemporary China. His historical introductions to the site are accurate - he thanks his extensive support staff in the acknowledgements - but primarily for Chinese audiences. His critique of German service culture put his finger on some sour points: especially when visiting small towns in Eastern Germany service is slow, un-smiling, and often speak poor English. His permanent repetition of this point, however, is annoying to say the least. And some of his other generalizations from some poor experiences are pretty offensive - especially on issues where Germany is light-years ahead of China, such as road safety and drivers actually respecting rules. In fact, in some passages I doubted whether he actually lives in China, or in a nouveau rich cocoon disconnected from the lives of ordinary Chinese. Just one simple basic point about German culture: the rules apply to everyone, people who ask for exception and not well liked; people who demand exceptions will be met with the firmest response. Sadly, even by the time of his return journey he didn't learn that - he still tried to get a heavier bag checked in than the safety rules permit. The bottom line seems to be this: dictating your experiences in a recording devise is a good way to get to a first draft of a travel book. But from the first draft to the final book is a process of hard work - cutting repetitions, integrating themes, edit passages displaying your earlier ignorance, and offering reflected opinions rather than the anger of the moment. If you skip that hard work, it will show.

History

Reading about a country's history is always worthwhile if you aim to understand its people, their aspirations and their mental baggage. In China this is particularly complex as many people are reluctant to talk about the recent past (1950s to 1970s), and my students seem often blissfully unaware of the grandparents life experience. On the other hand, certain much earlier periods are glorified, yet rarely critically reflected in China itself. Thus, Western sources often provide more differentiated perspectives.

The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives, edited by Timothy Cheek, Klaus Muhlhahn and Hans van de Ven, published by Cambridge University Press.  

Histoire de Shanghai, by Marie-Claire Bergère, published by Librairie Arthème Fayard in 2001 - English translation by Janet LLoyd "Shanghai: China's Gateway to Modernity", published Standford University Press, 2009.

Shanghai is a buzzing place for business, culture and sometimes politics - yet in the long history of China it is a relative newcomer. Before becoming a 'treaty port' in the treaty of Nanjing in 1842, it was a minor city on a secondary river in the Yellow River delta. Yet with the establishment of foreign the concessions (de facto extra-territorial areas), Shanghai became a magnet for adventurous minds, attracting business people and crooks, military and paupers. Shanghai became a city of immigrants - not just foreigners (who were a small minority, after all) but from migrants from all parts of China, many retaining their distinct languages and social networks over decades - and controlling specific trade. Throughout the 19th century and up to the 1930s, this dynamic mix of people has been the driving force of economic modernization and social change, being far more outward looking than the rest of China (and thus often see with distrust by more traditional provinces).

All this economic dynamism, multicultural interface and international trade came to a crashing end with the Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 1940s. In the heyday of communist central control, Shanghai was distrusted by the leaders and sidelines. Only in the 1990s did Shanghai gain connect to its history as an outward looking, business driven city.

Marie-Claire Bergère traces the history from the 1840s to the 1990s, uncovering details, diversity and underlying trends that few Westerners (and probably many Chinese) are not aware off. She gives due credit to the diversity of groups, including the subtle differences between the French Concession and the International (i.e. British & American) Concession, as you would expect from a French author. The book provides interesting background for those trying to understand contemporary Shanghai - and China in general. One quibble: the book cover of the English version shows the contemporary Shanghai skyline with its skyscrapers, yet the 'histoire' covered in the book does not cover the period when they were build.

Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China 1843-1949, by Wen-Hsin Yeh, published by University of California Press, 2007.

Wen-hsin Yeh, a history professor at University of California, Berkeley, takes a more analytical and interpretative approach to explore the evolution of Chinese society in Shanghai over 100 years. She studies in great detail the social structures and their evolution in the city, and in some exemplary companies such as Bank of China. Changes in workplaces that come with 'modern' and urban patterns of work affected all aspects of life, including notably the shift from large families to urban 2 child families.

Yeh makes extensive use of local newspaper archives, exploring especially the letters section, to elicit insights on the changing social structures, and the personal dilemmas that individuals in all parts of society faced. The roaring 1930s brought great opportunities, high life, and the import of Western products and ideas, but it was also a period of hardship for many less fortunate.  "Shanghai Splendor" provides a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary Chinese in the early 20th century, before the Japanese invasion and later the communist take-over changed the course of history.

God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan Spence, published by Norton in 1996.

The story of the Taiping, a religiously motivated uprising against the Qing emperors, is one of the most horrific experiences of Chinese history. It started in the 1930s with a poor man in the South of China having a dream that made him believe that he was the son of god. His military force conquered a major chunk of central China, mercilessly killing its enemies, and set up imperial rule in Nanjing in 1853. Endless military campaigns later, costing probably million lives, the Taiping were annihilated by the Qing in 1864, and quite literally killed off. The cruelty of this episode of history falls nothing short of the worst periods of 20th century world history.

Reading the account of the Taiping raises many questions of human nature - how can such a thing happen?  What makes intelligent people follow religious zealots?  What does it tell us about the state of the Qing imperial rule over China - regime that already had overstayed their welcome but still survived til 1912. Being aware of such history also helps understanding contemporary sentiments in society, even if more recent history left further deep traces: With the experience of the Taiping, it should be no surprise that Chinese rulers are suspicious, or perhaps paranoid, of religious cults in all forms.

By now, it is probably well known even in Europe that Chinese merchants once traded across South East Asia. Many will also have heard about Zheng He, the Chinese general who in the early 1400s led a fleet of Chinese ships to sail not only to South East Asia, but to India and the Arab peninsula. At least, when I show a map of those ancient shipping routes in my introductory session of an international business class, very few seem surprised.

Yet, how did China bundle its resources to build such a massive fleet? And who was the man who let it, Zheng He? This book provides the historical context for these journey, and synthesis of (de facto) Chinese international relations in the early Ming period. A few insights stood out for me. Chinese traders have been the leading international traders in East and South East Asia from about the 8th century B.C. However, Chinese foreign policy experienced very strong swings of a pendulum between strict isolationism and aggressive globalization (to use 21st century terms). Under the third Ming emperor, the pendulum swung for decisively towards globalization: both in terms of enabling international trade and establishing political relationships - even intervening in local conflicts in other countries and installing a China-friendly ruler. This policy implementation was led by Zheng He who supervised the building off ships four time longer and taller than Columbus; Santa Maria, and himself undertook seven major voyages, while other Chinese traders traveled as far as modern day Kenya.

However, 'globalization' had its enemies even then. What I didn't know is that Confucian scholars in particular advocated a policy of focusing on China's home territory: Part of being filial to ones parents is not to venture to unsafe foreign places where return may be uncertain. The end of China's external relations, and the weakening of its fleet was thus mainly an outcome of internal politicking; in addition the huge costs of building the fleet at the expense of domestic project appear to have overstretched the economy. Arguably the project was driven by a megalomaniac emperor, yet it demonstrates the power of China when it is able to bundle its resources to a singular objective.

Mr Selden's Map of China, by Timothy Brook, published by Profile Books, London.

Starting from a discovery of an old map in Oxford University's famous Bodleian Library, Timothy Brook is exploring the trade and geography of South East Asia in the early 17th century. His story tells of a journey of discovery in search of the meaning of the map - why it is so different from contemporary maps made by either Chinese or European map makers?

The name by which the map is known, and which gives the book its title, is, unfortunately, misleading.  First, "Mr Selden" was legal expert and scholar, about whom Timothy Brook has a lot of anecdotes to tell - notably his dispute with Dutch legal scholar Grotius that shaped international law of the seas, a big issue now in the area depicted in the map. However, Mr Selden's contribution to the map is - for all that is known - that he is the last (and only verified) owner of the map before it was bequeathed to the library. We would expect historical maps to be named by the person who commissioned it or the person who made it. In this case these persons remain unknown, the historians best guess is that it must be Chinese based either Fujian province of China, or (Mr. Brook's hypothesis) in Bantam, which at the time was a European trading post near modern day Jakarta.

The second curios matter is that it is not "of China", but it is the sea-routes that connect Southern China to key trading places in South-East Asia. China appears at the top of the map, and looks distinctly odd to modern observers - but apparently it is quite consistent with the depiction of China in other maps of the time, apart from the fact that Chinese maps always put China in the middle, and this maps doesn't. What distinguished the map is, as Mr Brooks tells the story, that it appears to have been drawn around the travel instructions used by traders that travelled the seas, with the land then filled in around the ports.

The area depicted is today subject to claims and counter claims by the nations surrounding what the Chinese call the South China Sea. Does the map give us answers as to who has the older claims? No, it doesn't. The map is clear only in advising seafarers to avoid large chunks of the sea - little islands are a hazard to shipping, not land of interest to the the mapmaker, nor, presumably to traders nor emperors of that age. 

Mr Brooks search for the story behind the map takes the reader to the history of the late 16th and early 17th century in both England and in South East Asia. An enjoyable journey to meet many interesting characters, though a bit of background knowledge of both British and Chinese history clearly enhances the enjoyment. It also tells a lot of the idiosyncrasies of Oxford scholars, past and present. The book triggers curiosity - for starters here is the website of the Bodleian library.

A Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Adeline Yen Mah, published by Harper Collins in 2002.

I had difficulties in classifying this book, and eventually decided to place it in the history category. The author travels through Chinese history and contemporary society using famous proverbs as guide. Many Chinese proverbs synthesize a historical event dating over two thousand years back. This book tells the stories of these events and their historical context underlying these proverbs, and explores how the wisdom embedded in the proverbs influences the ways contemporary Chinese think and act, including the author's personal experiences. 

Adeline Yen Mah is better known for her autobiography 'Falling Leaves' (as in the saying 'falling leaves return to their roots'), which I have not yet read.

China: Eine Weltmacht kehrt zurück (The Return of a World Power), by Konrad Seitz, published by Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag in 2000.

China's history is long and complex, and it influences modern China in ways subtle ways - both official policies and individual mindsets. Yet, many accounts of Chinese history are partial and, especially if written by local authors, provide a particular ideological twist in interpreting events. Thus, it is useful to read multiple accounts to form an opinion, and to gain an understanding of the undercurrents in Chinese society. The fist half of this 500-pages book provides a careful review of China's history with an emphasis on the 20th century. On this basis, the author then analyses the economic and political reforms of the last three decades, and China's prospects in the global economy. (I am not aware of an English translation)

Der Erwachte Drachen: Großmacht China im 21. Jahrhundert (The Dragon has Awoken), by Martin G.D. Chan, published by Theiss, 2008.

Chan outlines an insider's view society and politics, and of China's its role in the world, informed by eclectic study of China and personal involvement. His writing style often includes sweeping statement and rarely does he provide concise evidence for his assessments (there isn't even a bibliography), thus inviting criticism on many of his specific assertions and conclusions. Yet the author is obviously knowledgeable on many aspects of contemporary China and its recent history, and he outlines, overall, a realistic image of where China stands in the world. Moreover, he has the courage of outlining the role that he expects China to play in the global economy by the middle of the 21st century as a strategic player in world politics. He predicts that China will continue to raise, and a civil society will emerge that offers a high degree of individual liberties yet not democracy in the Western sense of the World. Yet he also predicts major problems of an aging society and environmental damage, and in consequence a role for China on the political world stage that would be constraint by domestic politics. This vision of the future of China is highly uncertain as predictions always are, but it provides a reasonable scenario for those wishing to engage with China in the long term. (I am not aware of an English translation).

Fiction: Novels and Short Stories

I like to read novels and short stories as complement to more factual sources of information because they can convey much better than an academic study could the atmosphere, and the feeling, anxieties and beliefs of individuals. Some of the books in this section helped me a lot to understand how Chinese people might think and feel about their life.

Distant Star, by Barbara Bickmore, published by Ballentine Books in 1993. (I read the German version "Ein Ferner Stern in China" published by Knaur).

This is a novel, that provides rich inside into the complex of modern Chinese history that is hard to understand for outsiders, or even for Chinese themselves. This novel takes the reader on a tour of China that starts in the Shanghai of the 1920s when the fictitious heroine lands as wife of a journalist. She lives in China for the next decades, encounters ordinary people and writes about her daily life. The novel shows how life in China used to be, and how it has changed under the pressure of historical events. The heroine becomes friends with Madame Sun, wife of Sun Yat-Sen, and interviews many other personalities of historical importance. These encounters happen only in the authors imagination, but they paint a vivid picture of China at the time, describing the atmosphere during the historical events. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though the last chapter can be skipped without loss.

The Bridegroom, by Ha Jin, published by Vintage International, New York in 2000.

This collection of short stories provides lively insights in the lives of ordinary Chinese people in the early years of economic reform. These stories provide fascinating insights in the complex webs of relationships in private life and the work place, embedded in Chinese culture and the pervasive influence of the communist party. My favorite story is "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town", which tells the fast food revolution in provincial China from the perspective of an ordinary worker struggling to believe their luck of earning more than his accomplished father, yet unable to understand how the business works, and why they do what they do. While scholars explore the cultural shock experienced by Western expatriates in China, this vivid story illuminates the culture shock of facing an expatriate in your own company.