China — The Book Roads

Books from China

Jane Yang

In nineteenth-century China, bound feet known as “golden lilies” are considered essential to a woman’s marriage prospects and social standing. Little Flower, a talented young girl from a poor family, is sold into servitude as a muizai to Linjing, the privileged daughter of the wealthy Fong family. Despite their unequal positions, both girls possess qualities that could determine their futures: Little Flower has bound feet and an extraordinary gift for embroidery, while Linjing has the family connections and status that Little Flower can only dream of. Jealous of Little Flower’s talents, Linjing does everything she can to keep her servant under her control. But when scandal destroys the Fong family’s standing, both women are cast out and sent to the Celibate Sisterhood, a community of women who weave silk and seek independence from traditional marriage. There, Little Flower’s embroidery attracts the attention of a nobleman, offering her a possible escape—but also putting her life in danger. Rich in historical detail, The Lotus Shoes explores female ambition, class divisions, and the restrictive traditions governing women’s lives. Through two women whose relationship shifts between rivalry and solidarity, Jane Yang examines the difficult choices women make to survive and the unexpected ways they can shape one another’s destinies.

2025

Shanghai

Joseph Kanon

In 1938, as Nazi persecution intensifies across Europe, Shanghai becomes an unlikely refuge for Jewish refugees fleeing Germany. But escaping persecution does not mean escaping danger. Daniel Lohr, a German Jew who has survived the Gestapo, arrives in Shanghai hoping to begin again. Penniless and stateless, he turns to his uncle Nathan, a mysterious businessman who runs a glamorous nightclub and maintains dangerous connections with the city’s criminal underworld. Meanwhile, Daniel cannot forget Leah, a woman he met during the voyage to China, whose fate becomes entangled with his own. As political tensions rise and Japanese occupation looms, Daniel is drawn into a world of gang warfare, corruption, espionage, and shifting loyalties. In a city where survival depends on knowing whom to trust, every alliance carries a price—and the past is never entirely left behind. Atmospheric and suspenseful, Shanghai brings to life a city caught between cultures and conflicts, where desperate refugees, gangsters, and political operatives struggle to survive. Joseph Kanon explores the moral compromises people make in extraordinary circumstances, asking how much of oneself can be sacrificed in the pursuit of safety.

2024

The Expat

Hansen Shi

What if the recognition you’ve spent your entire life chasing turned out to be a trap? At twenty-six, Michael Wang is a talented Chinese American software engineer working at General Motors in San Francisco. Despite graduating from Princeton and developing groundbreaking self-driving car technology, he feels overlooked, trapped beneath the invisible barriers that limit his advancement. Lonely and resentful, he longs for someone to recognise his potential. Then he meets Vivian, an enigmatic woman connected to a Beijing technology startup that promises Michael everything he believes he deserves: professional recognition, wealth, and the freedom to realise his ambitions. He accepts the offer and travels to China, only for Vivian to disappear shortly after his arrival. Michael soon discovers that his new employers have recruited him for something far more dangerous than technological innovation. Caught in a web of corporate espionage and international intelligence, Michael becomes a pawn in the growing rivalry between the United States and China. As his situation deteriorates, he must confront uncomfortable questions about identity, loyalty, and the price of belonging. Hansen Shi’s debut thriller combines high-stakes espionage with a sharp examination of the myth of meritocracy and the vulnerabilities created by alienation. It asks how far someone might go to prove their worth—and what they might sacrifice along the way.

2024

Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden

Zhuqing Li

Born into a prominent family in southern China, sisters Jun and Hong grow up inseparable in the 1930s, surrounded by the traditions and privileges of a world on the brink of transformation. But when the Chinese Civil War ends in 1949, fate divides them between two rival political systems. Jun settles in Taiwan, marries a Nationalist general, and builds a successful business, while Hong remains on the mainland, where her family’s political background makes her vulnerable to suspicion and persecution. Despite decades of separation and silence, both women forge remarkable lives under vastly different circumstances. Drawing on family memories and historical research, Zhuqing Li tells a deeply personal story of sisterhood, resilience, and the ways political upheaval reshapes families and identities.

2023

Winter of the Bride

Jane Yang

Two brides, a century apart, are bound to the same powerful Chinese family—and a haunting legacy neither can escape. In 1806, Jiayi, a servant chosen as the heir’s “little wife,” discovers that her marriage offers little protection from her husband’s scheming relatives. A hundred years later, Scarlet, a midwife determined to bring modern medicine to a remote village, arrives at the family estate after marrying into it. But whispers of a curse and the ghost of a former bride begin to blur the boundary between past and present. A haunting tale of love, tradition, and the secrets that bind generations of women.

2027

Famous authors from China

About China

China is one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse countries, stretching from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau to the eastern plains, major river valleys, deserts, and Pacific coast. Its civilization has developed over thousands of years, with a rich heritage of philosophy, art, architecture, calligraphy, cuisine, and traditional culture alongside some of the world’s most dynamic modern cities.

Region: Asia

Literary Context

Chinese literature has one of the world’s longest continuous literary traditions, rooted in classical poetry, philosophy, historical writing, and storytelling. Major classical works include The Book of Songs, The Analects, and the great novels Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West. Poetry has been particularly important, with figures such as Li Bai and Du Fu becoming central to the Chinese literary canon. In the 20th century, Lu Xun helped shape modern Chinese literature through his sharp criticism of traditional society and social injustice. Contemporary Chinese literature explores modernization, memory, political and social change, family, migration, and individual identity. Internationally known writers such as Mo Yan and Can Xue have brought very different perspectives on contemporary Chinese society to global readers.