When you’re planning a trip to China, doing a little research reading books about China and doing other background research can pay off in spades in terms of enhancing your cultural understanding while you’re on the ground. Plus, everyone needs something to read on that long plane ride. Here’s what we’re reading & recommending this month.
This month we take a deep dive into the genius storytelling of Jung Chang, who has written definitive masterpieces on the story of modern China via three generations of women of her own family in, through the lens of the rise of Chairman Mao, and through one of the most influential (yet largely unknown or misunderstood) figures, the Dowager Cixi.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is a must-read primer on understanding China’s modern history of civil wars, unifying force of Mao, and rapid development, with a balanced look at the human toll left behind.
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author.
An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.
The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations….
Empress Dowager Cixi is a fascinating and comprehensive look into one of China’s most interesting, yet under-appreciated historical figures. 
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.
If you’re looking for a true foodie experience, join a walking food tour in China’s top cities, discovering the best neighborhoods, hidden culinary gems, dumplings, hotpot, noodles, and more. UnTour Food tours offers tours in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu & Hong Kong – we’re your one stop shop for the best of the best in China’s walking food tours.
For the best foodie reading and trip planning, we always recommend Glutton Guide Beijing & Shanghai, the e-guidebooks we publish that help uncover the city’s best hidden gems and authentic dining.
Past Recommendations:
Sep 2017
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