Beijing: Top 5 books to read before coming to China

As a land of 1.3 billion people, consisting of 56 officially recognised ethnic minorities, China has proven to be excellent fodder for the literary imagination. It is a nation that has produced or inspired innumerable works - from romantic fiction and satires to sociological texts and travel diaries - by writers both native and foreign over the past 5000 years. I won’t pretend to have read all of them, but here is a little homework for all you holiday planners.

‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S. Buck
Modern travellers to China, intimidated by the vast population and impenetrable language barrier, often have great difficulty in relating to Chinese culture. Published in 1938, Pearl Buck’s account of the fortunes of a Chinese peasant farmer won her the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was praised for having ‘taught us …to see the individuals in that great mass of people.’ Though 70 turbulent years have passed since publication, this still stands as a rare, enlightened look at the Chinese culture from a foreign writer. Having lived in China from the age of three months, Buck had a rare familiarity with her characters that is evident through her empathetic portrayals.

‘My Country and My People’ by Lin Yutang
Prompted by his friend Pearl Buck, Lin Yutang retired to a mountainside retreat to pen this piece explaining the character of the Chinese people to the West. Although it takes the form of an extended essay, the writing is witty and light-hearted. ‘My Country and My People’ won the author international fame, and shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list upon its release in 1935. Decades later, this is still a relevant introduction to Chinese society.

‘Red Dust’ by Ma Jian
At the age of thirty, artist Ma Jian finds himself divorced, separated from his daughter and facing arrest. Eager to escape the confines of his life in Beijing, he takes to the road with no more than a change of clothes and two bars of soap. The three years he spends exploring China’s heartland is documented within ‘Red Dust’. This is an engrossing account of a China in the process of enormous social and economic reform from the viewpoint of an itinerant searching for a home.

‘The True Story of Ah Q’ by Lu Xun
As omnipotent in Chinese literature as Shakespeare is in English, Lu Xun’s biting satires were championed by Mao Zedong – thereby ensuring they remained popular throughout the twentieth century. ‘The True Story of Ah Q’ is commonly read as a humorous take on oppression aimed at China’s imperial government at the turn of the twentieth century. This work offers a window into a fine tradition of Chinese satire and is one of the few pieces from the literary mainstream to have reached a global audience.

‘Behind the Wall: A Journey Through China’ by Colin Thubron
English writer Colin Thubron had traveled extensively in central Asia before coming to the P.R.C. in the late eighties. Although equipped with a little Mandarin, Thubron’s view of China is very much that of an outsider, and as such his insights may well strike a chord with first time visitors. Nevertheless, his communication skills and charm allow the author to enjoy some very enlightening personal encounters with those he meets during his travels. Amongst modern writers, Thubron’s descriptions of China’s geographical landscape rate amongst the most captivating.