More Last Minute Gifts: Books from China Beat Contributors

Authors

Date of this Version

12-21-2008

Document Type

Article

Citation

December 21, 2008 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright December 21, 2008. Used by permission.

Abstract

Many of our regular contributors have recent books out on China as well. We highly recommend the following as gifts for those many China non-experts in your life.

1. Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang

For: The Worldly Progressive

Chang’s book, published this year to positive reviews (including this one at the New York Times by Howard French, where Factory Girlswas also recently named one of the Times‘ 100 notable books for 2008), follows the lives of young factory workers in Dongguang. Read an excerpt, published earlier at China Beat, here.

2. Socialism is Great!, Lijia Zhang

For: The Memoir Maven

In this autobiography, Zhang tells of her young life working in a Nanjing munitions factory and how she eventually ended up leading worker demonstrations in 1989.

3. China’s Brave New World, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

For: The World Traveler

In short vignettes, Wasserstrom delves into the quirks and contradictions of modern China, drawing out what “global China” means on the ground. To read more about the book, see Wasserstrom’s piece about it last spring in China Economic Review.