Every so often, one of our China lawyers will get an email from a blog reader asking for a recommendation of THE book to read to “better understand China” or “to get a better handle on China.” These requests often come 2-3 weeks before the person is heading off to China for the first time and they oftentimes mention wanting something that will give them a quick overview.
Amazingly enough, there are a plenty of really good, really short books that qualify, including the following three:
- Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, By Rana Mitter. 168 pages. 2016. Oxford Univeristy Press. Mitter is a Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China and Director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, authored this book and it is an excellent short history on China. It does a great job of conveying an overall sense of China in an amazingly short time.
- The One Hour China Book (2017 Edition): Two Peking University Professors Explain All of China Business in Six Short Stories. By Jeffrey Towson and Jonathan Woetzel. 152 pages. 2014. This book truly does take about an hour and in that time you will gain a pretty respectable sense of what is going on business-wise in China.
- China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. 192 pages. Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Cunningham. Wasserstrom is a Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and the Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. Cunningham is the Diigital Media Manager of the Association for Asian Studies. This book is meant to be basic and it is, but it is a good a first book as can be found and it is not in any way simplistic.
Recommended ReadingAnthony Bourdain’s China Lessons Revisited
