The Greatest Books of All Time Set in China

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6526 The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui 1994 Chinese English
6565 Candy Mian Mian 2000 Chinese Chinese
6577 Crashed Adam Tooze 2018 British English
6590 American Shaolin Matthew Polly 2007 American English
6595 The Rape Of Nanking Iris Chang 1997 American English
6602 The Rose Of Tibet Lionel Davidson 1962 British English
6604 I Wonder As I Wander Langston Hughes 1956 American English
6606 Pavilion Of Women Pearl S. Buck 1946 American English
6637 Journey To The Land Of The Real Victor Segalen 1983 French French
6705 Ruined City Jia Pingwa 1993 Chinese Chinese
6748 The Garlic Ballads Yan Mo 1988 Chinese Chinese
6756 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
6809 Eastbound Maylis de Kerangal 2012 French French
6838 Frontier Can Xue 2008 Chinese Chinese
6866 In The Red Geremie R. Barmé 1999 Unknown English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6888 The Boxer Rebellion Diana Preston 1999 Unknown English
6907 The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson 2002 American English
6917 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Grace Lin, Janet Song 2009 Chinese English
6916 The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories Ken Liu 2016 American English
6989 Red China Blues Jan Wong 1996 Canadian English
7031 Records of the Grand Historian Sima Qian 91 Chinese Classical chinese
7055 Golden Age Wang Xiaobo 1997 Chinese Chinese
7077 Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom Stephen R. Platt 2012 American English
7082 The Scholars Wu Ching-tzu 1750 Chinese Chinese
7115 Seven Years Peter Stamm 2009 Swiss German
7139 The Kitchen God's Wife Amy Tan 1991 American English
7165 Beijing Comrades Bei Tong 1998 Chinese English
7216 The Moon is Down John Steinbeck 1942 American English
7216 The Conquerors Andre Malraux 1928 French French
7216 Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio Pu Songling 1740 Chinese Classical chinese
7567 Red Scarf Girl Ji-li Jiang 1997 Chinese English
7596 Wealth And Power Orville Schell, John Delury 2013 Chinese English
7663 East Wind Pearl S. Buck 1930 American English
7711 The Honourable Schoolboy John le Carré 1977 British English
7723 Unnatural Selection Mara Hvistendahl 2011 American English
7738 Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min 2000 American English
7762 Butterfly Swords Jeannie Lin 2010 Unknown English
7782 The Memory Palace Of Matteo Ricci Jonathan Spence 1984 American English
7818 Ties That Bind, Ties That Break Lensey Namioka 1999 American English
7820 On The Track Of Unknown Animals Bernard Heuvelmans 1955 Belgian French
7934 Mr. China Tim Clissold 2004 British English
7999 The Great Transformation Karen Armstrong 2006 British English
8032 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
8094 Nixon And Mao Margaret MacMillan 2005 Canadian English
8105 Northern Girls Sheng Keyi 2004 Chinese Chinese
8107 Daughter Of Earth Agnes Smedley 1929 American English
8159 Out Of Mao’s Shadow Philip P. Pan 2008 Unknown English
8198 A Daughter Of Han Ning Lao Tai-Tai, told to Ida Pruitt 1945 Chinese English
8211 China Shakes The World James Kynge 2006 British English
8222 Tombstone Yang Jisheng 2008 Chinese Chinese
8229 The Rose Of Time Bei Dao 2005 Chinese Chinese
8232 China Susan Shirk 2007 Unknown English
8242 Bronze And Sunflower Cao Wenxuan 2005 Chinese English
8246 The Man Awakened From Dreams Henrietta Harrison 2005 Unknown English
8252 Serve The People! Yan Lianke 2005 Chinese Chinese
8287 The Last Days Of Old Beijing Michael Meyer 2008 Unknown English
8323 Dream Of Ding Village Yan Lianke 2006 Chinese Chinese
8342 Platform Sutra Huineng 713 Chinese Chinese
8342 The Poems Of Li Po Li Po -750 Chinese Classical chinese
8351 China Road Rob Gifford 2007 British English
8354 Cinderella’s Sisters Dorothy Ko 2006 Unknown English
8373 Shanghai Style Lynn Pan 2008 Unknown English
8420 Mao’s Last Revolution Roderick MacFarquhar, Michael Schoenhals 2007 Unknown English
8422 The Man Who Loved China Simon Winchester 2008 British English
8462 The Age Of Openness Frank Dikötter 2008 Unknown English
8489 Public Passions Eugenia Lean 2007 Unknown English
8518 Shanghai Nights Juan Marsé 1993 Spanish Unknown
8538 Prisoner Of The State Zhao Ziyang 2009 Chinese Chinese
8581 Socialism Is Great! Lijia Zhang 2008 Chinese English
8616 Shark's Fin And Sichuan Pepper Fuchsia Dunlop 2008 British English
8636 The Dragon's Gift Deborah Brautigam 2009 Unknown English
8644 Water Marq de Villiers 2000 Canadian English
8727 The Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells 2019 American English
8746 The Beijing Of Possibilities Jonathan Tel 2009 Unknown English
8754 Running Away Jean-Philippe Toussaint 2005 French French
8778 On Guerilla Warfare Mao 1937 Chinese Chinese
8821 China In Ten Words Yu Hua 2011 Chinese Chinese
8920 Manchuria Under Japanese Dominion Shinichi Yamamuro 2006 Japanese Japanese
8958 The Vagrants Yiyun Li 2009 American English
8977 The Mother Pearl S. Buck 1934 American English
9064 Décadence Mandchoue Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse 2011 Unknown English
9063 The Book Of Records Madeleine Thien 2025 Canadian English
9137 The Last Lover Can Xue 2005 Chinese Chinese
9178 China's Second Continent Howard W. French 2014 American English
9193 The Water Will Come Jeff Goodell 2017 American English
9193 The Geography Of Madness Frank Bures 2016 Unknown English
9334 Decoded Mai Jia 2002 Chinese Chinese
9355 Our Story Rao Pingru 2013 Chinese Chinese
9528 In Line Behind A Billion People Damien Ma, William Adams 2013 Unknown English
9537 The Emperor Far Away David Eimer 2014 Unknown English
9548 Stilwell and the American Experience in China Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1971 American English
9600 The Noodle Maker Ma Jian 2004 Chinese Chinese
9605 Lenin's Kisses Yan Lianke 2003 Chinese Chinese
9657 The People's Republic Of Amnesia Louisa Lim 2014 Unknown English
9660 Spring Moon Betty Bao Lord 1981 Chinese English
9661 The Silk Road Sven Hedin 2012 Swedish Swedish
9689 Leftover Women Leta Hong Fincher 2014 Unknown English
9698 When Red Is Black Qiu Xiaolong 2004 Chinese English
9700 The Beautiful Country And The Middle Kingdom John Pomfret 2016 American English
9719 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
9733 Una Novela China César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
9797 Crossings Chuang Hua 1968 American English
9834 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
9855 Exciting Times Naoise Dolan 2020 Irish English
9942 One Child Mei Fong 2016 Unknown English
9956 The Souls Of China Ian Johnson 2017 American English
9982 The Most Wanted Man In China Fang Lizhi 2016 Unknown English
10023 Nine Continents Xiaolu Guo 2017 Chinese English
10022 Mending Bodies Hon Lai-Chu 2010 Chinese Chinese
10039 Maoism Julia Lovell 2019 British English
10053 Poems Of Wang Wei Wei Wang 700 Chinese Chinese
10092 The Ends Of The World Peter Brannen 2017 American English
10107 Unlikely Partners Julian Gewirtz 2017 Unknown English
10129 The Winds Of Change Eugene Linden 2006 Unknown English
10192 Little Soldiers Lenora Chu 2017 Unknown English
10195 Waiting To Be Arrested At Night Tahir Hamut Izgil 2023 Unknown Uyghur
10215 Iron Moon Qin Xiaoyu 2017 Chinese English
10221 Her Majesty's Secret Service Christopher Andrew 1985 Unknown English
10304 Death Notice Zhou Haohui 2014 Chinese Chinese