China

City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French, Picador, 2018.

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town  by Barbara Demick, Random House, 2020.  Summary The main topics in this book: Mei Kingdom Succession of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989 Self-immolations of Tibetan monk as a protest against Chinese Han rule Tibetan Exiles in Kathmandu in Nepal and Dharamsala in India China and Tibet First some background. Tibetans live not only in Tibet, but also parts of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan. In 1950 the PLA invaded Tibet and de

Japanese Girl at the Siege of Changchun: How I Survived China s Wartime Atrocity  by Homare Endo, and Michael Brase (Translator), Stone Bridge Press, 2016 Manchuria Changchun, a city in Manchuria, found itself at the intersection of the Chinese Civil War between the Kuo Min Tang and the Communists, and at the same time, the war between the Japanese and the Russians. No side made much effort to protect civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians starved because all sides pri

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II  by Iris Chang, Basic Books, 1997.  Killing Civilians America killed many innocent civilians by nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But the Japanese killed even more, in Nanking, in 1937. Estimates of the death toll from the Rape of Nanking range from 260 thousand to 350 thousand.  War Japan took control of Korea away from China in 1895 in the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese invaded Manchuria (northern Chin

Hungry Ghosts: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962  by Jasper Becker. Holt Paperbacks (1998)  Collectivization of the Peasant Farms In 1950 Liu Shaoqi argued that the property of rich peasants should not be confiscated, because they were needed for Chinese agriculture to function effectively. In 1951 Liu attacked Mao’s plan for forcing the peasants into large collective farms as Utopian agrarian socialism. He believed that collectivization should occur only after China had ad

Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962  by Yang Jisheng (Author), Edward Friedman (Editor, Introduction), Stacy Mosher (Editor, Translator). Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First English Language Edition (2012)

Mao ’ s Great Famine: The History of China ’ s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962  by Frank Dikötter, Walker Books, 2010.  China and the Soviet Union Mao saw himself as a competitor with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union for the leadership of the Communist movement. Mao Zedong was upset about Khrushchev’s 1956 secret speech denouncing Stalin, because it implied that it was now permissible to criticize the leader of a Communist country. In fact, in late 1956, the CCP moved

Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of the Falungong in China, 1999-2005  by James W. Tong, Oxford University Press, 2009.  Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi In the 1990s, there had been a suppression of qigong masters Yan Xin and Zhang Hongbao. Falun Gong was an offshoot of qigong. Li Hongzhi the founder off FG in May 1992.Li Dongzhi was born in Changchun. In 1994 Li Hongzhi moved to NYC. Falun Gong believe in : Truthfulness Benevolence Forbearance Mass Rally at Zhongnan

The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962―1976  by Frank Dikötter. Bloomsbury Press; (2017)

A Leaf in the Bitter Wind: A Memoir by Ting-Xing Ye, Anchor Canada, 1998

No Wall Too High: One Man's Daring Escape from Mao's Darkest Prison  by Xu Hongci, Erling Hoh, (Translator). Sarah Crichton Books (2018).  White Grass Ridge The author was born in Shanghai in 1933. While in medical school in 1957, he and some fellow students put up a big character poster advocating for greater democracy in China. This got hm expelled from both school and the Chinese Communist Party, and then sent to a forced labor camp called White Grass Ridge in Anhui Provin

The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings  by Wei Jingsheng, Viking, 1998.

Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard  by Fan Shen, Bison Books, 2006.  Cultural Revolution At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was a Red Guard who destroyed traditional Chinese culture and looted. Later he was sent down to Shaanbei to perform manual labor with the peasants. For awhile he was a “barefoot doctor”, healing injured and sick people with minimal equipment or supplies. For awhile he worked at the Three Red Flag Reservoir, then the East Wind Aircraft Facto

After the Bitter Comes the Sweet: How One Woman Weathered the Storms of China's Recent History  by Yulin Wang Rittenberg with Dori Jones Yang, East West Insights, 2015. Yulin’s father was a wood carver and furniture maker. When the author was little, her family fled Beijing to avoid the Japanese invasion. Her older sister was beautiful and was raped by a Japanese soldier. Her mother’s feet had been bound as a child, starting at age 3. Nevertheless, she had to drag corpses at

To the Edge of the Sky: A Story of Love, Betrayal, Suffering, and the Strength of Human Courage  by Anhua Gao, The Overlook Press, 2003.

Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by Peter Schweitzer, HarperCollins., 2022.

The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury, Henry Holt and Co.,...

Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang, Algonquin Books, 2022.  Sun Yi Sun Yi was a prisoner in Masanjia Reeducation Through Labor Camp. Here is part of the contents of the letter written by Sun Yi: This product produced by Unit 8, Department 2, Mashanjia Labour Camp, Shenyang, Liaoning, China. (中國,遼寧,瀋陽,馬 三家勞動教養院二所八大隊) People who work here, have to work 15 hours a day with out Saturday, Sunday break and any holid

Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China’s Gulag  by Harry Wu, Wiley, 1994.  Lao Gai This book is about the 19 years Harry Wu endured as a political prisoner in China’s huge system of forced labor camps. They are called láodòng gǎizào (Mandarin pinyin), ( (劳动改造)) which means Reform through Labor. The name is usually abbreviated to laogai.  Harry Wu Wu was born in Shanghai in 1937. He was educated by Jesuits, who gave him the Western name, Harry. In Communist eyes, he had a

The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution  by Yang Jisheng, Stacy Mosher (Translator), Guo Jian (Translator). Picador Paper; (2022)  Communist Philosophy Communists saw discrepancies in wealth as prima facie evidence of exploitation. Communists saw the middle class as exploiting the working class and land owners as exploiting the peasants. The Communists favored the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. Mao Zedong wanted to turn each Chinese ci