China has the largest population in the world and one of the most ancient cultures. Becker, a journalist currently living in Beijing and the author of Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (1997), which was banned by the Chinese government, delves into the intricacies of the Chinese people. He breaks down the population of 1.25 billion people by using social, ethnic, and economic methods. Beginning with the illiterate peasants who live along the borders of Vietnam, he introduces the reader to people of various statuses from all over that massive country. Becker has spent 20 years touring through China and meeting people in order to understand this vast and mysterious land. His vignettes on government types, shamans, and businessmen join to present a revealing look at China over time. The Chinese is a captivating and enlightening read for anyone interested in Asian or cultural studies. Julia Glynn, Copyright � American Library Association.

In 2001, Liam D'Arcy Brown traveled to the four corners of the People's Republic to reconcile for himself modern China's seemingly irreconcilable extremes. His 10,000-mile journey took him to an isolated fishing community in the East China Sea, a tropical holiday resort on Hainan Island, a Muslim city on the Silk Road, and a remote village in Manchuria. In each he discovered aspects of China that the wider world seldom glimpses. And among the variety of her peoples, the web of her many histories, and the contrasts of her physical and social geography, he found common threads: the hardships faced now that the iron rice bowl has been taken away; the strength that millions have found in religion; the corruption and entrepreneurship flourishing in the rush to modernize; and the lingering splendor of its ancient beauty. (from the publisher)

Though more than seventy years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. "I can only write what I know, and I know nothing but China, having always lived there," wrote Pearl Buck. In The Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century. Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions and rewards. Her brilliant novel -- beloved by millions of readers -- is a universal tale of the destiny of man.

Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her "husband" with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later "rehabilitated." Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University. Her meticulous, transparent prose radiates an inner strength. (Publishers Weekly, Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.)