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Chinese & Chinese American Stories
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Chinese & Chinese American Stories: Descriptions
The titles listed here are either fiction or nonfiction texts that take place in China or feature Chinese or Chinese-American authors or characters.
Highlighted Titles
Descriptions
Fiction
American Born Chinese
by
Gene Luen Yang
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture.
Call Number: FIC .YAN GRAPHIC NOVEL
Publication Date: 2006
Boxers & Saints
by
Gene Luen Yang
a two-book set beginning with Boxers (2013) about the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the nineteenth century in China, he looses twin voices in harmony and dissonance from opposite sides of the bloody conflict.
Call Number: FIC .YAN GRAPHIC NOVEL
Publication Date: 2013
David Tung Can't Have a Girlfriend until He Gets into an Ivy League College
by
Ed Lin
David Tung is a New Jersey high school student who is navigating the streets of multiple social circles (regular school in an upscale, Asian-majority suburb versus weekend Chinese school in working-class NYC Chinatown), parental pressures to get As, two possible girlfriends he's not allowed to have, and the fear he will die alone, whether or not he gets into Harvard.
Call Number: FIC .LIN
Publication Date: 2020
Death of a Red Heroine
by
Qiu Xiaolong
Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau runs into considerable political opposition and danger when he investigates the brutal murder of National Model Worker Guan Hongying.
Call Number: FIC .QIU
Publication Date: 2003
Deep in the Mountains: an encounter with Zhu Qizhan
by
Terrence Cheng
Through the artist's stories of the past, the present, and the future, a lonely boy learns who he is and what he can become in this beautiful, haunting story of growing up and accepting life's challenges--and its joys.
Call Number: FIC .CHE
Publication Date: 2007
Everything I Never Told You
by
Celeste Ng
A teenage girl goes missing and is later found to have drowned in a nearby lake, and suddenly a once tight-knit family unravels in unexpected ways.
Call Number: FIC .NG
Publication Date: 2014
A Free Life
by
Ha Jin
We follow the Wu family - father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao - as they fully sever their ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begin a new, free life in the United States.
Call Number: FIC .JIN
Publication Date: 2007
Gold Mountain
by
Betty G. Yee
Fifteen-year-old Tam Ling Fan disguises herself as her twin brother, journeys from her village in China to California, and works as a laborer on the Transcontinental Railroad--where she faces danger on multiple fronts--to earn the money her family desperately needs.
Call Number: FIC .YEE
Publication Date: 2022
Iron Widow
by
Xiran Jay Zhao
Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.
Call Number: FIC .ZHA
Publication Date: 2021
The Joy Luck Club
by
Amy Tan
In 1949, four Chinese women--drawn together by the shadow of their past--begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club--and forge a relationship that binds them for more than three decades.
Call Number: FIC .TAN
Publication Date: 1991
The Last Empress
by
Anchee Min
Anchee Min offers a powerful revisionist portrait based on extensive research of one of the most important figures in Chinese history. Viciously maligned by the western press of the time as the "Dragon Lady," a manipulative, blood-thirsty woman who held onto power at all costs, the woman Min gives us is a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly, and who sacrificed all she had to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die.
Call Number: FIC .MIN
Publication Date: 2007
Like Spilled Water
by
Jennie Liu
Nineteen-year-old Na has always lived in the shadow of her younger brother, Bao-bao, her parents'cherished son. Years ago, Na's parents left her in the countryside and went to work in the city, bringing Bao-bao along and committing everything to his education. But when Bao-bao dies suddenly, Na realizes how little she knew him. Did he really kill himself because of a low score on China's all-important college entrance exam? Na learns that Bao-bao had many secrets and that his death may not be what it seems. Na's parents expect her to quit her vocational school and go to work, forcing Na to confront traditional expectations for and pressures on young women.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781541572904
Publication Date: 2020
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party
by
Ying Chang Compestine
Nine-year-old Ling is very comfortable in her life; her parents are both dedicated surgeons in the best hospital in Wuhan. But when Comrade Li, one of Mao's political officers, moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world. In an atmosphere of increasing mistrust, Ling fears for the safety of her neighbors and, soon, for herself.
Call Number: FIC .COM
Publication Date: 2007
A River of Stars
by
Vanessa Hua
In a powerful debut about modern-day motherhood, immigration, and identity, a pregnant Chinese woman stakes a claim to the American dream in California.
Call Number: FIC .HUA
Publication Date: 2018
Shanghai Girls
by
Lisa See
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries.
Call Number: FIC .SEE
Publication Date: 2010
The Silence That Binds Us
by
Joanna Ho
In the year following their son's death, May Chen's parents face racist accusations of putting too much pressure on their son and causing his death by suicide, and May attempts to challenge the racism and ugly stereotypes through her writing, only to realize that she still has a lot to learn and that her actions have consequences for her family as well as herself.
Call Number: FIC .HO
Publication Date: 2022
Soul Mountain
by
Gao Xingjian
An extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound beauty.
Call Number: FIC .GAO
Publication Date: 2001
Spin the Dawn
by
Elizabeth Lim
Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping fantasy about a teenage girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Call Number: FIC .LIM
Publication Date: 2019
Spring Pearl
by
Laurence Yep
Called boyish by her new family for being able to read and write, twelve-year-old, orphaned Spring Pearl's "odd ways" help save the family during the 1857 Opium War in Canton, China.
Call Number: FIC .YEP
Publication Date: 2002
These Violent Delights
by
Chloe Gong
In 1926 Shanghai, eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, heir of the Scarlet Gang, and her first love-turned-rival Roma Montagov, leader of the White Flowers, must work together when mysterious deaths threaten their city.
Call Number: FIC .GON
Publication Date: 2020
The Three-Body Problem
by
Cixin Liu; Ken Liu (Translator)
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project send signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion
Call Number: FIC .LIU
Publication Date: 2016
Typical American
by
Gish Jen
The Changs immigarted to the United States from China for education and safety but are distracted by other goals.
Publication Date: 1992
Waiting
by
Ha Jin
Tracing these lives through their summer of decision and beyond, Ha Jin vividly conjures the texture of daily life in a place where the demands of human longing must contend with the weight of centuries of custom. Waiting charms and startles us with its depiction of a China that remains hidden to Western eyes even as it moves us with its piercing vision of the universal complications of love.
Call Number: FIC .JIN
Publication Date: 1999
Nonfiction
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry
by
Paula Yoo
A groundbreaking portrait of Vincent Chin and the local murder case that took America's Asian American community to the streets in protest of injustice. America in 1982.
Call Number: 305.895 .Y55
Publication Date: 2021
Nixon and Mao: the week that changed the world
by
Margaret MacMillan
Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China was, in his words, "the week that changed the world," ending over two decades of unremitting hostility between two countries with radically different ideologies and world views but converging national interests. MacMillan has brought forth an engagingly written account of the event.
Call Number: 327.73051 .M11
Publication Date: 2007
Forbidden Workers
by
Peter Kwong
This book uses the Chinese experience to shed light on broader issues of immigration from countries around the world
Call Number: 331.65 .K95
Publication Date: 1998
For All the Tea in China: how England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history
by
Sarah Rose
Rose's remarkable account follows the journey of Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, who was deployed by the British East India Company to steal China's tea secrets in 1848. This thrilling narrative combines history, geography, and old-fashioned adventure.
Call Number: 382.4137 .R57
Publication Date: 2010
Chinese Dress
by
Verity Wilson
A beautifully illustrated and comprehensive study of Chinese dress from the 17th century to the present day covering fashion in its broad cultural context as well as techniques such as pattern cutting and embroidery.
Call Number: 391.00951 .W34
Publication Date: 2001
Age of Empires: art of the Qin and Han dynasties
by
Contributions by I-tien Hsing, Zhixin Sun, Cary Y. Liu, Pengliang Lu, Lillian Lan-ying Tseng, Robin D. S. Yates, Yang Hong, Zhonglin Yakina Zhang
Age of Empires presents the art and culture of China during one of the most critical periods of its history - the four centuries from 221 B.C. to A.D. 200-- when, for the first time, people of diverse backgrounds were brought together under centralized imperial rule that fostered a new and unified identity.
Call Number: 709.31 .S85
Publication Date: 2017
Arts of China, 900-1620
by
William Watson
William Watson considers architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts in equal balance. He follows styles and motifs as they are developed in each medium from one province to another and discusses materials and techniques as well as the iconography and function of every art form. He also explores relationships between one medium and another.
Call Number: 709.51 .W18
Publication Date: 2000
Outlaws of the Marsh
by
Shi Nai'an; Luo Guanzhong; Sidney Shapiro (Translator)
A great classic of Chinese literature, also known as Water Margin and All Men are Brothers, this is an exciting account of the adventures of a bold brigand army, like Robin Hood and his merry men, battling against tyrannical rulers.
Call Number: 895.134 .O88 v.1
Publication Date: 1993
The Question of Hu
by
Jonathan D. Spence
This lively and elegant book by the acclaimed historian Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs an extraordinary episode in the early intercourse between Europe and China. It is the story of John Hu, a lowly but devout Chinese Catholic, who in 1722 accompanied a Jesuit missionary on a journey to France--a journey that ended with Hu's confinement in a lunatic asylum. At once a triumph of historical detective work and a gripping narrative, The Question of Hu deftly probes the collision of two cultures, with their different definitions of faith, madness, and moral obligation.
Call Number: 909.7 .H8
Publication Date: 1989
1421: the year China discovered America
by
Gavin Menzies
Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed were how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted to America, Australia, New Zealand and South America the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world. Now, in a landmark historical journey, Gavin Menzies, who spent fifteen years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet, shares the remarkable account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them.
Call Number: 910.951 .M25
Publication Date: 2003
Mr. Selden's Map of China
by
Timothy Brook
350 years ago an unusual map of China was deposited at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Author Timothy Brook sets out to discover how it connects English scholars, Chinese merchants, and King James II.
Call Number: 912.1647 .B75
Publication Date: 2013
The Emperor Far Away
by
David Eimer
The author describes his trip to the remotest parts of the country far away from the capital, including the Islamic area of Xinjiang province, the forbidden zone of Tibet, and Route 219, which borders India.
Call Number: 915.104 .E34
Publication Date: 2014
The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China
by
Grant R. Hardy; Anne Kinney
The Han Dynasty created an enduring Chinese empire comparable to the Roman Empire. In this book, narrative chapters, biographical sketches, and translated primary documents give readers a unique overview of this important founding dynasty.
Call Number: 931.04 .H17
Publication Date: 2005
Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule
by
George Lane
The Mongols are often associated with the arts of warfare and annals of horror, but a more realistic association would be their contribution to international trade and cultural exchange during the medieval age. Thematic chapters, biographical sketches, a glossary, maps, illustrations, and selected primary documents provide fresh insight on a regretfully underexamined period.
Call Number: 950.2 .G25L2
Publication Date: 2004
The Making of China: main themes in premodern Chinese history
by
Chun-Shu Chang
Covers the Qing Dynasty 1644-1912
Call Number: 951 .C31
Publication Date: 1975
Oracle Bones: a journey between China's past and present
by
Peter Hessler
A rare portrait, both intimate and epic, of twenty-first-century China as it opens its doors to the outside world.
Call Number: 951 .H2707
Publication Date: 2006
The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
by
Mark Edward Lewis
'The Early Chinese Empires' illuminates many formative events in China's long history of imperialism - events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.
Call Number: 951 .L29
Publication Date: 2007
This Is China: the first 5,000 years
by
Haiwang Yuan
A brief history of China from the Xia Dynasty through to the Cultural Revolution.
Call Number: 951 .T33
Publication Date: 2010
The Silk Road: two thousand years in the heart of Asia
by
Frances Wood
Illustrated with drawings, manuscripts, paintings and artifacts, this historical journey through the byways of the old Silk Road is a beautifully rendered tribute to the thousands of years in which these routes served as the center of trade.
Call Number: 951.025 .W55
Publication Date: 2003
The Opium War, 1840-1842
by
Peter Ward Fay
Subtitle: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the early part of the nineteenth century and the war by which they forced her gates ajar
Call Number: 951.03 .F19
Publication Date: 1975
Westerners in China
by
Foster Stockwell
Traces the history of contact between China and the West
Call Number: 951.03 .S85
Publication Date: 2002
From the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement
by
Sheng Hu
Translation of: Tsʻung Ya pʻien chan cheng tao Wu ssu yün tung.
Call Number: 951.03.H87, 2 vols.
Publication Date: 1991
Opium Wars: the addiction of one empire and the corruption of another
by
Frank Sanello; William Travis Hanes
n this tragic and powerful story, the two Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860 between Britain and China are recounted for the first time through the eyes of the Chinese as well as the Imperial West. Opium entered China during the Middle Ages when Arab traders brought it into China for medicinal purposes. As it took hold as a recreational drug, opium wrought havoc on Chinese society.
Call Number: 951.033 .H15
Publication Date: 2002
God's Chinese Son: the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan
by
Jonathan D. Spence
A richly detailed, erudite account that will mesmerize history buffs and China watchers alike.
Call Number: 951.034 .S62
Publication Date: 1996
Modern China: a Very Short Introduction
by
Rana Mitter
This Very Short Introduction offers an indispensable starting point for anyone who needs to quickly know the themes and controversies that have shaped modern China.
Call Number: 951.05 .M38
Publication Date: 2008
China in Ten Words
by
Yu Hua; Allan H. Barr (Translator)
Uses a framework of ten common phrases in the Chinese vernacular to offer insight into China's modern economic gaps, cultural transformations, and ubiquitous practices of deception.
Call Number: 951.0612 .Y8
Publication Date: 2012
The Voyage of the Frolic
by
Thomas N. Layton
In 1984, the author and a group of his archaeology students discovered fragments of Chinese porcelain at the site of a Pomo Indian village on the Mendocino coast north of San Francisco. How did these hundred year old ceramics find their way to this remote area? And what of the local legend that told of Pomo women wearing Chinese silk shawls in the 1850s? In seeking the answers to these questions, The Voyage of the 'Frolic' navigates a journey through the lives of nineteenth-century Boston merchants, Baltimore shipbuilders, Bombay opium brokers, newly rich businessmen in gold rush San Francisco, and a woman who burned her father's papers in 1942 in an attempt to conceal the truth about his voyages as captain of the 'Frolic' almost a century before. A truly fascinating picture of the politics, finance and logistics of the nineteenth century opium trade.
Call Number: 979.4 .L19
Publication Date: 1997
China: A 5,000-year Odyssey
by
Tan Chung
In this endearing book on China, Tan Chung distills tons of information about China's historical evolution and complex vicissitudes in a freewheeling style describing how the third longest river in the world, Yangtze River, and the fifth longest, Yellow River, carved out the contours of China on the globe millions of years before the arrival of man-apes.
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Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Confucianism: a Very Short Introduction
by
Daniel K. Gardner
To understand China, it is essential to understand Confucianism. First formulated in the sixth century BCE, the teachings of Confucius would come to dominate Chinese society, politics, economics, and ethics. In this Very Short Introduction, Daniel K. Gardner explores the major philosophical ideas of the Confucian tradition, showing their profound impact on state ideology and imperial government, the civil service examination system, domestic life, and social relations over the course of twenty-six centuries.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2014
Chinese Mythology
by
Jim Ollhoff
Readers of Chinese Mythology will learn the history of myths, as well as their deeper meaning.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2011
Emperor Qin's Terra-Cotta Army
by
Diane Bailey
This title examines the exploration and study of Emperor Qin's terra-cotta army. The book explores the mausoleum's creation, traces its discovery and scientific investigation, and discusses future study and conservation efforts. Well-placed sidebars, vivid photos, helpful maps, and a glossary enhance readers'understanding of the topic.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2014
Chinese Looks: Fashion, Performance, Race
by
Sean Metzger
Chinese Looks examines articles of clothing and modes of adornment as a window on how American views of China have changed in the past 150 years.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780253012562
Publication Date: 2014
The Road to the Throne
by
Hing Ming Hung
The stories of the Chinese great emperors reflect the ancient Chinese philosophy, ideology, their wisdom and their ways of administration. Liu Bang is an outstanding example. Rising from a peasant background to become Emperor, he founded the Han Dynasty which lasted for about four hundred years and essentially laid the foundations of China as we know it.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2011
Daodejing
by
Laozi; Edmund Ryden (Translator)
he best-loved of all the classical books of China and the most universally popular, the Daodejing or Classic of the Way and Life-Force is a work that defies definition.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2008
China: a History
by
The Field Museum; Cheryl Bardoe
Discover the history of one of the world's most influential civilizations. Based on the Cyrus Tang Hall of China exhibit at The Field Museum, China: A History traces the 7,000-year story of this diverse land. Full-color maps, photos, and illustrations of the people, landscape, artifacts, and rare objects bring the history of this nation to life!
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
A Geek in China
by
Matthew B. Christensen
For every fan of kung fu, steamed dumplings, Confucius and giant skyscrapers, A Geek in China is a hip, smart and concise guide to the Middle Kingdom. Packed with photographs and short articles on all aspects of Chinese culture, past and present.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2016
Memoir & Personal Narrative
Beautiful Country
by
Qian Julie Wang
In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian's parents were professors; in America, her family is "illegal" and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.
Call Number: B .WAN
Publication Date: 2021
Fresh off the Boat
by
Eddie Huang
"Bawdy and frequently hilarious . . . a surprisingly sophisticated memoir about race and assimilation in America . . . as much James Baldwin and Jay-Z as Amy Tan . . . rowdy and vital . . . It's a book about fitting in by not fitting in at all."-Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Call Number: B .HUA
Publication Date: 2013
Shenzhen: a travelogue from China
by
Guy Delisle; Helge Dascher (Translator)
Presents the author's observations, in graphic novel format, of life in a cold city in southern China that is sealed off by electric fences and armed guards from the rest of the country.
Call Number: 915.12 .D24 GRAPHIC NOVEL
Publication Date: 2012
China Men
by
Maxine Hong Kingston
The author chronicles the lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from memory, myth and fact. Here's a storyteller's tale of what they endured in a strange new land.
Call Number: B .KIN
Publication Date: 1980
Little White Duck
by
Na Liu; Andrés Vera Martínez (Illustrator)
Wife-and-husband team Na Liu and Andrs Vera Martnez use a graphic-novel format to bring Lius childhood in 1970s Wuhan, China, to life for contemporary children. Much will seem the same -- family life with a younger sister, school, a visit with a semi-scary grandmother -- but the particulars in the eight vignettes included here make all the difference.
Call Number: FIC .MAR GRAPHIC NOVEL
Publication Date: 2012
Wild Swans: three daughters of China
by
Jung Chang
Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century.
Call Number: 951.05 .C31
Publication Date: 1991
The Woman Warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts
by
Maxine Hong Kingston
An exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities--immigrant, female, Chinese, American.
Call Number: B .KIN
ISBN: 9780679721888
Publication Date: 1989
The Art of War
The Art of War
by
Sun Sun Tzu Samuel B. Griffith (Translator)
Call Number: 355.02 .S85A8
Publication Date: 1988
The Art of War: a Graphic Novel
by
Sun Tzu; Pete Katz (Illustrator)
Hailed as the oldest philosophical discussion on military strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War has been adapted as a graphic novel by award-winning illustrator Pete Katz. In this collectible thread-bound edition, the narrative focuses on a teacher instructing a pupil on the main points of Sun Tzu's treatise so that readers may gain a greater understanding of principles from the fifth century BC.
Call Number: 355.02 .S85 GRAPHIC NOVEL
Publication Date: 2018
Sun-Tzu: Art of War-The New Translation
by
Sun-tzu; J. H. Huang
Call Number: 355.02 .S85
Publication Date: 1993
Sun Tzu's Art of War
by
Tao Hanzhang; Yuan Shibing (Translator)
Call Number: 355.02 .T15
Publication Date: 1987
The Art of War
by
Sun Tzu; Stephen F. Kaufman
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781462906260
Publication Date: 2012
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