In recent months, my thoughts have often been pulled from the world of technology, to the larger WORLD – as defined by geopolitical, cultural and economic conflict and all-too-often WAR. My deepest fears stem from the re-emergence of a militaristic Russia, with unrest and war in the Ukraine and the elsewhere in former-soviet Republics – and Russia’s increasing military involvement in Syria and the Middle East.

But I cannot help thinking that a US-centric perspective that dates back to Cold War stereotypes of a “good” US and Western Europe vs. an “evil empire” USSR/Russia misses what is really happening in the world. One of the obvious omissions of this world-view is that it discounts the impact of the rest of the world, and in particular, the economic re-emergence and the increasing political influence of China.

China has been, and is an economic juggernaut, finally progressing forward, as the government has let go of the some of the artificial controls and tries to move to a balance of Communism government and Capitalist economic policy. In the past couple of weeks, there has been some big news on China’s population and demographics problems that remind us of social and economic challenges to come.

• The October 29^th official end of China’s “one-child policy”, adopted in 1978, which led to worker shortages and a large imbalance between the number of males and females…

• A recent article I read in the Economist shocked me to the core. Chinese policies intending to discourage moving to the cities for work have instead led to “106m children’s lives were being profoundly disrupted (many of them left behind in the care of grandparents, or no one in particular) by their parents’ restless search for jobs. For comparison, the total number of children in the United States is 73 million.  Very had to imagine…

I have always been interested in China, partly because of the exotic images of ancient China, with elaborate temples and palaces, wise-looking emperors with “Manchu” mustaches, and the image of the Great Wall of China standing as a barrier to the Mongol hordes.

But the other part of my interest is personal.

• My grandmother was born in Shanghai in 1904, one of 5 children of an American teaching in a Chinese University at the turn of the century. She went on to write more than 50 children’s books under her maiden name, Eleanor Frances Lattimore, quite a number of them about children in early 20^th century China.
• I was also interested in the story of my great-uncle, her brother, Owen Lattimore, who became a leading China expert, and was an emissary from President Franklin Roosevelt to Chiang Kai-Shek. He was a scapegoat of anti-communist fear from “McCarthyism”, and when China was “lost” to the Communists under Mao, he was falsely accused of being “a top soviet spy”.

Over the years I have ready many books about China, but below are the three books that I find myself recommending over and over to friends. I found each of these books both interesting and entertaining in their own way and together, they seem to provide a good tutorial for a “westerner” seeking to gain insight into the mysteries of modern china.

3 Favorite Books that Illuminate the “Soul of Modern China” 

1. Little Pear

I may be a bit biased on the first book, but Little Pear was my grandmother’s first and most popular book and it helped me see China and Chinese people as just like everyone else (but more exotic?). It published in 1930, was available in more than 30 languages and is still in print today. One of the reviews on Amazon.com summarizes the universal appeal well.

“Little Pear is an endearing (and enduring) character, and the stories are sweet and uncomplicated. Despite his being from another time and another place, children can easily identify with the title character, his feelings, and his adventures.”

2. Wild Swans: 3 Daughters of China

The summary on Amazon.com does a great job of summarizing why this non-fiction book is so compelling and illuminating.

 “Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.

 Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.”

3. The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of Modern China

I read this book in 2014, in part because I wanted to understand the world of China before Communist China and the disastrous “Cultural Revolution” that was my first awareness of China as a teenager. I was also intrigued by Madame Chaing’s role in history – a Chinese woman who went to college in the US and rose to be one of the most famous and influential people in the world during the Cold War era.

“…Madame Chiang Kai-Shek is at the center of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century. This is the story of the founding of modern China, starting with a revolution that swept away more than 2,000 years of monarchy, followed by World War II, and ending in eventual loss to the Communists and exile in Taipei.”

The book delivered much more than I expected, providing new insights into the history of China, its people, and the complete separation of the ruling Chinese class from the problems and interests of their people. Stories of backroom deals with “warlords” that controlled vast sections of a fragmented China and scandalous corruption read like fiction – until you realize that how deeply corruption has been woven into the fabric of Chinese politics throughout history.

Additional Recommendation

“Mao: The Unknown Story”, is a riveting book by Jung Chang, the same author as Wild Swans above. It is a scathing biography that provides a portrait of Mao as one of the truly evil, destructive men in history – with hundreds of interviews with childhood friends, former family servants, party members, opponents and others that provide evidence to support this appalling picture….

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