To help you better prepare for China trips and stay in touch with China afterwards, we recommend the below study materials. We carefully choose the following from thousands available materials on the market, because we think they offer candid views, ask the right questions, instead of making hasty judgments or trying to squeeze China into western norms.
This book builds a structure of novel interpretation and vivid anecdote on a solid base of original research and covers the whole sweep of Chinese history, making comparative references to Western history. It seeks to explain the present Chinese reforms as the culmination of a commercialization trend that has broken down the old peasant society and brought China into the mainstream of world history
My Country My People ISBN: 1443723770
The author Mr. Yutang Lin was a famous Chinese scholar in 30's. He did a phenomenal job of explaining the Chinese people and its culture to a Western audience in a very humorous way. Mr. Lin does an unparellel job to compare "Chinese way" with "Western Way" in history, art, technology development, social structure, etc. A great read!
My Country My People ISBN: 1842777238
This book offers a balanced perspective of the continuing legacy of Maoism in the lifeways not only of China's leaders but China's working people. It outlines the ambitious economic reforms taken since the 1980s and shows the complex responses to the consequences of reform in China today. This book will equip the reader to judge media reports independently and to consider the experience and values not only of the Chinese government but China's workers, women, and minorities. This book shows the domestic concerns and social forces that shape the foreign policy of one of the worlds great powers.
This award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens who struggled through China's most decisive century.
China from Inside (Documentry)
Its greatest value is that the reporters interview those who really work and live inside China. In dealing with the problem of power and the people, the documentary takes in the first parliament member who ever voted against the majority's opinion.
To Live (Movie)
An ambitious tapestry of personal and political events, following the struggles of an impoverished husband and wife (Ge You, Gong Li) from their heyday in the 1940s to the hardships that accompanied the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. They raise two children amidst a Communist regime, surviving numerous setbacks and yet managing, somehow, to live.
