My Favourite China Books of 2024…

My favourite China books of the year – Xi to Zhou to Gilbert & George, Shanghai interwar surrealism to post 1949 life and a great novel….

Shanghai Tai Chi – Hanchao Lu (Cambridge Uni Press) – the fascinating years of the interregnum between 1949 and the Cultural Revolution when some sort of independent life was still possible in Shanghai

Surrealism From Paris to Shanghai – Lauren Walden (Hong Kong Uni Press) – lavishly illustrated look at a little previously niche of Chinese interwar art

Gilbert & George and the Communists – James Birch (Cheerio Publishing) – the influential, and often hilarious, visits of G&G to Moscow, Beijing and Shanghai in 1990/1993

Zhou Enlai: A Life – Chen Jian (Bellknap – Harvard Uni Press) – readable bio of Mao’s #2 – great enabler or the only one who could contain Mao’s ego?

Red Emperor – Michael Sheridan (Headline) – the best and most complete Xi bio to date

And a late entry (only read over Xmas) – River East River West – Aube Rey Lescure (Duckworth) – a lovely novel recreating 2007 Shanghai brilliantly and evoking 1980s Qingdao. Though shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for fiction this year largely overlooked by the China crowd