Seeking book recommendations for Asian history, with an emphasis on Japan and China...plus some Russia

[Alte Veste Academy]

I would love history and some literature. Folklore in particular would be well received. Modern books that could be pleasure reading to tie in would be good too. For example, she loved The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden for its references to Russian folklore. In that vein, I've already ordered The Red Winter Trilogy, which incorporated Japanese folklore. But those are just for fun, and I need some school-worthy choices for lit and history. This is for my DD16 who is a strong reader and dreams of living in Japan. She wants to study Japanese, Chinese, and Russian. 

What are your favorites? 

[LAS in LA]

Jonathan Spence for serious Chinese history reading. "The Search for Modern China" covers late Ming - 1980s, and Japan and Russia come into the story of course.  Also includes a helpful glossary and "further reading" section by chapter and topic.

[Farrar]

Yes, seconding Spence for all things Qing China. His books are readable and engaging. I especially like God's Chinese Son about the Taiping Rebellion. His book Emperor of China is really good as well and not too long.

Further back... Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a good read. The Star Raft is a nice little book about when the Ming Dynasty almost conquered the world. Um... honestly pre-Yuan is not really my period so I don't know the best readable resources before that, honestly.

The graphic novel Chinese history books are really a brilliant little summary. Totally worth reading.

I really like Daughter of Han for the late Qing/early Republic era - it's an oral history.

The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang is devastating and well researched and very readable.

There are so many Cultural Revolution era memoirs that it's hard to know where to start. But Wild Swans is a good one as it covers a much longer period. The Dragon's Village is a really good - it's about the Great Leap Forward. Son of the Revolution is a good shorter one. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a good bit of literature for that era.

Um... You should definitely read Monkey for Chinese literature. Get a good collection of poetry. There's a book that's called something like a Treasury of Asian Literature of something that has a nice little set of selections from all over Asia, but includes solid historic look at Chinese and Japanese poetry and classics. I think it must have parts of The Pillow Book, but if not, definitely read either the whole thing or selections for Japanese literature. I tend to like doing excerpts of older works and then a couple of newer ones. If you wanted to focus on older though, obviously read Tale of Genji for Japan. It's harder to add anything for Chinese literature in full because those books are all so absurdly long. Monkey is already just a "good parts version."

For modern Japanese literature... also definitely read some Banana Yoshimoto. I have Kitchen in my curriculum and when I've read it with students in my class it was well enjoyed. After our discussion in class last year, several kids went off and made some of the food for lunch and sent me yummy looking pictures, which was delightful to me. You could do Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. Botchan is a good pick that's still well known as a sort of classic high school read. You should do some Murakami. I like his older stuff, but he's so everywhere now and anything could be a good choice. There are a bunch of other options really... those would just be my top picks.

For modern Chinese literature, definitely read some Lao She and Lu Xun short stories. You could read Red Sorghum... though I'll add that the cinematic versions of Mo Yan's work could also be worthy stand ins to work in more. You could do the Three Body Problem if you want something very right now. Skip the Pearl Buck, please.

[LAS in LA]

Seconding Wild Swans and Iris Chang!

[Amethyst]

Water Buffalo Days

[Amethyst]

1 minute ago, Amethyst said:

Water Buffalo Days

Wait. Sorry. Just realized you are looking for books for older child. The same author of Water Buffalo Days wrote a memoir called The Land I Lost. These books are about Viet Nam. 

[JennyD]

dp

Edited March 30, 2021 by JennyD

[JennyD]

On 3/28/2021 at 2:02 PM, Farrar said:

Further back... Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a good read.

My DS15 LOVED this book.  As in, I assigned it and then he has read it multiple times since then just for fun.  

Premodern Japan by Hane and Perez was the best treatment of early Japanese history that I could find, and I warmly recommend  A Modern History of Japan by Andrew Gordon.  The latter is pricey if you get the most recent edition but there are plenty of earlier editions available for much more reasonable prices.  

I did not assign this to my DS but if your DD really wants to go down the Japan rabbit hole, Embracing Defeat, by John Dower, is just fantastic. 

[Alte Veste Academy]

On 3/28/2021 at 11:09 AM, LAS in LA said:

Jonathan Spence for serious Chinese history reading. "The Search for Modern China" covers late Ming - 1980s, and Japan and Russia come into the story of course.  Also includes a helpful glossary and "further reading" section by chapter and topic.

Thanks! I have a thing for "further reading" sections. LOL I'll have to see how much focus DD wants on China vs Japan and Russia. 

On 3/28/2021 at 12:02 PM, Farrar said:

Yes, seconding Spence for all things Qing China. His books are readable and engaging. I especially like God's Chinese Son about the Taiping Rebellion. His book Emperor of China is really good as well and not too long.

Further back... Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a good read. The Star Raft is a nice little book about when the Ming Dynasty almost conquered the world. Um... honestly pre-Yuan is not really my period so I don't know the best readable resources before that, honestly.

The graphic novel Chinese history books are really a brilliant little summary. Totally worth reading.

I really like Daughter of Han for the late Qing/early Republic era - it's an oral history.

The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang is devastating and well researched and very readable.

There are so many Cultural Revolution era memoirs that it's hard to know where to start. But Wild Swans is a good one as it covers a much longer period. The Dragon's Village is a really good - it's about the Great Leap Forward. Son of the Revolution is a good shorter one. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a good bit of literature for that era.

Um... You should definitely read Monkey for Chinese literature. Get a good collection of poetry. There's a book that's called something like a Treasury of Asian Literature of something that has a nice little set of selections from all over Asia, but includes solid historic look at Chinese and Japanese poetry and classics. I think it must have parts of The Pillow Book, but if not, definitely read either the whole thing or selections for Japanese literature. I tend to like doing excerpts of older works and then a couple of newer ones. If you wanted to focus on older though, obviously read Tale of Genji for Japan. It's harder to add anything for Chinese literature in full because those books are all so absurdly long. Monkey is already just a "good parts version."

For modern Japanese literature... also definitely read some Banana Yoshimoto. I have Kitchen in my curriculum and when I've read it with students in my class it was well enjoyed. After our discussion in class last year, several kids went off and made some of the food for lunch and sent me yummy looking pictures, which was delightful to me. You could do Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. Botchan is a good pick that's still well known as a sort of classic high school read. You should do some Murakami. I like his older stuff, but he's so everywhere now and anything could be a good choice. There are a bunch of other options really... those would just be my top picks.

For modern Chinese literature, definitely read some Lao She and Lu Xun short stories. You could read Red Sorghum... though I'll add that the cinematic versions of Mo Yan's work could also be worthy stand ins to work in more. You could do the Three Body Problem if you want something very right now. Skip the Pearl Buck, please.

I've wanted to read the Genghis Khan book every time I've seen it mentioned. I think I've had it out from the library before too and ran out of time. I'll definitely give it a thorough look at this point. 

I think The Star Raft looks amazing, and I'd love to bring some Africa into the study because of current events involving the geopolitics of China making serious inroads in business there. I had actually just been looking at more recent books to include about this. It's cool to think of contemplating the history of that as well. I own Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order. I should probably get around to reading it soon...

I love the graphic style history books for China. Those should be a hit, thanks! I put those, Genghis Khan, Monkey, and Kitchen in my cart. DD loves to cook, and Kitchen seems like it would interest her in every way. I almost bought The Three-Body Problem for my DS15 this year, so I think that would be a great buy for two reasons! 

Still looking at others. Thanks so much for the detailed response. I've actually been working on my response since yesterday, but life got in the way. 

 

[Alte Veste Academy]

2 hours ago, JennyD said:

My DS15 LOVED this book.  As in, I assigned it and then he has read it multiple times since then just for fun.  

Premodern Japan by Hane and Perez was the best treatment of early Japanese history that I could find, and I warmly recommend  A Modern History of Japan by Andrew Gordon.  The latter is pricey if you get the most recent edition but there are plenty of earlier editions available for much more reasonable prices.  

I did not assign this to my DS but if your DD really wants to go down the Japan rabbit hole, Embracing Defeat, by John Dower, is just fantastic. 

I'm looking at all these, thanks! Love the look of Embracing Defeat!

[Farrar]

If you want to look at the connections between Asia and Africa, The Ocean of Churn by Sanjeev Sanyal is excellent and amazing. It's a history of the Indian Ocean and it brings together all kinds of interesting cross-cultural connections between India and SE Asia and Africa and the Middle East and East Asia and then eventually Europe. It's filled with lots of anecdotes.

[JennyD]

5 hours ago, Farrar said:

If you want to look at the connections between Asia and Africa, The Ocean of Churn by Sanjeev Sanyal is excellent and amazing. It's a history of the Indian Ocean and it brings together all kinds of interesting cross-cultural connections between India and SE Asia and Africa and the Middle East and East Asia and then eventually Europe. It's filled with lots of anecdotes.

Wow, this book looks fabulous.  

[theelfqueen]

Not Lit but the Great Courses offerings 

Understanding Japan : a Cultural History

And

Understanding Russia: a Cultural History

And 

History of Russia from Peter the Great to Gorbachev

Are all good. I've used each of these. 

 

I havent used the following but:

Understanding Imperial China also looks good.

[Alte Veste Academy]

9 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

Not Lit but the Great Courses offerings 

Understanding Japan : a Cultural History

And

Understanding Russia: a Cultural History

And 

History of Russia from Peter the Great to Gorbachev

Are all good. I've used each of these. 

 

I havent used the following but:

Understanding Imperial China also looks good.

Thanks so much! I can’t believe I didn’t think of these. My DS14 is practically living on The Great Courses Plus these days. The woman in the Russian Culture one is really good!

[theelfqueen]

1 hour ago, Alte Veste Academy said:

Thanks so much! I can’t believe I didn’t think of these. My DS14 is practically living on The Great Courses Plus these days. The woman in the Russian Culture one is really good!

I'm glad it wasn't a silly suggestion 

[klmama]

This book has lovely Japanese folk tales.  I read an earlier edition of it as a child.  Years later I taught ESL and mentioned Kintaro to my students from Japan, and they were absolutely delighted that I knew who he was.  

[Porridge]

What a great thread! Following.  Thank you!