Guides: Alumni Travel Reading: China

Classic China & The Yangtze

Courtesy of Chi King, from Flickr.com.

Past and Present: An Introduction

The Silk Road by Valerie Hansen
Call Number: DS329.4 .H36 2012
ISBN: 0195159314
Publication Date: 2012-08-14
For much of the first millennium CE, Xi'an formed the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, which carried goods, travelers, and ideas between China and western Asia. Valerie Hansen's new survey introduces the sites of the Silk Road and the rich network it formed across Inner Asia.

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Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
Call Number: DS712 .H458 2006
ISBN: 9780060826581
Publication Date: 2006-04-25
An excellent introduction to the recent changes undergone by China combined with explorations of ancient Chinese history and the scholars who study it. Much of Hessler's reporting is set in Beijing, and his stories introduce people and sites throughout the city.

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The Great Wall

Couresty of commons.wikimedia.org.

Beautiful Sichuan

Longsheng Rice Terraces. Courtesy of epidemiks, Flickr.com.

The Everday in Sichuan Province

In Film:

24 City by the director Zhang Jiake, portrays contemporary Chengdu, a Sichuanese city, through a combination of documentary interviews and fictional scenes acted in a documentary style.

Chinese bridge with city skyline

The Anshun Bridge, Chengdu. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

Purchase the film here.

In Books:

The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu; Wen Huang (Translator); Philip Gourevitch (Foreword by)
Call Number: HD8736.5 .L56 2008
ISBN: 9780375425424
Publication Date: 2008-04-15
Sichuan province, which surrounds the city of Chongqing, was the home of Liao Yiwu, several of whose interviews with ordinary Chinese people are translated in The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up (Pantheon, 2008). Many of Liao's interlocutors also come from Sichuan, and their conversations reveal much of how life there has changed over the last several decades.

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Along the Yangtze

Dusk on the Yangtze. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

Yangtze: Nautre, History, and the River by Lyman Van Slyke
Call Number: DS793.Y3 V35 1988
ISBN: 0201088940
Publication Date: 1989-01-01
A survey of the topography and history of the Yangtze River and is a great introduction to accompany a cruise through southern China.

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The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases by Burton Watson (Translator); Lu Yu
Call Number: PL2687.L8 A28
ISBN: 023103766X
Publication Date: 1973-12-22
Burton Watson translates excerpts from the diary of the government official Lu You as he traveled by boat up the Yangtze river and into Sichuan during 1170.

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Bibliographer

Selected and Annotated By:

Brian Vivier
Chinese Studies Librarian & Coordinator of Area Studies Collections
vivier@pobox.upenn.edu

For more information concerning this Penn excursion, please visit the Penn Alumni Travel website.

Shanghai

In Film:

Lust, Caution is an espionage thriller based on Eileen Chang's novel of the same name (see below).

Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

In Books:

Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang; Julia Lovell (Translator); James Schamus (Contribution by); Ang Lee (Afterword by)
Call Number: PL2837.E35 S4213 2007
ISBN: 0307387445
Publication Date: 2007-09-04
This short novella is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation and conveys well the flavor of the historical city.

Purchase the book here.

Borrow it from your local library.
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Call Number: PS3553.H537 D43 2000
ISBN: 1569471932
Publication Date: 2000-06-01
Modern Shanghai provides the setting for Qiu Xiaolong's crime novel.

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Shanghai Skyscape

Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.