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Contemporary Chinese non-fiction books


Jan Finster

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I start this thread to collect book recommendations on contemporary Chinese non-fiction books (only).

 

I started reading the autobiography 随遇而安 by 孟非 last week. I am definitely boxing above my weight, but I will hang in there for now and let you know what I think about it later on...

 

Any other recommendations?

 

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I read 憩园 by 巴金 before and I found it interesting, 倾城之恋 by 张爱玲 which was okay but not better than the first one "in my opinion", there is 手机 as well, which kept me puzzled, didn't like it that much!!! 

Currently just reading 哈利波特 in Chinese ??

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16 hours ago, 李爱 said:

I read 憩园 by 巴金 before and I found it interesting, 倾城之恋 by 张爱玲 which was okay but not better than the first one "in my opinion", there is 手机 as well, which kept me puzzled, didn't like it that much!!! 

Currently just reading 哈利波特 in Chinese ??

You're not helping. 巴金 and 张爱玲 are not "contemporary", and all the items in your list are works of "fiction".

 

On the other hand, @Jan Finster, "non-fiction" is too broad a scope. What kind of non-fiction books do you have in mind? Are you interested in, say, neural networks and deep learning? It's non-fiction, and pretty hot right now.

Since Amazon.cn no longer sells dead tree books and JD.com is hard to navigate, I suggest you take a look at Dangdang's bestseller list. Maybe you can find some inspiration there, and/or pick up some useful vocab along the way.

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Most of the contemporary Chinese non-fiction books I have read are on music-related topics. While I recommend them, not everyone is up for reading undergraduate music theory textbooks.

 

What subjects interest you? What kind of non-fiction books do you read in your native language?

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11 hours ago, Publius said:
8 hours ago, murrayjames said:

What subjects interest you? What kind of non-fiction books do you read in your native language?

On the other hand, @Jan Finster, "non-fiction" is too broad a scope. What kind of non-fiction books do you have in mind? Are you interested in, say, neural networks and deep learning? It's non-fiction, and pretty hot right now.

 

 

Thanks for asking both of you. A Chinese business contact recommended AI·未来 by 李开复[著]. Unless, someone talks me out of it, this would be on my list. Deep learning sounds interesting too. I am not too familiar with it though.

 

Otherwise, I like:

Infotainment through stories. Ideally I would be looking for a Chinese Bill Bryson (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bill+bryson&ref=nb_sb_noss_2) or a Chinese Malcolm Gladwell (https://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-Gladwell/e/B000APOE98/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1). Since I am struggling with the language, the topic should not be too difficult itself. 

Other topics I like are communication (esp from a Chinese perspective) / interpersonal skills / psychology / social psychology / emotional intelligence / business psychology / management /natural history...

 

 

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《一看就停不下来的中国史》 by 最爱君. This is essentially a series of articles published by a WeChat official account. Quite fun and irreverent, but laden with classical quotations and internet slang. So probably not the best for language learning.

《上帝掷骰子吗——量子物理史话》 by  曹天元. This was original a very long post on a Chinese BBS. Popular science stuff.

 

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I have only read the first few dozen pages but 看见 is a great book my a journalist that discusses many contemporary Chinese issues. The language Used is both simple and useful.

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On 7/20/2019 at 5:01 PM, 艾墨本 said:

I have only read the first few dozen pages but 看见 is a great book my a journalist that discusses many contemporary Chinese issues. The language Used is both simple and useful.

This is on my list!

Why did you stop reading it?

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