In a series of beautifully illustrated short stories, author and artist Feng Jicai introduces some weird and wonderful characters from the port city of Tianjin in northeast China where he was born and raised. They include a miracle doctor, a master chicken-thief, an ill-mannered mynah bird, a smooth-talking restaurateur and an educated gangster.

In the...

Zhou Daxin's fictional biography follows the life of a man who grew up in poverty in China's Mao era and then rose through the ranks of government during the country's period of reform and opening up. It's a tale of love, leadership, betrayal, corruption, lust, greed and the nature of power amid the rise of the 21st century's new superpower.

What's left...

My Travels in Ding Yi is an epic novel told from the perspective of a spirit who inhabits an array of beings in different places and times. From Adam in the Garden of Eden, to a fish, to the novel’s protagonist, Ding Yi, an average Chinese boy in the second half of the 20th century. It’s in Ding Yi that Shi explores coming of age during the Cultural...

Tigers. Bandits

A 10,000 mile journey

1694: Sichuan is empty, depopulated by war, famine and plague. When the emperor issues a decree asking citizens to re-settle this former land of abundance, Ning Xi takes up the call, vowing to find her father, Ning Degong, who vanished in Sichuan years ago. Beset by tigers, bandits, and a powerful old enemy, this...

The adventures of two young brothers, Little Tashi and Dawa, tending their family's flock of sheep on the mountainside. Looking after their flock, their friends and family and each other bring many adventures, but all Little Tashi wants is to be allowed to enrol at school.

Little Tashi and his elder brother Dawa have many adventures as they tend their flock...

Thirteenth century China, and the Song Empire is crumbling. Into the civil service, a young scholar called Song Ci is admitted. His unmatched skill for interpreting crime scenes enables him to solve a series of complex murder cases. But with the empire now in peril, Song is pitted against increasing dangers that will tax him to the limit.

Where is the...

Broken Wings tells the harrowing story of Butterfly, who is kidnapped and taken to a mountain village in which all the young women have left for the city. There, she is imprisoned and, later, raped in the cave home of the wifeless farmer who has bought her. These traumatic events and Butterfly's fading hopes of escape are described in her own voice...

Empires of Dust follows the changes in rural life in China, starting from the era of Mao Zedong and then through the first thirty years of Deng Xiaoping’s policy of reform and opening up. The protagonist is a kind-hearted, hardworking and entrepreneurial peasant named Guo Cunxian who lives in an ordinary small village. He starts a business making coffins...

China’s Republican government is rocked by unrest and occupation. In this turbulent environment, The Elm Tree explores the conflicting social and political pressures faced by a prominent Beijing household. This intricately-crafted novel is both an epic family saga and a fascinating account of a pivotal time in China’s recent history.

Will the newest branch...

This powerful memoir follows the extraordinary life of Li Lanni, a writer and former cancer patient struggling with depression in 21st century China. At once deeply personal and profoundly universal, this story of cancer and mental illness captures the life and times of a generation struggling for health and happiness in a rapidly changing China.

What is it...

China’s Republican government is rocked by unrest and occupation. In this turbulent environment, The Elm Tree explores the conflicting social and political pressures faced by a prominent Beijing household. This intricately-crafted novel is both an epic family saga and a fascinating account of a pivotal time in China’s recent history.

Will the newest branch...