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Nine Must-Read Books in 2007

1. Yu Dan’s Notes for The Analects of Confucius （于丹《论语》心得）

by Yu Dan （于丹）

Yu Dan, a Beijing Normal University professor, gave a lecture on her understanding of The Analects of Confucius in the Lecture Room programme on CCTV. The programme was such a hit that the texts of her seven lectures were bound in this book. The book set a new sales record with 10,000 copies sold in a day.

2. The Age of Innocence: Shijing （《思无邪》）by An Yiru （安意如）

The Shijing, or The Book of Poetry, is the oldest collection Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BC) Chinese poetry, containing more than 300 folk songs, poems, odes and hymns all written in hard-to-understand ancient written Chinese. The Age of Innocence: Shijing is a work of An Yiru, a young writer who not only translates the language into modern Chinese but also connects the Shijing with today’s feelings and situations. In the book she may compare beauties in the Shijing with popular heroines in swordsmen films, or relate old fashioned brave knights to competitive super boys of hot TV shows.

3. Past and Present: The Grand Canal of China（《千古大运河》）by Cai Guilin （蔡桂林）

The author spent eight years investigating historical documents before he finished the book. The Grand Canal of China, also known as the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the largest ancient canal or artificial river in the world, weathering China’s vast social changes.

4. Perfume of Love in Ancient China（《画堂香事》）by Meng Hui（孟晖）

When reading the book, one feels like seeing faded photos refreshed with Technicolor, or seeing old movie classics re-launched with digital technologies. With more than a hundred precious illustrations, we are assured that the book clearly portrays traditional scenes of life in ancient China, especially the exquisite scenes where people used perfume and fragrant plants to add spice and beauty to their lives.

5. An Aimless Beautiful Life（《无目的美好生活》）by Hong Huang（洪晃）

The book is a collection of essays, comments, features, tales, and Q & As about life in today’s urban Beijing, especially about the avant-garde lives of the media circle.

6. The Woman Psychologist（《女心理师》）by Bi Shumin（毕淑敏）

The novel about how a woman psychologist cures her patient and herself is full of cases involving emotional problems arising from today’s urban life. The author, a former physician and one of the most influential women writers in China, continues to focus on women’s issues.

7. Who Has Robbed Our Faces（《谁掠夺了我们的脸》）by Chen Ran（陈染）

As one of the most acclaimed women writers in China, Chen Ran has published many novels and essays, most heroines are portrayed as alienated, urban woman to whom current history matters less than the reliable comforts of love, nature, and solitude. The writer has always been  faithful to her own writing style, with “I” appearing in all the titles of chapters in Who Has Robbed Our Faces.

8. Ghost Blow: The Weasel Tomb（《鬼吹灯II：黄皮子坟》）by Tianxia Bachang（天下霸唱）

Combining traditional Chinese ghost stories and Hollywood thrillers, this is the fifth book of the Ghost Blow series. The series is so popular that a new writing genre called “the Tomb Group” has emerged. Many authors follow the tomb-raiding theme, modelled on the writing style of Ghost Blow. Full of great surprises and with unique humour, Ghost Blow: The Weasel Tomb is fun, scary, and sometimes disgusting like all good ghost stories usually are. Sometimes the reading process is more like playing a computer game. You go with the author into different situations, push all kinds of magic buttons, and then go to the next stage to start the next round of battle.

9. Xuanzang: Journey to the West（《玄奘西游记》）by Qian Wenzhong（钱文忠）

Xuanzang, the Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled to India to study Buddhist scripts in early Tang Dynasty, inspired countless novels, movies, plays, and TV programmes, including this book. His journey to the west has become the most beloved story in Chinese history, which has been passed, followed, and imitated by generations.