It is the world’s second-biggest economy, the next big threat to global security and a country ruled by an authoritarian regime that is increasingly making its power felt beyond its borders. But the most important part of China is the population of 1.4 billion diverse, tricky and resilient people whose choices are often very distant from the decision-makers in Beijing. These books are an introduction to the forces that have shaped China’s recent past and the people living in its present.

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Red Memory by Tania Branigan

What was the Cultural Revolution? The decade of mass killings, political purges and the ruthless assertion of power “is impossible to understand”, writes Branigan, the Guardian leader writer and former China correspondent. Nevertheless, it is central to understanding China today. Rather than focusing on a historical analysis of how such fervour and hatred tore across the country, Branigan focuses on the people whose lives were upended by that period of social remoulding. Crucially, she argues convincingly, the Cultural Revolution is not just a historical curiosity: its terror, and efforts to forget the depravity wreaked by campaign, continue to be felt.

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Leftover Women by Leta Hong Fincher

When Hong Fincher first published her landmark book about gender inequality in China in 2014, China’s birthrate was 14 per 1,000 people. By January 2024, just after the updated 10th anniversary edition of Leftover Women was published, that number had halved. Understanding why more and more women are rejecting the social and political pressure to become mothers also requires understanding why Chinese women are so disenchanted with marriage. In accessible, entertaining prose, Leftover Women guides the reader through the economic and social inequalities embedded in marriages in China that are so off-putting for increasingly educated young women.

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The Souls of China by Ian Johnson

In this lively and fascinating book by a veteran chronicler of grassroots China, Johnson explores the inner and outer lives of the hundreds of millions of people who claim adherence to some form of spirituality under the shadow of the officially atheist Chinese Communist party. As well as the Christians and Muslims who have a particularly hard time expressing their religious beliefs – especially the latter group who have seen their mosques razed and communities oppressed at an extraordinary scale in the past decade – Johnson explores the complex and often contradictory role of blended teachings from Buddhism, Taosim and Confucianism. The result is a humane portrait of Chinese society that reveals more about everyday life in China than any political text.

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Owlish by Dorothy Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce

This haunting “anti-fairytale” is about Prof Q, “a hack teacher in a debased, cultureless little city”. He embarks on an extramarital affair with a lifesize ballerina doll in a novel that is absorbing, erotic and at times nightmarish. Owlish, an allegory about Hong Kong, is set in the fictional world of Nevers, which is being remoulded by its more powerful neighbour, Ksana, with the help of obedient bureaucrats, such as the professor’s wife. But Prof Q’s love-blinkered ecstasy leaves him blissfully unaware of the changes happening around him, despite the protests of his students. Translated into English by Bruce, Tse’s evocative prose brings to life Nevers’ – and Hong Kong’s – rich cultural life as well as its changing political landscape.

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Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua L Freeman

Understanding what life has been like in Xinjiang, the vast region of north-west China where Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim minorities have been subjected to a brutal regime of religious and social repression, is incredibly difficult. Few journalists are able to visit the region; those who have left are often fearful of speaking out because of concern for their relatives at home. So Izgil’s poetic memoir, evocatively translated by Freeman, is an important account. All the more so because it illustrates not just what it is like to have your every move and even your DNA monitored, but also the atmosphere of looming dread that permeates everyday life in Xinjiang.