China/Korea:
Bell, William. Forbidden City: a Novel. 199 p.
Fictional account of the events of Tiananmen Square through the eyes of a 17 year old
American.
Bosse, Malcolm. The Examination. 296 p.
Fifteen-year-old Hong and his older brother Chen face famine, flood, pirates, and jealous
rivals on their journey through fifteenth century China as Chen pursues his calling as a scholar and
Hong becomes involved with a secret society known as the White Lotus.
Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha. Bound Feet & Western Dress. 215 p.
Tells the story of the author's great-aunt Chang Yu-i, a woman who challenged Chinese
tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, marrying and divorcing preeminent poet Hsu Chih-mo,
and running the Shanghai Women's Savings Bank during the 1930s.
Chang, Leslie T. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. 407 p.
Examines the lives of female migrant factory workers in China, focusing on the experiences
of two young women and including the author's story of her family's migration within China and to
the West.
Chen, Da. Brothers. 418 p.
Half brothers Tan and Shento grow up in different parts of China without knowing about
the existence of the other, until their desires and love for the same woman bring them together.
Chen, Da. Sword. 232 p.
On her fifteenth birthday Miu Miu's mother informs her that in order to discover her true
fate, she must travel to Chang'an to avenge her father's death and find her true love, but the evil
emperor has other plans for her and intervenes with her quest.
Chen, Da. Wandering Warrior. 322 p.
Eleven-year-old Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the
ways of the kung fu wandering warriors by the wise monk Atami.
Choi, Sook Nyul. A Year of Impossible Good-byes. 171 p.
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North
Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
Compestine, Ying Chang. Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party. 248 p.
Maps on endpapers. Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two
doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of
food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter.
Cutter, Leah R. Paper Mage. 343 p.
Xiao Yen, having defied society to become a gifted paper mage in Tang Dynasty, China,
embarks on a great adventure through the Middle Kingdom where she meets a goddess who
persuades Xiao to use her magical skills to defeat a barbaric warlord.
Evans, Karin. The Lost Daughters of China. 261 p.
Karin Evans chronicles her family's quest to adopt a young Chinese girl and examines why
many Chinese girls are abandoned by their birth families shortly after they are born.
Dai, Fan. Butterfly Lovers: A Tale of the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. 251 p.
A beautiful girl disguises herself as a man and lives with a male scholar for three years before
her passion for the young man gets the best of her.
*Delisle. Guy. Pyongyang. 176 p. 951.93 DEL
Documents the two months French animator, Guy Delisle spent overseeing cartoon
production in North Korea, where he records everything from the statues and portraits of dictators
Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il to the ordinary citizens of the country.
Gao, Er Tai. In Search of My Homeland. 259 p.
A detailed memoir of the author’s time in a Chinese labor camp, his experiences of political
persecution, escape, and sanctuary in the United States.
Hua, Yu. To Live. 250 p.
After losing his family's fortune in gambling dens and brothels, Fugui is forced by the
Nationalist Army to leave behind his family to witness the horrors of the Civil War, only to return
years later to face the hardships brought on by the Cultural Revolution.
Iggulden, Conn. Genghis: Birth of a Nation. 383 p.
Tartar raids kill the father of Temujin and banishes his family from the land; but when he
grows older, he assembles a small army of men and begins raiding Tartar camps and eventually unites
all the Mongol tribes together.
* Iyer, Pico. The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. 275 p.
921 DALAI LAMA
Pico Iyer offers insight into the life and teachings of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, discussing
how the Buddhist leader has remained true to his religious beliefs and spread his message as he
traveled around the world, unable to return to his Chinese-governed country.
Jin, Ha. Ocean of Words. 205 p.
A collection of stories in which the author explores the predicament of the Chinese soldiers
guarding the chilly border between Russia and China in the early 1970s, with the two countries
poised on the brink of war.
Jin, Ha. Waiting. 308 p.
Year after year, medical doctor Lin Kong waits for his family-chosen traditional wife to
finally give him a divorce so that he can be with the educated and modern Manna Wu.
Kim, Helen. The Long Season of Rain. 190 p.
When an orphan boy comes to live with her family, eleven-year-old Junehee begins to realize
that the demands placed on Korean women can destroy their lives.
*Li, Charles N. The Bitter Sea: Coming of Age in China Before Mao. 283 p. 921 LI
The author, the youngest son of a wealthy Chinese government official, describes his
experiences after Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists came to power in 1945 and his father was jailed for
treason, following his path from a dangerous Nanjing slum to life as an independent Chinese
American.
Li, Yiyun. The Vagrants: a novel. 337 p.
Gu Shan, a young woman of Muddy River, faces a death sentence as a political prisoner for
renouncing her faith in communism in the 1970s and standing behind Chairman Mao, and while her
mother turns to tradition by burning the clothing of her only child, Gu Shan's father retreats into
memories.
Lloyd, Alison. Year of the Tiger. 194 p.
In ancient China, two boys forge an unlikely alliance in an effort to become expert archers
and, ultimately, to save their city from invading barbarians.
McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Kite Rider: a novel. 272 p.
In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous
second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a
circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.
Mah, Adeline Yen. Along the River: A Chinese Cinderella Novel. 195 p.
CC suffers a bad fall and, in order to treat her injuries, she undergoes hypnotherapy that
reveals her connection to an eleventh-century girl named Mei Lan, who defied convention to
befriend a household servant who was a brilliant artist.
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society. 223 p.
During the Japanese occupation of parts of China, twelve-year-old Ye Xian is thrown out of
her father's and stepmother's home, joins a martial arts group, and tries to help her aunt and the
Americans in their struggle against the Japanese invaders. Includes historical notes.
Min, Anchee. Becoming Madame Mao. 337 p.
The author takes on the identity of Madame Mao, wife of Chinese Communist leader Mao
Zedong, presenting her as insecure and in need of love instead of simply vindictive and cruel, and
uses historical facts, characters, and documents to tell her story.
Min, Anchee. Empress Orchid. 336 p.
Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid, enters China’s Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to serve as
a concubine for the Emperor, and when she bears the monarch a son, she is elevated to the rank of
Empress, where she struggles to maintain her position and the right to raise her own child.
Min, Anchee. The Last Empress. 306 p.
Presents an historical novel about China's Empress Tzu Hsi, who ruled China for nearly fifty
years in the second half of the nineteenth century amidst threats by Japan, Russia, France, and
England as well as insurgents within her own country.
Min, Anchee. Wild Ginger. 217 p.
Wild Ginger, subjected to the abuse of her classmates because of her half-French heritage,
becomes a national hero of the Cultural Revolution when an act of bravery brings her to the
attention of Chairman Mao, but her rise in the Party is threatened when she falls in love with
Evergreen, a handsome local boy who is head of the Red Guards.
Min, Anchee. Katherine: a novel. 241 p.
Narrated by a 29-year-old Chinese woman named Zebra whose family is poor and disgraced
in the eyes of the Party, the story line traces the upheavals sparked by the appearance in the wake of
the Cultural Revolution of a vibrant American teacher of English.
Namioka, Lensey. Ties That Bind, Ties that Break: a Novel. 154 p.
Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society
by refusing to have her feet bound.
Namioka, Lensey. April and the Dragon Lady. 214 p.
Feeling confined by the traditional Chinese family attitudes of her strong-willed,
manipulative grandmother, sixteen-year-old April Chen fights for her independence.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Bound. 186 p.
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures
a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she
alone might marry well.
Park, Linda Sue. A Single Shard. 152 p.
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters'
village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
Park, Linda Sue. When My Name was Keoko. 199 p.
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive
occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture
entirely.
Paterson, Katherine. Rebels of a Heavenly Kingdom. 229 p.
Wang Lee is rescued from slavery by a girl who introduces him to a secret society dedicated
to the overthrow of the Manchu government.
Ruby, Lois. Shanghai Shadows. 282 p.
From 1939 to 1945, a Jewish family struggles to survive in occupied China; young Ilse by
remaining optimistic, her older brother by joining a resistance movement, her mother by maintaining
connections to the past, and her father by playing the violin that had been his livelihood.
See, Lisa. Snow Flower and The Secret. 258 p.
Friends Snow Flower and Lily find solace in their bond as they face isolation, arranged
marriages, loss, and motherhood in nineteenth-century China.
Sijie, Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstreess. 184 p.
Two Chinese boys sent to a small village for re-education fall in love with a local girl and the
small hoard of classic books they discover.
Stone, Jeff. Monkey. 189 p.
After soldiers of the new Emperor, led by Ying, engage in a fierce battle with the warriormonks, Malao "the monkey" and his brothers rely on the ancient arts to help set things right.
Stone, Jeff. Snake. 193 p.
With the temple and Grandmaster now gone, twelve-year-old Seh, a snake-style master, joins
a bandit gang and meets a mysterious woman whose name means Cobra, while trying to stay ahead
of the vengeful Ying.
Stone, Jeff. Tiger. 196 p.
Five young warrior-monk brothers survive an insurrection and must use the ancient arts to
avenge their Grandmaster.
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. 368 p.
San Francisco ghostwriter Ruth Young finally begins to understand her Alzheimer's-afflicted
mother LuLing's preoccupation with ghosts and curses when she reads Luling's writings of her dark
backwoods childhood in 1920s China--where LuLing's mute, disfigured nursemaid committed
suicide, and a nearby cave held what may have been the bones of the lost ancient hominid Peking
Man.
Tschinag, Galsan. The Blue Sky: A Novel. 201 p.
A young boy, one of the Tuvan sheepherding people of Mongolia, begins to doubt the
traditional belief that the sky is a sheltering force when the communist regime begins to push a
program of societal homogenization in the 1940s, while closer to home, his siblings go off to
boarding school, he loses his beloved grandmother, and his dog is poisoned.
Tsukiyama, Gail. Women of the Silk. 278 p.
Relates the story of two women who struggle for economic independence in silk work in
1926 in a small village in China.
*Wong, Li Keng. Good Fortune. 135 p. 921 WONG
The author describes her journey in 1933, at the age of seven, with her mother and two
sisters from their village in southern China to the U.S. and recalls important moments from their first
eight years in America.
Whitesel, Cheryl Aylward. Rebel: A Tibetan Odyssey. 190 p.
Although he rebels against life in the Tibetan Buddhist monastery where he had been sent,
fourteen-year-old Thunder comes to some amazing realizations about himself.
Williams, Susan. Wind Rider. 309 p.
Fern, a teenager living in 4000 B.C., defies the expectations of her people by displaying a
unique and new ability to tame horses and by also questioning many of the traditional activities of
women. – Ancient Asia
Wulffson, Don L. The Golden Rat. 168 p.
When sixteen-year-old Baoliu is wrongfully accused of murdering his stepmother, his father
pays someone else to die in his place, leaving Baoliu to fend for himself on the streets of twelfthcentury China.
Yep, Laurence. The Serpent’s Children. 277 p.
In 19th century China, Cassia proves her strength by trying to keep her troubled family
together.
*Yu, Chun. Little Green. 106 p. 921 YU
Chun Yu was born in China in 1966, the year the Great Cultural Revolution began, and in
spare poetry she remembers the first 10 years of her life. True to a child's bewildered viewpoint and
augmented by occasional, small black-and-white family photos, Yu gets across the grief at home and
the school indoctrination. She feels her father's depression; plays war games against "Foreign Devils";
hears Mama defend her rich, dead parents; and sees intellectuals sent for "reeducation."