Books To Read Before Your Trip To Beijing

There’s nothing quite like diving into a destination’s literature to truly get to grips with its culture. Beijing-bound book lovers should try these award-winner novels on for size.

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

True crime fans will love unpicking the mysterious murder of 19-year-old expatriate Pamela Werner, daughter of former consul and academic sinologist ETC Werner, whose body was discovered at the foot of the Fox Tower in 1937. The gruesome details of her death are not for the faint-hearted, but the intrigue that follows, as the investigation progresses, is all the more chilling. A Sino-British police effort throws light on the seedier side of the expat community, as well as the teenage girl’s ‘secret life’. A spellbinding account, with nary an ‘orientalist’ cliche in sight.

If you enjoyed the book, then seek out Bespoke Beijing’s Midnight in Peking walking tour, which leads you on a fascinating late-night amble from Beijing’s ‘Badlands’ (once home to Russian gangsters and opium addicts), to the former Legation Quarter and the Fox Tower, where Pamela Werner was found.

Beijing Confidential by Jan Wong

The account of why Canadian journalist and author, Jan Wong, returned to Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympics, in search of a woman she encountered briefly in 1973, starts on a devastatingly sad premise. One of only two Westerners permitted to study at Beijing University in the 1970s, Wong, a fervent Communist took no pause in reporting Yin Luoyi to the authorities when she asked her for help to get to the United States. Convinced she had ruined Yin’s life forever, the author sets out to right a wrong, but – having finally lost all hope of ever finding her again – she suddenly receives a phone call. An emotionally raw look at Beijing's journey from communism to capitalism, and ancient city to modern megalopolis.

Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo

Chinese-born British novelist, memoirist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo touches on identity, feminism, migration, and alienation in her work, with not insubstantial plaudits including Granta's Best of Young British Novelists award, and a jury position on the Man Booker Prize 2019. Her third novel, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and follows the story of feisty heroine Fenfang Wang, a film extra and failing actress in Beijing, who works as a cleaner in a movie theatre, until she finally gets a big break in the form of a new job. Lifting the veil on new-age China, this charming novel asserts Guo as the voice of her generation.

Moment in Peking by Lin Yutang

One of Time magazine’s Books of the Year 1939, Moment in Peking is a novel written in English by Chinese author Lin Yutang, tracking the events of the early C.20th in China, from the Boxer Uprising, right up to the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Although historically accurate, Lin’s debut novel is less about politics and more about love, family, relationships and real life.

Centred around the stories of three wealthy families: Yao, Tseng (Zeng), and New (Niu), the protagonist is Yao Mulan, who is separated from her family during the Boxer rebellion, enslaved by bandits and then rescued by the Tseng family. A must-read for history buffs and hopeless romantics.