China in Ten Words

A courageous and intimate memoir of China framed in ten telling words.

People. Leader. Reading. Writing. Revolution. Grassroots. Through these and other common vernacular words and phrases, Yu Hua – widely regarded as one of China’s greatest living writers – tells powerful personal stories of the Chinese experience from the Cultural Revolution to the 2010s. With wit, insight and courage, he presents a refreshingly candid vision of the ‘Chinese miracle’ and its consequences, and a unique perspective on one of the world’s least understood nations.

• ‘A brilliant memoir of China… Throughout this beautifully narrated, carefully analytical and at times personally courageous book, Yu shows the dark side of China’s economic “miracle” Guardian

• 'Caustic and difficult to forget, China in Ten Words is a people’s eye view of a world in which the people have little place' The Times

• 'Gripping… it astounds me that Yu Hua has not already joined Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo and a growing number of other outspoken intellectuals behind bars' Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review