The Golden Days
by Cao Xueqin
appears in About China and Fiction.
"The Story of the Stone" (c. 1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Baoyu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Baochai, his parents' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Daiyu. Through the changing fortune...
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appears in About China and Fiction.
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Consider The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Recommended by 24 sources.
“This novel starts as a mystery rooted in a woman’s tragic experience during China’s Cultural Revolution, then spirals into a high-concept alien contact story built on intricate physics and game theory. The useful part lies in its audacious imagination: a three-body solar system, a virtual reality game, and a shocking revelation about humanity’s place in the universe. The limiting part may be its cold, analytical style and flat characters; emotion takes a backseat to ideas, and the scientific digressions can feel like lectures. It’s a slow burn that rewards intellectual curiosity but might alienate those craving warmth or narrative immediacy.”
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