Many FCC members will remember 'Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud' in which Sun Shuyun retraced the steps of the famous traveller who went searching for the roots of Buddhism in India. Now an experienced film-maker, and based in the UK, she was able to spend the year from July 2006 to July 2007 in a small village in Tibet, not far from the town of Gyantse. There she becomes aware of the riches of spirituality and religious devotion, not least through the work of the recognised Shaman for the village, Tseten Rikzin. Her account of it all is admirably readable and fascinating, though she is not without awareness alike of the pressures from the Chinese rulers of Tibet and of the enormous difficulties that the people of Tibet have to cope with, not least in regard to their health. Particularly relevant for us at a time when Tibet is appearing in so many headlines. (MC) (posted 19:04:08)

One of FCC's veteran members, Mary Sheaff celebrated her 80th birthday with a sponsored walk on behalf of the Amity Foundation (see FCC Newsletter Autumn 2004). She has since devoted the energy of her ninth decade to writing up the story of her family's work in Hubei and Hunan Provinces between 1882 and 1949. Her grandmother, also Mary, went out to China as a single missionary and married there a Methodist minister, Gilbert Warren, so respected that on the day of his funeral in 1927 in Changsha all unrest in the city was halted. But her book is far more than a work of filial piety. Painstakingly researched in the archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, it sets the family history against the background of turbulent times and pays due attention not only to the missionaries but also to their Chinese colleagues. (BW) (posted 03:02:08)

10 short stories written by a Chinese emigre to the USA, depicting the lives of people in modern China. Life is difficult in each tale. Some situations are known to us in Britain, but elicit different responses to those we might experience or make. After 2 visits to China, I felt that I could accept the possibility of these lives, while feeling also very uncomfortable at the events that unfold. When we visit, what do we not see ? And when visitors come to Britain, what do they not see ? This book gives much food for thought. (SW)

Rob Gifford spoke at the FCC conference just a year ago, and now adds a constantly interesting and thought-provoking book to his service to all who are interested in China. Each chapter contains at least one actual conversation with an 'ordinary' Chinese citizen, as Rob undertakes the long journey by the old road from Shanghai to the Kazakhstan border beyond Urumqi, while also containing a careful discussion on one of the major puzzles now facing China. The result is far more than a travel book; it deserves to serve along with Peter Hessler's River Town as an excellent starting point for understanding the new China, in its joys and its difficulties. (MC)

This is not a book specifically about China but every chapter includes a substantial section about Chinese thought. Chapter by chapter, roughly century by century, Armstrong traces the emergence of new religious concepts between 900 and 200 BCE - the age of Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi and Laozi (as well as the Buddha, the Greek philosophers and the Hebrew prophets) and not least Mozi to whose non violent jian ai, (concern for everybody) she gives enthusiastic acclaim. (JRP)

Will Hutton, a well-respected economic journalist and writer, has published two articles - in the Guardian / G2 of Monday 8.1.07 and the Observer of 7.1.07 - in which he presents a resume of this book. Rather different, of course, to most of the books we put in this list, but the way he analysis just how the Chinese Party and government handle the overall economy of China, with the dangers and difficult prospects that it is pointing towards, rings many bells with the comparable ways it handles the 'religious economy' of China too. I strongly recommend these articles, and shall hope to do so for the book in due course. (MC)