Online rumors are claiming that Mao Zedong may not have been the author behind the little red book. The Communist handbook may have actually been written by Mao's secretary Hu Qiaomu and other individuals, reports The Independent: "It is rumoured that two reports detailing the ghostwriters' activities were filed with the Central Committee in 1993 and in 1995. So vocal have the sceptics become that a website, which is affiliated to the People's Daily newspaper, ran a statement denying the rumours, quoting a spokesman from China's ideological heavyweights - the Party Literature Research Centre, the Party History Research Centre and the Party School of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China. The spokesman said Mr Hu had spoken on many occasions of how Mao would help him edit the articles and how he had learnt his poetic style from the Chairman."
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Shanghai-born Dr. Liliane Willens will be speaking twice this weekend about her newly published book, Stateless in Shanghai at several venues around the city. But first, a word of explanation about what "stateless in Shanghai" really means: more ›

We've always marveled at the immense chasm between the Chinese book market and the rest of the world. Of course, issues of translation and appeal abroad have kept the market pretty domestic, but that seems to be changing slowly. Chinageeks makes a great point in response to the coverage of Frankfurt Book Fair: it seems that the only interest the west can muster towards Chinese literature is when the book or author carries some sort of scandal with it, leaving the vast majority of authors and books unnoticed. There's a lack of foreign awareness of books that split the difference between banned-in-China and sterilized-by-censorship that leaves a big old lacuna where books by talented Chinese authors should be. more ›

Zachary Mexico's first book, China Underground, just came out this month. It's an edgy look at margins of modern China—and it's a real page-turner. Mexico mixes it up with the masses, returning with sixteen tales of unique individuals "trying to figure out what's going on, trying to carve a place out for themselves in the new China." more ›