Wang, Ping. Of Flesh and Spirit: Poems by Wang Ping. Coffeehouse Press, 1998.

This is Ping’s first collection of poetry, in which she explores themes of culture, gender, sexuality and identity. The collection adopts a very personal tone to explore internal struggles—the devils and angels—and highlights moments of ecstasy throughout.

Zhai, Yongming, translated from the Chinese by Andrea Lingenfelter. The Changing Room. Zephyr Press, 2011.

The author of six volumes of poetry, Zhai Yongming first became prominent in the mid-1980s with the publication of her twenty-poem cycle, “Woman,” a work that forcefully articulated a female point-of-view in China’s largely patriarchal society. Her powerful imagery and forthright voice resonated with many readers. Zhai has continued to hone her critique of traditional attitudes towards women, quickly becoming one of China’s foremost feminist voices and a major force in the contemporary literary scene.

Chang, Eileen. Translated from the Chinese by Karen S. Kingsburg and Eileen Chang. Love in a Fallen City. NYRB Classics, 2006.

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang’s achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature.

Ha, Jin. Waiting. Vintage International, 2000.

In Waiting, Ha Jin portrays the life of Lin Kong, a dedicated doctor torn by his love for two women: one who belongs to the New China of the Cultural Revolution, the other to the ancient traditions of his family’s village. Ha Jin profoundly understands the conflict between the individual and society, between the timeless universality of the human heart and constantly shifting politics of the moment.

Yu, Hua, translated by Alan H. Barr. The Seventh Day. Anchor, 2016.

Yang Fei was born on a train as it raced across the Chinese countryside. Lost by his mother, adopted by a young switchman, raised with simplicity and love, he is utterly unprepared for the changes that await him and his country. As a young man, he searches for a place to belong in a nation ceaselessly reinventing itself, but he remains on the edges of society.