5 Outstanding Books & Online Resources to Learn about Chinese Culture from Scratch

China, the most populated country in the world, probably seems mystical to many people. That is the reason why it seems so attractive to people that like to travel around the world.

It is a country that meets the expectations of all types of people. For instance, tourists that are looking for entertainment can visit different adventure theme parks. They can go to Flying Kiss Theme Park in Wulong or check out the beauties of the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin. Despite that, there are many attractive destinations like The Great Wall of China, The Summer Palace, The Yangtze River, and the Three Gorges, etc. They are all beautiful and unique in different ways.

However, China does not always look like an excellent destination for traveling. Some people would gladly stay there and live forever. Because of that, if China looks like a beautiful living place, getting familiar with Chinese culture, mentality, and language is your task. You won't manage to explore everything and meet a lot of people for a week or two. Instead of that, studying books and online resources to tell you a lot about Chinese culture is a much better choice. That especially counts for people that are starting their journey from scratch.

There are a couple of books that will help you understand the Chinese culture, mentality, and tradition. After reading the list below, things will be much clearer. Let's start!

The Souls of China – Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson tries to explain the reason why China is one of the greatest spiritual-awakening places in the world. Believe it or not, around 300 million Chinese citizens practice faith every single day. Additionally, there are also millions of people who regularly follow different New Age gurus and populist masters.

The story of the book describes the beginning of the 1980s. As you probably know, China is officially a socialistic country. However, in 1982, the government decided to allow people to practice the faith under strict rules. Those rules allowed the Chinese government to supervise and control the popularity of religion across China.

Yet, only 30 years later, things are a lot different. All villages and towns are full of mosques, temples, and churches. Ian Johnson got the opportunity to live with three different religious communities for six years. Those three communities are

● Yinyang Daoist Priests in Shanxi

● Buddhist Pilgrimage Association in Beijing

● Rain Protestant Congregation in Chengdu

The superstitions beliefs, mentality, and way of living these three communities have are different. They all have different approaches to deaths and birth. Despite that, they are organizing different festivals where Johnson got the opportunity to meet their cultures even more.

The Corpse Walkers – Liao Yiwu

When tourists come to China, they will usually meet kind people that will try to make their trip more relaxing and entertaining. Travelers usually visit places they have heard about on the Internet or hire an agency to organize their trip completely. However, how many tourists do actually have the opportunity to meet "the average Chinese people" and their lifestyle?

Reading The Corpse Walkers will help you understand the lifestyle of average families in China. You will find out which desires, beliefs, and concerns they have. The book describes the lives of people that are working as public toilet managers, professional mourners, etc.

Some people will say that these people are at the bottom of Chinese society. However, after reading this book, you will find out they have the same desires, needs, and expectations as you.

China Witness - Xinran

There are not many living witnesses that can talk about Chinese Culture from the past century. Fortunately, there are people like Xinran that went across the entire country to collect stories from grandparents and great-grandparents. The people that Xinran describes in his book experienced all the changes of the modern era. They witnessed the period from Long March to land reform, from revolution to "westernization", etc.

You should keep in mind that Chinese people were very traditional before the modern era. The sense of traditional Chinese culture is still present, but it comes as a combination of different modern trends. Many people could not adapt to the new lifestyle easily. The living witnesses talk about their fears and struggle to adapt to the new way of life and culture.

China In Ten Words/ To Live– Yu Hua

Yu Hua is one of the most popular contemporary writers from China. You would probably want to check his most famous international book To Live. It describes the life of a young person that spends the family's fortune on gambling. He decides to become a farmer and earn his money honestly after gambling ruined his life completely. However, a few years after that, the Nationalist Army invited him to join the Civil War. He manages to see all the horrors from that period and experience the Cultural Revolution inside the country.

The next Yu Hua's book that will help you learn about Chinese culture is China in Ten Words. He uses the ten most popular Chinese phrases as the title for each chapter of the book. Each chapter analyses the real-life examples and tries to explain the Chinese mentality and culture.

For instance, one of the chapters in the book is "Bamboozle". The author tries to describe the life of people that are using different practices to scam people. You will realize that bad people exist in all social categories in China. A piece of information like that will help you recognize good people (and bad people as well) and adapt a lot easier if you decide to start living in China.

So, What About Language?

Language matters a lot! Knowing Mandarin will allow you to understand the soul of Chinese average people. To start, you may want to check out different mobile apps like Duolingo, HelloChinese, and others to learn Mandarin Chinese. In that way, you can learn some of the basic words and phrases and start your "journey" effectively.

On the other hand, writing Mandarin Chinese is another challenging task. However, the adaptation process will be much easier if you don't learn that. Fortunately, advanced technology can help here as well; you can check out this hirewriters review with decent academic level that will help you improve your writing skills. With good assistance, will, and hard work, things will be much easier.

Final Thought

Chinese culture is fascinating! Knowing the mentality and culture of all categories of Chinese people will allow you to adapt without struggling. However, you won't understand the mentality of today's people there if you don't previously analyze the Chinese culture before the modern era. Improvement of language will help you additionally.