"Winter Pasture," Juan Li. 李娟 《冬牧场》「冬牧場」河崎みゆき （翻訳）A Chinese female writer joined Kazakh Herders in a winter Pasture and recorded her experiences. Kazakh Herders have kept such a lifestyle for more than one thousand years. BTW, the Japanese translator, Kawasaki sensei, was my Japanese lecturer when I was studying in Shanghai.
"Tolerance and freedom," Shi Hu. 胡适《容忍与自由》This book has changed my mind in understanding the order and disorder of a society. What is freedom, and how do we achieve freedom for each individual? I would recommend reading Dr. Hu's thoughts, books, and speech drafts. I have read this book before, and I am rereading it.
"Open society and its enemy," Karl Popper. Frankly, this one is too tough to understand for me. I need basic philosophical knowledge and abundant life observational experiences to understand the theory. But, Popper, with his critical thinking on most things including science, we definitely could not ignore his book. He shares a similar system of theory on understanding society as Shi Hu.
"Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China," Ezra F. Vogel. It is a great book to know the life of the most important person (in China) in the 20th century. I finished reading the Chinese version two years ago and am now trying to read the original English version. Vogel was invited to one of the BXAI summer programs, but unfortunately not coming to the one I joined at Peking Unversity in 2018.
"Personal development for Smart people," Steve Pavlina. On the way, I hope to find a solution to my current career dilemma.
"Tao Te Ching," Laozi. I am reading a special version that compares all the different versions of Tao Te Ching and dominantly depends on the two versions which were evacuated in 1973 from Mawangdui (a tumb). This is the second oldest version of Tao Te Ching and has been written on silk from 2nd century BC. Although it is in Chinese, but still quite difficult to follow for a Chinese. The characters have different usage and meaning in the old times. If one character is missing or different among versions of Tao Te Ching, the whole meaning could be opposite.
"The Brothers Karamazov," Fyodor Dostoevsky. A monumental 19th-century long novel. The story revolves around the murder of a morally corrupt father and the accusation that one of his sons is responsible. The youngest son, Alyosha, is often regarded as a figure shaped by Dostoevsky's deep affection for his own son, Alyosha, who died young. One interesting aspect of this novel is the way in which Dostoevsky describes the different characters' expressions. No big difference of human nature from the 19th-century and today.
"Big Breasts and Wide Hips," Mo Yan. My first Mo Yan novel and it really clicked with me, even though I have read the 100 yrs of Solitude before. Mo's book is a 95 yrs of suffering in China. Deep respect to every mother and every woman who has fought to survive.