China Cuckoo by Mark Kitto
Mark Kitto's China Cuckoo is about the author's experience after trying to start a business in Shanghai. His company is seized by the Chinese government, so he gives up and travels to the interior of China looking for a different kind of self-realization.
It was the only book I could find about contemporary Shanghai. Most of the store's books about Shanghai took place in the 1910s-1940s. When I asked a staff member about "no old Shanghai, new Shanghai," they told me, "No new Shanghai books. New Shanghai, pictures." She pointed me to a book containing photos of all the construction in the city over the last 20 years.
Compared to Beijing, the selection was uncontroversial. The few books about current world politics all assumed that China would be the major world power within my lifetime. The big question the books answered was: would that be good for the rest of the world, or great for the rest of the world?
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