Monsoon Readers' Favorite Monthly List · June 2026
六月的季风书单，从香港国安法时代的记忆与社会转型出发，延伸至当代中国、美中关系、西藏历史、疫情治理、东北文化与个人书写。中文书单既关注宏观制度如何改变一座城市与一个社会，也回到家族、成长、艺术与文学之中，理解人在政治、历史与记忆夹缝中的选择。
英文书单则围绕软实力、移民政治、教育竞争、台湾历史、中国外交与亚洲帝国遗产展开。从 Lily Qi 的华裔移民政治经验、Irene Wu 对软实力的量化研究，到高考制度、周恩来传记、民族主义抗议与南亚分治史，这些作品共同追问：制度如何塑造个人，国家如何动员情感，而历史又如何持续进入今天。
The June list explores how history, institutions, migration, memory, and political power shape individual lives and public worlds. Moving from Hong Kong, Tibet, China, Taiwan, and Northeast Asia to American politics, education, diplomacy, and South Asian partition, these books offer different ways to understand how the past remains active in the present.
【中文书单 Top 10】
《巨浪后：国安法时代的香港与香港人》
孔诰烽、吴介民、陈健民、陈玉洁、李立峯、梁启智等／左岸文化
国安法实施后，香港的公共空间、新闻媒体与公民社会急速收缩，大规模抗争逐渐消失，许多人被迫沉默、离散或转入更隐蔽的行动。本书由多位长期研究香港的学者共同撰写，从经济、地缘政治、新闻、文化与社会运动等角度，描绘“巨浪之后”的香港。看似平静的表面下，仍有人在风险中保存记忆、维系社群并寻找彼此，让这本书成为理解国安法时代香港的重要集体记录。
《别江》
何伟／八旗文化
二十多年前，何伟在四川涪陵任教，写下《江城》，记录改革年代中国社会的流动与希望。2019年，他再次回到中国，这次面对的是习近平时代的大学生、内卷的教育环境、中美关系恶化与新冠疫情。《别江》以何伟的学生、家庭与日常观察为中心，比较“改革的一代”与“习近平的一代”，呈现中国如何在经济与社会剧烈变动之中，出现政治停滞、控制加深与未来感消退的矛盾。
《进烤箱的好日子》
李佳颖／自转星球文化
这是一部游走于回忆录、小说与写作笔记之间的作品。主角阿丹重新整理童年与青春期的记忆：被同学排挤、父母离婚、寄宿生活、爱慕与欺骗，以及那些看似琐碎却始终无法消失的成长伤痕。李佳颖以辛辣、活泼又敏锐的语言，追问记忆是否能被准确保存，文字是否可能让瞬间不朽，而写作又是否在保存生命的同时，也把活生生的经验钉死在纸上。
《美中决裂：从接触到脱钩，美中分合谜团》
沈大伟 David Shambaugh；侯英豪、郭岱轩译／好优文化
沈大伟回顾美国对华接触政策四十年的形成、期待与破裂，分析华府为何从合作与融合的想像，逐步转向竞争、脱钩与新冷战。书中讨论新疆、西藏、台湾、南海、贸易与安全等长期矛盾，也检视美国政策圈如何重新评估中国的政治发展与国际行为。这不只是美中关系史，也是一部关于战略误判、制度差异与大国竞争如何累积成今日局面的政治分析。
《当铁鸟在天空飞翔：1956–1962青藏高原上的秘密战争》
李江琳／联经出版
本书重建1956至1962年间中共在青藏高原上的军事镇压与藏人反抗，揭示长期被官方史料遮蔽的西藏现代史。李江琳访谈数百位西藏耆老，整理大量口述、军事档案、官方出版物与地图，试图还原战争发生的过程及其对藏人社会的深远影响。透过详实史料，本书不仅说明汉藏冲突的历史根源，也让读者理解今日西藏问题如何形成。
《林布兰：永远的先行者》
韩秀／三民书局
韩秀以文学性的笔触重访林布兰的一生，从他在荷兰黄金时代的成名、肖像画与蚀刻技法，到妻儿离世、审美转向、失去市场与晚年贫困。林布兰曾因明暗对照与写实肖像而登上画坛巅峰，却也因拒绝迎合潮流而被时代抛下。本书不只介绍作品与技法，更关注艺术家如何在失去、孤独与失败中持续创作，呈现一个超越时代审美、忠于自身观看方式的先行者。
《每一句话语都坐着别的眼睛》
赫塔・米勒／贵州人民出版社
这部散文集收录赫塔・米勒的九篇文章，从罗马尼亚德语村庄、工厂生活、秘密警察监控、恐惧与流亡，写到语言、文学与个人尊严。作为2009年诺贝尔文学奖得主，米勒以冷峻、凝练而带有超现实感的文字，揭示专制社会中语言如何被污染，日常如何被监视，而写作又如何成为一种沉默的抵抗。这是进入她生命经验与文学世界的重要入口。
《杉树坡：一个家族的百年故事》
郭于华／博登书屋
《杉树坡》以大巴山深处一个家族的百年命运为主线，透过数代人的生活、婚姻、迁徙、政治遭遇与日常选择，呈现近现代中国乡村的深层变迁。政治运动、经济转型与文化秩序不断撕裂并重塑以血缘为基础的乡土社会，而普通人的悲欢与尊严则在宏大历史之下持续存在。这既是一部家族史，也是理解中国基层社会与二十世纪政治变动的重要作品。
《世界中的东北：东北文艺复兴》
王德威、宋伟杰编／时报文化
这是一部横跨近两千年、汇集百余位作家与一百二十多篇作品的东北历史人文读本。从甲午战争、满洲国、殖民与革命，到“共和国长子”、北大荒、下岗潮与当代东北文学，本书将东北放回中国、东亚与世界史之中。契诃夫、夏目漱石、鲁迅、萧红、迟子建、班宇、双雪涛等不同时代的书写，共同呈现这片土地的移民、殖民、工业、记忆与悲凉，也让东北成为理解现代中国的重要方法。
《武汉》
杨大利、王琳茱／八旗文化
《武汉》聚焦新冠疫情爆发初期，深入分析武汉封城前数周中国政府的资讯处理、官僚程序与政治决策。杨大利指出，中国卫生系统最初并非毫无反应，但资讯共享受阻、既有认知框架限制、维稳压力与官员升迁机制，最终让疫情警讯被压制、扭曲或忽视。本书试图回答的，不只是某些官员是否犯错，而是中国的制度结构如何系统性地制造错误，并让局部危机演变为全球灾难。
【English Top 10】
Measuring Soft Power in International Relations
Irene S. Wu / Lynne Rienner Publishers
Soft power is often treated as important but impossible to measure. Irene S. Wu challenges that assumption with the Soft Power Rubric, a framework built from publicly available data on immigration, international education, travel, and film. By examining the breadth and depth of people-to-people connections, the book offers a way to compare countries, trace change over time, and understand how influence travels beyond official diplomacy. It is a practical and original contribution to debates about culture, mobility, diaspora, and international relations.
Elected American: From Red China to Blue Maryland
Lily Qi / Temple University Press
Lily Qi’s memoir traces her journey from Mao-era Shanghai to the Maryland House of Delegates. Along the way, she confronts political fear, immigrant uncertainty, resistance from party institutions, and a viral WeChat disinformation campaign within her own community. The book is both a personal story and a study of democratic participation, showing how immigrant voters learn to navigate a political system that was not designed with them in mind. Qi’s central message is clear: democracy rewards those who participate.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
Asako Yuzuki / Ecco Press
Inspired by a true crime case, Butter follows journalist Rika Machida as she investigates Manako Kajii, a gourmet cook convicted of murdering lonely businessmen. Their conversations begin with recipes and gradually become a disturbing exploration of appetite, femininity, shame, work, and desire. As Rika enters Kajii’s world of butter, food, and transgression, she begins to question the expectations imposed on women in contemporary Japan. The novel is part crime story, part social satire, and part celebration of forbidden pleasure.
The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China
Ruixue Jia, Hongbin Li, and Claire Cousineau / Belknap Press
Each year, millions of Chinese students compete in the gaokao, a single examination that can determine access to university and social mobility. Combining personal experience, surveys, historical research, and economic analysis, this book explains why families invest so heavily in test preparation and how the exam system serves both economic development and political governance. It also explores the limits of meritocracy, the inequalities hidden behind standardized competition, and the growing influence of Chinese educational expectations on debates in the United States.
Mother River
Can Xue / Open Letter
In this collection of thirteen stories, Can Xue creates a surreal world where rivers remember, light shifts shape, and ordinary reality opens into something unstable and unknowable. Her characters move through dreamlike landscapes in search of animals, memories, meaning, and connection. Combining the absurd with philosophical intensity, Mother River explores the boundaries between nature and humanity, self and world, the visible and the hidden. It is a challenging and deeply imaginative work from one of contemporary China’s most original writers.
Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan
Jonathan Manthorpe / St. Martin’s Griffin
Forbidden Nation presents Taiwan’s history through four centuries of colonial rule, strategic competition, migration, conflict, and democratic development. The island’s geography placed it at the center of major trade routes and imperial ambitions, making its political future inseparable from regional and global power struggles. Manthorpe emphasizes the determination of Taiwan’s people to survive repeated external domination and build their own political identity. The result is an accessible history of how Taiwan arrived at its present moment of uncertainty and possibility.
The Monstrosity of Our Century: The War on Palestine and the Last Western Man
Amir Nour / Clarity Press
Amir Nour examines the war on Gaza and its wider regional consequences, placing current violence within a longer history of colonialism, apartheid, Western power, and Zionist politics. The book discusses Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, while challenging dominant Western narratives about October 7, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Israel’s claim to represent global Jewry. Written as a sweeping political argument, it asks how the war on Palestine may accelerate a broader transformation in the international order after centuries of Western dominance.
Zhou Enlai: A Life
Jian Chen / Belknap Press
Jian Chen offers a major biography of Zhou Enlai, China’s first premier, foreign minister, revolutionary organizer, and intelligence figure. Zhou worked closely with Mao while often trying to contain the damage caused by radical campaigns and preserve China’s administrative and diplomatic stability. Drawing on extensive research, the book presents Zhou as neither a simple moderating hero nor a passive servant, but as a skilled political actor whose compromises, achievements, and moral ambiguities shaped the People’s Republic and its place in the world.
Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations
Jessica Chen Weiss / Oxford University Press
Why does the Chinese government sometimes allow nationalist protests and sometimes suppress them? Jessica Chen Weiss examines anti-American, anti-Japanese, and Taiwan-related demonstrations to show how authoritarian governments use public protest as a diplomatic signal. Allowing protests can demonstrate resolve and make compromise more difficult, while repression can reassure foreign governments and create room for negotiation. The book reveals how nationalism is managed rather than simply unleashed, offering a sophisticated account of domestic politics, public emotion, and Chinese foreign policy.
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia
Sam Dalrymple / W. W. Norton & Company
Sam Dalrymple tells the history of modern South Asia through five partitions that broke apart the British Indian Empire and created twelve modern states. From Burma and Aden to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Gulf, borders were redrawn through colonial decisions, war, revolution, migration, and betrayal. Based on archival research, multilingual sources, and hundreds of interviews, Shattered Lands connects familiar events to a much larger imperial story and shows how exile, division, and unresolved borders continue to shape Asia today.