Some excellent suggestions and reviews of good reading on China. I couldn't hope to match your use of English or your descriptions of the books here but one I'd recommend to you is '10,000 miles without a cloud' by Sun Shuyun.
I bought it a few years ago after reading a few pages of it that were published in the Guardian magazine. It had me hooked. Part travel story, part auto-biography, part historical. The book covers three distinct threads from the view of the author. Sun Shuyun grew up as a child in China during the cultural revolution. having an atheist father in the red army and sharing a bedroom with a devout Buddhist grandmother she struggled to know where she belonged. After moving to America she go more interested in her Grandmothers beliefs and this book is partly a pilgrimage to find those roots. She looks at the story of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) who in the 7th century travelled from China to India in search of Buddhist teachings. In 18 years he travelled over 10,000 miles there and back. The Chinese only really know him now as the main character in the "Monkey King" (remember "Monkey" on British TV years back?). This guy was amazing, he brought back to China thousands of Buddhist Sutra's and kept meticulous records of ever where he travelled during this time.
Sun Shuyun follows in the mnks footsteps and re-traces his journey while exploring her own up-bringing. So this book is threefold - a history book looking at Xuanzang's travels and adventures, a travel guide to the places he visited and an exploration of growing up during the chinese cutural revolution.
I found it a fascinating book and hope others will too, just need to remember who I lent it to so I can read it again!!!!!! :-)
