Jasper Becker 
Chinese 

A lively first hand portrait of Chinese society by a veteran British resident correspondent. It starts at the bottom of the pyramid with a picture of the very poorest and ends with an account of the wealthy ruling elite. The books was written in 1998 but is still relevant today as the basic structure of Chinese society has not changed and the issues and challenges remain the same. It shows how China works in the context both of its long history and its more recent Communist past.