Apart from perusing self-help books on psychology, most of my reading over the last few months has focussed on China. Not only reading but also listening, to cultural and historical podcasts and the like.

Aside from the many straight history texts I have ploughed through, I have found Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones and River Town helpful in getting an outsider's inside perspective. Hessler is fluent in Mandarin and has been able to get pretty close to ordinary Chinese people, firstly through teaching English as a member of the Peace Corps, and secondly, through his work as a Beijing-based journalist with The New Yorker. Hessler is a talented writer and sensitive observer, rather fortuitously placed at a unique moment in China's development. I don't always agree with his opinions, whether explicit or implied, but he has done a remarkable job in giving a clear sense of the change that makes China a phenominen today.

The China History Podcast is an entirely different animal, but equally as interesting. Developed, researched and hosted by Lazlo Montgomery (a China hand and enthusiastic amateur historian), the series runs past one hundred episodes. Included in this vast trove is an overview of all of Chinese dynastic history (yes, all five thousand years of it!) and specific episodes on socio/political movements, historical characters and much else besides. What can I say, but bravo.

Even so, my knowledge of China seems to shrink with very foray I make. It is the old story; the more you know, the less you seem to know. It is not an absolute thing. Just one of perspective.