ZHONG GUAN VILLAGE (ACA PUBLISHING, SEPTEMBER 23)

Ning Ken is a prominent Chinese novelist, gaining recognition in literary circles for his fiction on Tibet. He describes himself as fascinated by how China's rapid advances in previous decades means it has “compressed time.” Nowhere is this better seen than in Zhong Guan Village, a non-fictional testament to one of the hubs of Chinese technological advancement. Through detailed interviews, Ken brings to life the recent history of Zhongguancun, a former village on the outskirts of Beijing where companies like Lenovo were born, and where the China offices of Microsoft, Sony, and Intel are headquartered. It's a breakneck journey through 60 years of Chinese R&D, from fresh-faced scientists huddled in huts designing atomic bombs to bosses in clean skyscrapers developing apps used by billions.