I have been really interested in Chinese culture for the past few months and have read two books that have been pretty popular there. The first is called Rainbow, by Mao Dun and the other is called Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, by Yu Hua. Both show Chinese culture during the Revolution of 1911 and the Cultural Revolution that China went through when Mao was Chairman. The reading level is not that high up because of translation issues, but still very decent books.