Reading List · Historical Fiction
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For Snow Flower and the Secret Fan she went looking for nu shu: a written script used in one county in Hunan province, by women only, passed between sworn sisters on fans and handkerchiefs, which the men around them could not read. It is thought to be the only writing system in recorded history invented and used exclusively by women. See found the last surviving speakers. Her novels are all built that way — a piece of real, half-lost women's history, researched hard, then given people to happen to. The writers below dig in the same ground.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Chinese history · Women's friendship · Research-led · Updated September 2026
Quick answer
Amy Tan is the obvious first stop and the closest in subject — mothers, daughters and the distance between China and Chinese America. Min Jin Lee writes the same multi-generational structure about Koreans in Japan. For the non-fiction underneath all of it, read Jung Chang's Wild Swans.
10 authors like Lisa See
Where to start if you loved Lisa See
If you have never read around See, start with Amy Tan.
The Joy Luck Club is the book this whole shelf grew out of.
If you loved Snow Flower, read Gail Tsukiyama.
Women of the Silk has the same sworn bonds between women inside an economy that owns them.
If you want the history rather than the novel, read Jung Chang.
Wild Swans is three generations of women through a Chinese century, and it is all true.
If you loved the family-line structure, read Yaa Gyasi.
Homegoing does it across three hundred years and two continents.
If you want the foundation, read Maxine Hong Kingston.
The Woman Warrior is where this literature begins.
If you want more of her own work first
My guide to all thirteen Lisa See books has them in order.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Lisa See
Who writes books most like Lisa See?
Amy Tan is the closest in subject — Chinese and Chinese-American women, mothers and daughters, and what does not get said between them. Min Jin Lee's Pachinko matches See's multi-generational structure, and Gail Tsukiyama's Women of the Silk is the single closest book to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
What should I read after Snow Flower and the Secret Fan?
Gail Tsukiyama's Women of the Silk, about Chinese women who take vows never to marry in order to work in a silk factory, is the nearest equivalent. After that, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and, for the real history underneath, Jung Chang's Wild Swans.
Is nu shu, the women's writing in Snow Flower, real?
Yes. Nu shu was a script used by women in Jiangyong County in Hunan province, passed between sworn sisters and written on fans, handkerchiefs and cloth. It is generally described as the only known writing system created and used exclusively by women. See researched it directly, including with women connected to its last generation of users.
Which authors write about Chinese history like Lisa See?
Anchee Min covers both the imperial court and the Cultural Revolution, the latter from experience. Jung Chang's Wild Swans is the essential non-fiction account of the same century. Janie Chang writes historical novels built on forgotten episodes such as the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War.
Is Lisa See similar to Amy Tan?
They overlap but do not do the same thing. Tan writes about the distance between immigrant mothers and American daughters, mostly in the present. See reaches further back, into Chinese history itself, and builds each novel on a specific researched practice — footbinding, nu shu, the haenyeo divers of Jeju. Read Tan for the family, See for the history.
Sources
List last reviewed 5 September 2026.
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