It's hot and humid, tempers burn quick and high and its seas have been a source of political contention and war for centuries. Combined with a growing number of factories in the region, numerous drug-trafficking villages and rampant prostitution, South China sets a unique storytelling backdrop that stands far apart from all the multitudes of books about Hong Kong, Shanghai or Beijing.

This list hosts the best fiction and nonfiction books set in Southern China - primarily in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province - including any books about Canton and Cantonese culture, and possibly including Hunan, but EXCLUDING Hong Kong and Macau (of which there already is another popular list for) unless a significant portion of the story takes place on the mainland side of the border.