The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

by Xinran | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 0099440784 Global Overview for this book
Registered by peggysmum of Kambah, Australian Capital Territory Australia on 5/17/2005
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6 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by peggysmum from Kambah, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Amazon.co.uk Review
Xinran's The Good Women of China continues the tradition of Chinese women writing in recent years. Jung Chang, in Wild Swans, and Aiping Mu, in Vermilion Gate, for example, have written of the effect of recent Chinese history on themselves and their families. However, both of these books, and others like them, have been by women from the upper echelons of Chinese society. What of ordinary Chinese women? How are their voices to be heard?
Xinran worked for eight years as a well-known presenter at a Chinese radio station. As a public figure, she received many letters. Most of them were from women. Moved by the stories she was hearing in the letters, she decided to go in search of more of the truths about Chinese women's lives. What she found was terrible suffering; women who had endured lengthy sexual abuse during the Cultural Revolution, women whose wretched poverty was made more miserable by the dictates of a male-centred society, women who had had their children taken from them or who had lost them in earthquakes and other natural disasters. And, amid all the suffering, she found their capacity to endure and somehow survive.

Xinran is not a diffident or modest journalist. The reader gets to hear quite a lot of people in the course of her book, telling her how honest and humane and famous she is. This is, unsurprisingly, exasperating. However, someone more modest, and with a less robust sense of her own importance and the importance of what she was doing, would not have gathered the material that she has done. She would not have gone to those places she needed to go in order to record the stories in her book. The voices of the many women to whom she listened would not have been heard. --Nick Rennision

Journal Entry 2 by aleonblue from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Book received today in the mail from Peggysmum. This was on my wishlist, so thanks so much Peggysmum. Look forward to reading it!

Journal Entry 3 by aleonblue from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Saturday, March 25, 2006
I was keen to read this author's first book, after having read "Sky Burial" and enjoyed this one just as much. The author had some harrowing stories of Chinese women to tell, and although some of the stories are universal, it gave a real insight to the difficulties women have faced in China, particularly after the communist regime.

Thanks to peggysmum for sending me this book from my wishlist.

Journal Entry 4 by tiddley from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, June 19, 2006
Caught at the meet at Riverbend, thanks Aleonblue, can't wait to read this one, it is going to the top of the pile. Must have been my lucky day I caught two other books about China at the same meet, I can be lucky some times.

Journal Entry 5 by tiddley from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, June 19, 2006
Caught at the meet at Riverbend, thanks Aleonblue, can't wait to read this one, it is going to the top of the pile. Must have been my lucky day I caught two other books about China at the same meet, I can be lucky some times.

Journal Entry 6 by aleonblue from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, June 19, 2006
Just a note that frangipani08 who's new to the Brisbane BookCrossing group and came along to yesterday's meet-up is keen to read this book next! Enjoy the book Tiddley, and I've added you to the bookring for Xinran's other book Sky Burial .

Journal Entry 7 by tiddley from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Saturday, July 15, 2006
Brilliant, Xinran shares the stories of these women of China, in such a way that this book will become unforgettable

Passing this book on to Frangipani08 at Meet up Park Rd Milton,
Looking forward to getting Sky Burial, another book by Xinran.

Thanks Aleonblue for passing this one on.

Journal Entry 8 by frangipani08 from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, August 28, 2006
Looking forward to reading this one.

Journal Entry 9 by frangipani08 from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, September 4, 2006
Having read Wild Swans, Falling Leaves and Mao's Last Dancer, I was keen to read more stories from chinese people and The Good Women of China did not disappoint. Read this book very quickly as the stories drew you in. Makes me appreciate some of what we take for granted. In the last story, they have so little but they are happy. We may be in drought in Queensland but we do not have to walk two hours to collect water. I highly recommend this book.

Journal Entry 10 by gert29 from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Sunday, September 17, 2006
This was a really interesting book. It opens up a new world - one is amazed, saddened but ultimately uplifted by these women's stories.

Journal Entry 11 by RIBIT from Norman Park, Queensland Australia on Monday, October 2, 2006
Got this book of frangipani08,will return it to her to pass on to other readers. Could not put the book down. I always thought that during the Cultural Revolution men and women in China were treated as equals. This book is a real eye-opener.

Journal Entry 12 by frangipani08 from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Friday, February 16, 2007
Back with frangipani08 to bring to next Brisbane meetup.

Journal Entry 13 by frangipani08 at Stones Corner Hotel in Stones Corner, Queensland Australia on Saturday, February 24, 2007

Released 17 yrs ago (2/24/2007 UTC) at Stones Corner Hotel in Stones Corner, Queensland Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

At Brisbane meetup

Journal Entry 14 by aleonblue from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, February 26, 2007
Picked up this book again as I have someone else in mind with an interest in China who will probably enjoy this book!

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