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. (From Amazon)


‘This is a book from deep in the heart of China. As shocking as it is revealing…An extraordinary and eye-opening read’ Jon Snow

This was a harrowing read. Given the awful stories, it seems almost trivial to comment on how the author, Xinran, sounded at times rather too full of herself, and this grated. The bleak and miserable lives she reports made me reflect that the birth of a female child would be almost unbearable for many such women, to feel one was condemning another to such a life. I wondered about the impact of such feelings on the great many girl babies who are abandoned.

I am hoping to send this one travelling long distance with a friend who will be going to China this summer.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

'Tea, chocolate, book' prize, making its way via surface mail to California to prolong the excitement of the surprise packages arriving. Enjoy, FeistyPom2love!
Thanks BeautifulHooker for organising.

Thank you for the book, tea & chocolate!!!

For the Norristown Transportation Center OBCZ.

Thank you for the wonderful RABCK for the OBCZ! This is just one of the many books that was sent. I will be taking it to the green shelves shortly.
Thanks again!

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