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In the late 1980s, Chinese journalist Xinran started broadcasting Words on the Night Breeze, a late-night radio program designed to "open a little window, a tiny hole, so that people could allow their spirits to cry out and breathe after the gunpowder- laden atmosphere of the previous forty years." What she inadvertently set off was a powder-keg of her own. Women, who for so long had been censored and silenced--first by a culture that commanded obedience to fathers, husbands, and sons, and later by the terror-breeding Cultural Revolution, which programmed children to inform on parents, and neighbour on neighbour--found the courage to break through that silence and speak about what they had endured. The results were a taboo-shattering radio program that sent shockwaves rippling across the airwaves, and a book, The Good Women of China, an unflinching portrayal of the lives of modern Chinese women that is finally a tour-de-force exposé of Chinese society that's sure to leave an indelible imprint on the minds and hearts of its readers.
Xinran presents the spectrum of women's stories. Among them are a prisoner convicted of "sexual delinquency and illegal cohabitation," the women of a remote desert village living in inconceivable poverty, a general's daughter who lost her mind after being repeatedly raped by the villagers to whom she'd been sent for "re-education," and a scavenger lady who lives in a makeshift hovel in order to catch a glimpse of her prominent son. But then, the tables are turned. Xinran's journey into the lives of others becomes a journey of self-discovery and self-recovery, as her assumptions about her sisters are shattered, and she is challenged to relate and come to terms with her own painful past.
Like all the best practitioners of the art of grand reportage, Xinran is an uncompromising humanitarian. Here, she has achieved a difficult and fine balance between the honest presentation of a brutalized world and a quiet poeticism that probes its subject intimately, and offers and invites reflection. The author never wavers in her mission to break the codes of silence and censorship, but she has also learned the hard lesson of approaching her subjects with respect for their pain and their dignity. It's this evident integrity that makes these testimonials on the condition of modern Chinese women so compelling. - -Diana Kuprel --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In 1988, Xinran (ne Xue Hue) was selected to work in state media and ended up at the Nanjing radio station, where she began broadcasting "Words on the Night Breeze" a year later. The show featured letters and calls from ordinary women discussing their problems, and was hugely successful and revelatory, as women had few avenues, public or private, for talking about their lives, which were frequently grim and often harrowing. Xinran quit the show in 1995 to try to help her listeners directly, but by 1997 she had burned out. She persuaded the radio station authorities to let her travel to England, where she began teaching Chinese, met and married English book agent Toby Eady and wrote this memoir of her experiences on the program, including a compendium of some of the most painful of the "Night Breeze" stories. She presents narratives from women who live "in emotionless political marriages" and those, the majority, who struggle "amid poverty and hardship." They have commonly experienced sexual abuse: rape, frequently gang rape. Apparently designed to bring the women's horrific stories to light, the book doesn't do enough to situate them clearly in the context of the show as a state-produced product, or within Xinran's own difficulties in processing and presenting the material on the air (or in this book). The results will leave readers sympathetic to the grave enormity of the women's circumstances, but-due perhaps to minor translation problems and Xinran's lingering political worries-somewhat confused about how Xinran tried to deal with their plights.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Donna Carrick,
By
This review is from: The Good Women of China (Paperback)
Despite its hauntingly beautiful cover, `The Good Women of China' sat unread on my shelf for the past two years. Perhaps I was afraid that its content would not live up to the cover. Maybe I was afraid that it would. In any event, when I finally confronted Xinran's collection of stunningly tragic tales earlier this week, I was not disappointed.In the late 1980's, Xinran hosted a call-in radio show called `Words on the Night Breeze'. Despite the oppressive and often punitive backdrop of Communist broadcasting restrictions, the show rapidly drew a groundswell of response from Chinese women of every social standing. These women, ranging in age from schoolgirls to grandmothers, had never before been offered a safe forum for their stories. Suddenly, under the protection of anonymity, these brave, heartbreaking women were free to share their experiences without fear of judgement or reprisal. `The Good Women of China' drags the reader deep into the womb of a society where a woman's role depends entirely on her ability to contribute, and where her perceived human value is too often barely discernable. Surviving a level of oppression that would grind most people to the bones and facing tragedies of overwhelming magnitude, these women carry on, courageously exposing the secrets of the past to the light of a new day. This is the story of China, unveiled through the true-life anecdotes of Chinese women and offered to us in the unpolished, authentic narrative voice of Xinran. It is the story of mankind, raw and bleeding, coursing its way throughout the ages. For if any society is to aspire to prominence, to call itself `evolved' or `civilised', it must first be certain that it can claim freedom and equality for each of its members, great and small. Sadly, women everywhere can relate too easily to the suffering heard in these `hidden voices'. At times difficult to read, the individual stories tear down our carefully constructed personas, uncovering personal experiences that resonate in painful harmony with the pages before us. I found myself thrown backwards into my own `childhood that I cannot leave behind', struggling once again to find words to describe memories that cannot be spoken of aloud. Such are the `hidden voices' of all women. Such are the constraints that are placed upon the truth. It has been said that only `truth' has the power to move us, to lift society to a higher level. Thank you, Xinran, for helping us hear the honesty of these voices.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Quality, a bit late.,
This review is from: The Good Women of China (Paperback)
I received my used book in near new condition. It was a bit late arriving (maybe a week) but as mentioned, arrived in near perfect condition. I would order from this bookstore again : )
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book that has opened my eyes,
By Ameerah S Ali (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Good Women of China (Hardcover)
Anyone who is interested in the secret lives of Chinese women( or all women) will be delighted by this book. Although it is brutally honest and heart wrenching- this book has taken many, many difficult and cruel situations and written them with taste.
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