Xinran

An Epic Love Story of Tibet

Sky Burial

Ten chapters, ten women and many stories of heartbreak, including her own: Xinran once again takes us right into the lives of Chinese women and their lost daughters. Whether as a consequence of the single-child policy, destructive age-old traditions or hideous economic necessity, these women had to give up their daughters for adoption, others were forced to abandon them - on city streets, outside hospitals, orphanages or on station platforms - and others even had to watch their baby daughters being taken away at birth, and drowned. Personal, immediate, full of sorrow but also full of hope, this books sends a heart-rending message to Chinese girls who have been adopted to show them how things really were for their mothers, and to tell them they were loved and will never be forgotten.

Stories of Loss and Love

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother

From the author of 'The Good Women of China' comes the uplifting story of three sisters who, like so many migrant workers in today's China, leave their peasant community to seek their fortune in the big city.

Miss Chopsticks

voices from a silent generation

China witness

Entre 1989 e 1997, a jornalista Xinran entrevistou mulheres de diferentes idades e condições sociais, a fim de compreender a condição feminina na China moderna. Seu programa de rádio, 'Palavras na brisa noturna', discutia questões sobre as quais poucos ousavam falar, como vida íntima, violência familiar, opressão e homossexualismo. De forma cautelosa e paciente, Xinran colheu inúmeros relatos de mulheres em que predomina a memória da humilhação e do abandono - casamentos forçados, estupros, desilusões amorosas, miséria e preconceito. Nos relatos do livro, a autora possibilita a essas vozes antes silenciadas revelar provações, medos, esperança e uma capacidade de resistência que as permitiu se reerguer e sonhar em meio ao sofrimento extremo.

vozes ocultas

As boas mulheres da China

جنازة سماوية

With journalistic acumen and a novelist's flair, Xinran tells the remarkable stories of men and women born in China after 1979 - the recent generations raised under China's single-child policy. At a time when the country continues to transform at the speed of light, these generations of precious 'one and onlies' are burdened with expectation, yet have often been brought up without any sense of responsibility. Within their families, they are revered as 'little emperors' and 'suns', although such cosseting can come at a high price: isolation, confusion and an inability to deal with life's challenges. From the businessman's son unable to pack his own suitcase, to the PhD student who pulled herself out of extreme rural poverty, Xinran shows how these generations embody the hopes and fears of a great nation at a time of unprecedented change. It is a time of fragmentation, heart-breaking and inspiring in equal measure, in which capitalism vies with communism, the city with the countryside and Western opportunity with Eastern tradition. Through the fascinating stories of these only children, we catch a startling glimpse of the emerging face of China.

The Remarkable Truth of China's One-child Generations

Buy Me the Sky

Claude B. Levenson

Funérailles célestes est une histoire d'amour et de perte, de loyauté et de fidélité au-delà de la mort. Xinran dresse le portrait exceptionnel d'une femme et d'une terre, le Tibet, toutes les deux à la merci du destin et de la politique. En 1956, Wen et Kejun sont de jeunes étudiants en médecine, remplis de l'espoir des premières années du communisme en Chine. Par idéal, Kejun s'enrôle dans l'armée comme médecin. Peu après, Wen apprend la mort de son mari au combat sur les plateaux tibétains. Refusant de croire à cette nouvelle, elle part à sa recherche et découvre un paysage auquel rien ne l'a préparée - le silence, l'altitude, le vide sont terrifiants. Perdue dans les montagnes du nord, recueillie par une famille tibétaine, elle apprend à respecter leurs coutumes et leur culture. Après trente années d'errance, son opiniâtreté lui permet de découvrir ce qui est arrivé à son mari... Quand Wen retourne finalement en Chine, elle retrouve un pays profondément changé par la Révolution culturelle et Deng Xiaoping. Mais elle aussi a changé : en Chine, elle avait toujours été poussée par le matérialisme ; au Tibet, elle a découvert la spiritualité.

Funérailles célestes

China Witness is the personal testimony of a generation whose stories have not yet been told. Here the grandparents and great-grandparents of today sum up in their own words - for the first and perhaps the last time - the vast changes that have overtaken China's people over a century. The book is at once a journey by the author through time and place, and a memorial to those who have lived through war and civil war, persecution, invasion, revolution, famine, modernization, Westernization - and have survived into the 21st century. We meet everyday heroes, now in their seventies, eighties and nineties, from across this vast country - a herb woman at a market, retired teachers, a legendary 'double-gun woman', Red Guards, oil pioneers, an acrobat, a female general, a lantern maker, taxi drivers, and more- those whose voices, as Xinran says, 'will help our future understand our past'.

Voices from a Silent Generation

China Witness

Hảo nữ Trung Hoa

Xinran has been writing about China in her weekly column in the Guardian since 2003. This is a collection of those pieces that provides a unique perspective on the connection and differences between the lives of British and Chinese people today.

The Collected Guardian Columns

What the Chinese Don't Eat

Une fois de plus, Xinran nous emmène au coeur de la vie des femmes chinoises - étudiantes, femmes d'affaires, sages-femmes, paysannes - toutes hantées par des souvenirs qui ont marqué leur vie d'une empreinte indélébile. Que ce soit à cause de la politique de l'enfant unique, de traditions séculaires destructrices ou de terribles nécessités économiques, des femmes ont été contraintes de donner leurs filles en adoption, d'autres ont dû les abandonner - dans la rue, aux portes des hôpitaux, dans les orphelinats ou sur des quais de gare -, à d'autres encore, on a enlevé leurs petites filles à peine nées pour les noyer. Ces récits, Xinran n'avait jusqu'à présent jamais pu se résoudre à les rapporter - ils étaient trop douloureux et la touchaient de trop près. A toutes les petites Chinoises qui ont été adoptées à l'étranger, ce livre adresse un message poignant, pour leur montrer ce que leurs mères ont réellement vécu et pour leur dire qu'elles ont été aimées et ne seront jamais oubliées.

Messages de mères inconnues

Liberar el sufrimiento del yugo del silencio fue el reto que se planteó la periodista Xinran Xue cuando en su programa de radio "Palabras en la brisa nocturna," invitó a las mujeres chinas a llamar para explicar qué esperaban de la vida, si creían en la felicidad y si habían tenido occasión de experimentarla. El resultado es un fresco vivo y emocionante que resume el drama de ser mujer en China.--Back cover.

Nacer mujer en China

Le figlie perdute della Cina

Xinran Xue

El 1989, con los primeros indicios de apertura del régimen comunista chino, la periodista Xinran Xue inició un programa radiofónico en el que invitaba a las mujeres chinas a hablar de sus experiencias personales. El libro es una recopilación de esos testimonios, tanto de las esposas privilegiadas de los líderes del partido como de las mujeres de los campesinos.

Wolkentöchter

Sisters Three, Five and Six don't have much education, but they know two things for certain: their mother is a failure because she hasn't produced a son, and they only merit a number as a name. Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken. But when they leave their home in the countryside to seek their fortune in the big city, their eyes are suddenly and shockingly opened. Together they find jobs, make new friends, and learn more than a few lessons about life...

Miss Chopsticks Export

For eight groundbreaking years, Xinran presented a radio programme in China during which she invited women to call in and talk about themselves. Broadcast every evening, Words on the Night Breeze became famous through the country for its unflinching portrayal of what it meant to be a woman in modern China. Centuries of obedience to their fathers, husbands and sons, followed by years of political turmoil had made women terrified of talking openly about their feelings. Xinran won their trust and, through her compassion and ability to listen, became the first woman to hear their true stories. This unforgettable book is the story of how Xinran negotiated the minefield of restrictions imposed on Chinese journalists to reach out to women across the country. Through the vivid intimacy of her writing, the women's voices confide in the reader, sharing their deepest secrets for the first time. Their stories changed Xinran's understanding of China forever. Her book will reveal the lives of Chinese women to the West as never before.

Hidden Voices

The Good Women Of China

This is the story of how Xinran negotiated the minefield of restrictions imposed on Chinese journalists to reach out to women across the country. Through the intimacy of her writing, the women's voices confide in the reader, sharing their secrets.

Xinran

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