Xinran, wiens geboortenaam Xue Xinran is, is een auteur die wordt gevierd om haar literaire bijdragen over het leven van vrouwen in China. Haar werk onderscheidt zich door een diepgaande verkenning van maatschappelijke verwachtingen en de persoonlijke strijd waarmee vrouwen worden geconfronteerd. Door haar verhalen belicht Xinran de complexiteit van menselijke relaties en de veerkrachtige geest van vrouwen. Haar aanpak is zowel empathisch als analytisch, en biedt lezers boeiende en tot nadenken stemmende proza.
For seven years, Xinran Xue hosted a daily radio phone-in programme for Radio Nanjing during which she discussed women's lives, and invited women to call in and talk about themselves. Broadcast between 10 and 12 at night, Words on the Night Breeze soon became famous all over China for its powerful, honest discussion of what it means to be a woman in today's China. It started in 1990, a time when China seemed to be opening up, both for the Chinese and for the world.
An epic story of Tibet from the author of The Good Women of China As a young girl in China Xinran heard a rumour about a soldier in Tibet who had been brutally fed to the vultures in a ritual known as a sky burial: the tale frightened and fascinated her.
China Witness is a remarkable work of oral history that lets us see the cultural upheavals of the past century through the eyes of the Chinese who lived through them. Xinran, acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, traveled across China seeking out the nation’s grandparents and great-grandparents, the men and women who experienced firsthand the tremendous changes of the modern era. Although many of them feared repercussions, they spoke with stunning candor about their hopes, fears, and struggles, and about what they witnessed: from the Long March to land reform, from Mao to marriage, from revolution to Westernization. In the same way that Studs Terkel’s Working and Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation gave us the essence of very particular times, China Witness gives us the essence of modern China—a portrait more intimate, nuanced, and revelatory than any we have had before.
Includes grandparents and great-grandparents who sum up in their own words the
vast changes that have overtaken China's people over a century. This book is
also 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, and, Westernization.
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 Li sisters don't have much education, but one thing has been drummed into them: their mother is a failure because she hasn't managed to produce a son, and they themselves only merit a number as a name. Yet when circumstances lead the sisters to seek work in distant Nanjing, the shocking new urban environment opens their eyes.
What the Chinese Don't Eat collects these pieces together for the first time
to give one unique Chinese woman's perspective on the connections and
differences between the lives of British and Chinese people today.
Von poetischer Liebe zu Cyber-Love: Chinas Frauen sind zwischen Tradition und Internet hin- und hergerissen. In einem Land, in dem Sex, Lust und Liebe oft tabuisiert sind, hat die gefeierte Journalistin und Autorin Xinran das Thema aufgegriffen. Sie spricht mit Frauen, die nie zuvor über ihre privaten Erlebnisse berichtet haben. Im Mittelpunkt steht die unglaubliche Geschichte von Red, die nach 61 Ehejahren ihre Jungfräulichkeit attestieren ließ. Hat sie ihren Mann geliebt? Warum blieb sie trotzdem Jungfrau? Xinran erfährt in einem offenen Gespräch mit Red auch von der poetischen Liebesgeschichte ihrer Eltern und sucht nach den anderen Frauen aus Reds Familie. Hatten sie erfüllte Liebesbeziehungen? Reds Schwestern, Nichten und Vertreterinnen der Enkelgeneration berichten von der Situation junger Frauen in China. Xinran verbindet authentische Geschichten mit Themen wie Internet-Sex und Online-Dating und entdeckt eine neue Einsamkeit, da viele junge Frauen heute allein mit ihren Träumen bleiben. In diesem Buch fängt sie ein ganzes Jahrhundert chinesischer Geschichte ein, von arrangierten Ehen über das Mutter-Tochter-Verhältnis bis hin zur Ein-Kind-Politik. Gleichzeitig beleuchtet sie die aktuelle Situation und die Rolle des Internets im Liebesleben der Frauen in China. Xinrans Werk ist ein authentisches Schlüsselwerk über Liebe und Leidenschaft in China, das durch lebendiges Erzählen und zeitgemäße Betrachtungsweise fesselt.
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.
