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Xinran
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…
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Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958 and was a successful journalist and radio presenter in China. In 1997 she moved to London, where she began work on her seminal book about Chinese women s lives, The Good Women of China . Since then she has written a regular column for the Guardian , appeared frequently on radio and TV and published the acclaimed Sky Burial and a book of her Guardian columns called What the Chinese Don’t Eat . She lives in London but travels regularly to China. She is working on a major oral history of China, China Witness, to be published in 2008. Her charity, The Mothers’ Bridge of Love ( www.motherbridge.org ), was founded to help disadvantaged Chinese children and to build a bridge of understanding between the West and China.
topAbout the Book
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.
topXinran interview/review
Xinran Hue was 42 years old before she hugged her mother for the first time. The woman who pioneered China’s first radio agony-aunt programme says, “My mother’s face went very red and she said ‘Oh no, please don’t. I’m not used to it.’” Xinran explains that in China until the late 1980s, when the Cultural Revolution was finished and the political ice began to melt, touching or hugging could lead to criticism or imprisonment. Sex was seen as a defining characteristic of delinquent behaviour.
She says “Chinese women had always thought their lives should be full of misery. Many had no idea what happiness was, other than having a son for the family…You have to understand that emotions and ideals such as happiness or equality are luxuries for the poor. First they want clean water and electricity; then washing machines and fridges; after that it’s time for happiness. Listening to me, they discovered the possibility of another kind of life and began to question themselves, ‘Why don’t I have that?’”
In starting the programme the question that obsessed her was: what is a woman’s life really worth in China? Two generations had grown up in complete sexual ignorance, with all their natural instincts in confusion. Foot-binding was still a recent memory, yet women lived and worked alongside men, supposedly treated as their equals. It needed much persuasion and many meetings before her bosses at Henan Broadcasting, in east central China, agreed to let her tell real stories from real people.
Angela Lambert Saturday July 13, 2002 The Guardian
topStarting Points for Discussion
- Do you think that Xinran’s mission with the Words on the Night Breeze and The Good Women of China, can ultimately be traced back to her own problematic relationship with her mother, and her absent father?
- In her prologue, Xinran tells of when she risked her life fighting an attacker for her bag, as it contained her only finished manuscript. Would you do the same? Is life more important than a book?
- How far do you accept the old Chinese saying that woman’s nature is like water and man’s nature is like mountains? Consider to what extent this applies to both Western and Chinese cultures.
- Do you think Xinran agrees with the water/mountain comparison by the end of her stories? Consider this in the light of her use of imagery, and how these two motifs are used within the text.
- Looking back at ‘The Woman Who Loved Women’ story, do you think that if Taohong had not been raped she still would have found herself only able to love women? Is she really homosexual or just badly scarred?
- It might be said that in some way Xinran is worthy of criticism for choosing to settle in England, leaving the women of China to a world that is still so behind Western standards of equality. Do you agree?
- Which of the stories did you find most disturbing, and why?
Other Books by Xinran
China Witness: Voices from…
China Witness is the personal testimony of a generation whose stories have not…
Message from an Unknown C…
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother is made up of the stories of Chinese…
Miss Chopsticks
From the author of the bestselling The Good Women of China comes the upli…
Sky Burial
In 1994, Xinran met a woman whose story was so extraordinary, it came to obsess…
Suggested Further Reading
- Vermilion Gate: A Family Story of Communist China ~ Aiping Mu
- A Leaf in the Bitter Wind ~ Ye Ting-Xing
- Bound Feet and Western Dress ~ Pang-Mei Natasha Chang
- To the Edge of the Sky ~ Anhua Gao
- River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze ~ Peter Hessler
- A Bend in the Yellow River ~ Justin Hill
- The tale of Murasaki ~ Lisa Dalby
- The Chinese ~ Jasper Becker
Additional Online Resources
Xinran is on tour – click for list of events.
“View the website feature.”:
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/xinran