Customer Reviews

The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices (Vintage East)

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If you are not moved by this collection of true stories, check your pulse and your breathing. Our author was the first ever woman radio talk show host in China. She piloted a first ever late-night "live" call-in program dedicated only to women's issues (a subject that was more or less ignored in China prior to the 1990's).

Each chapter is a separate true story of the pain and suffering of life for women, under the dictatorship of the "beloved Chairman Mao". Most are from letters written in by listeners or calls made into the live broadcast. One chapter is on the author's own reflections of her life.

Written after getting out of China (she now lives in England) in a frank, simple, open and honest style (translated brilliantly from Chinese) each chapter opens up layer upon layer of sexual abuse, torment and feminine tragedy. Easy to read, hard to put down and impossible to forget... I hope all my children will read this book to better understand this truly foreign culture and what they have gone through to get to where they are now. Reading this book has helped me better understand some of the complexities of the Chinese culture, at least from a "recent historical" point of view, both masculine and feminine.

Great stories by a brave author. I'm sure this book is not available in any bookstore in China! Maybe one day....

This is an amazing book! I have 2 daughters adopted from China, and I read anything I can get my hands on, that are REAL stories, that perhaps someday I can answer the hard questions that I'm sure they are going to have. I passed this book on to family members after I was done - just amazed by the stories!

Absolutely amazing fascinating true stories of the hardships and courage of women in China as told to a radio talk show host.

It is so interesting to read about people's lives in China and it will be more interesting to see the country which I will, in a few months. Such hardship and unhappiness that is tolerated by so many as this is how it has always been, or of course, worse. You can't have stories about women without stories of men and children, so this has it all. How awful to be female in a society that treats women as chattels, or less, with so few ever rising above this. And what does this say about the characters of the males?