Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women [Hardcover]

Julie Checkoway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

A memoir of a year in a large industrial Chinese city recounts the secret traditional bonding of Chinese women and presents individual stories about such women as one so desperate to leave China she will do so as a mail-order bride. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1987, the author, now a professor of creative writing at the University of Georgia, went to China to teach English at Hebei Teachers' University, recover from the writer's block she acquired at the Iowa Writers Workshop, and learn about the lives of Chinese women. In China, Checkoway was able to examine her own life, which led her to renew contact with her blood sister and end a relationship with a man with whom she was living. This book eloquently presents friendships the author developed with a handful of Chinese students yet ultimately disappoints because it offers scant information on what the author hoped to explore: "the shadow world of Chinese women." For larger public libraries.?Peggy Spitzer Christoff, Oak Park, Ill.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Checkoway's memoir conveys the remarkable depth of her immersion in Chinese culture during a year spent teaching English in the industrial city of Shijiazhuang. Acting on a compulsion to seek out the hidden, secret stories of women's lives, Checkoway was inspired to connect eventually with a group of women who trusted her enough to unveil their private histories. Retelling each story as it was revealed, Checkoway simultaneously probes losses she suffered as a child when her mother died and her own family broke apart. The wrenching impact of these events on her personal life appears to have had a positive impact on Checkoway's ability to penetrate and illuminate the travails of ordinary yet remarkably singular Chinese women wounded by the political and social upheavals that have rocked China for so long. Still, at its core, this is one woman's fascinating and poignant journey to find her own center in a foreign land. Alice Joyce

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670848786
• ISBN-13: 978-0670848782
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,302,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, respectful, and gently rendered. A very good book!, June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women (Hardcover)

I've read stacks of books on China--both before, during, and after living there--and I will certainly add this one to my recommendation list. There are plenty of writers comfortable with giving pure "reportage" on a foreign country they have lived in, supposedly factual accounts of dramatic encounters or distanced anecdotes about the sights and sounds, but few willing to speak honestly about how they are personally affected by that place and the people they grow close to--or the complicated reasons that motivate them to go in the first place. Why travel to another country if you aren't willing to be changed by it or admit the concerns and questions you bring with you? Why read a memoir if you want just the facts or a large scale "objective" account and not something of the writer too? Read an encyclopedia or history book if that's what you're after, although these won't give you a sense of what it is for you as an individual to be in that place. Checkoway's beautiful account of her year in Hebei Province and the lives of the Chinese women who were brave enough to tell her their stories enriched my own understanding of the women in China who had befriended me, leaving me longing to return and at the same time profoundly aware of the way travelers are constantly compelled, each for their own reasons, to try to connect across cultures and political divisions. There is a haunting, respectful quality to Checkoway's prose. She admires these women for their courage, determination, and insights, and by the end of the book, I admire them--and Checkoway--too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tender confessional, September 8, 2009

By 

R. E. Hopper - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women (Hardcover)

I work in higher education and picked up this book looking for insight into the lives of students coming from China to study in the U.S. I became quickly engrossed by the authenticity of the writer's voice. The book is a beautiful evocation of how the need to heal ourselves can inspire acts of scholarship, artistry and friendship. This is a lovely read.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars it's not really about China, July 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women (Hardcover)

This tells you more about the author than it does about China; the writer claims to know Chinese but commits some obvious howlers ("horse-horse camel-camel" for "ma-ma hu-hu") that shows she speaks very little. Much better books about China include Kristoff & WuDunn's China Wakes, the Tysons' Chinese Awakenings: Life Stories from the Unofficial China, or Jan Wong's Red China Blues : My Long March from Mao to Now.