Today’s Book: The Good Women of China – Hidden Voices, by Xinran --March 21, 2009
Despite its hauntingly beautiful cover, ‘The Good Women of China’ by Xinran Xue sat unread on my shelf for the past two years. Perhaps I was afraid that its content would not live up to the cover. Maybe I was afraid that it would. In any event, when I finally confronted Xinran’s collection of stunningly tragic tales earlier this week, I was not disappointed.
In the late 1980’s, Xinran hosted a call-in radio show called ‘Words on the Night Breeze’. Despite the oppressive and often punitive backdrop of Communist broadcasting restrictions, the show rapidly drew a groundswell of response from Chinese women of every social standing. These women, ranging in age from schoolgirls to grandmothers, had never before been offered a safe forum for their stories.
Suddenly, under the protection of anonymity, these brave, heartbreaking women were free to share their experiences without fear of judgement or reprisal.
‘The Good Women of China’ drags the reader deep into the womb of a society where a woman’s role depends entirely on her ability to contribute, and where her perceived human value is too often barely discernable. Surviving a level of oppression that would grind most people to the bones and facing tragedies of overwhelming magnitude, these women carry on, courageously exposing the secrets of the past to the light of a new day.
This is the story of China, unveiled through the true-life anecdotes of Chinese women and offered to us in the unpolished, authentic narrative voice of Xinran.
It is the story of mankind, raw and bleeding, coursing its way throughout the ages. For if any society is to aspire to prominence, to call itself ‘evolved’ or ‘civilised’, it must first be certain that it can claim freedom and equality for each of its members, great and small.
Sadly, women everywhere can relate too easily to the suffering heard in these ‘hidden voices’. At times difficult to read, the individual stories tear down our carefully constructed personas, uncovering personal experiences that resonate in painful harmony with the pages before us. I found myself thrown backwards into my own ‘childhood that I cannot leave behind’, struggling once again to find words to describe memories that cannot be spoken of aloud.
Such are the ‘hidden voices’ of all women. Such are the constraints that are placed upon the truth.
It has been said that only ‘truth’ has the power to move us, to lift society to a higher level.
Thank you, Xinran, for helping us hear the honesty of these voices.
Donna Carrick, March 23, 2009
In the late 1980’s, Xinran hosted a call-in radio show called ‘Words on the Night Breeze’. Despite the oppressive and often punitive backdrop of Communist broadcasting restrictions, the show rapidly drew a groundswell of response from Chinese women of every social standing. These women, ranging in age from schoolgirls to grandmothers, had never before been offered a safe forum for their stories.
Suddenly, under the protection of anonymity, these brave, heartbreaking women were free to share their experiences without fear of judgement or reprisal.
‘The Good Women of China’ drags the reader deep into the womb of a society where a woman’s role depends entirely on her ability to contribute, and where her perceived human value is too often barely discernable. Surviving a level of oppression that would grind most people to the bones and facing tragedies of overwhelming magnitude, these women carry on, courageously exposing the secrets of the past to the light of a new day.
This is the story of China, unveiled through the true-life anecdotes of Chinese women and offered to us in the unpolished, authentic narrative voice of Xinran.
It is the story of mankind, raw and bleeding, coursing its way throughout the ages. For if any society is to aspire to prominence, to call itself ‘evolved’ or ‘civilised’, it must first be certain that it can claim freedom and equality for each of its members, great and small.
Sadly, women everywhere can relate too easily to the suffering heard in these ‘hidden voices’. At times difficult to read, the individual stories tear down our carefully constructed personas, uncovering personal experiences that resonate in painful harmony with the pages before us. I found myself thrown backwards into my own ‘childhood that I cannot leave behind’, struggling once again to find words to describe memories that cannot be spoken of aloud.
Such are the ‘hidden voices’ of all women. Such are the constraints that are placed upon the truth.
It has been said that only ‘truth’ has the power to move us, to lift society to a higher level.
Thank you, Xinran, for helping us hear the honesty of these voices.
Donna Carrick, March 23, 2009
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