Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958 and moved to London in 1997 to write for "The Guardian." She is author of "The Good Women of China," a seminal book about the lives of Chinese women, and "Sky Burial." Her charity, The Mothers' Bridge of Love, was founded to help disadvantaged Chinese children and to build a bridge of understanding between the West and China.
"Xinran's interactions are extraordinary...[she] uses a wide range
of stories -- of public-works projects and persecutions, romance
and reeducation -- to show how China's masses clung to scraps of
individuality amid the deadening conformity of the communist
system." -- "New York Times Book Review
""As Xinran crisscrosses the vast country, she proves herself to be
a tenacious conduit for gently urging remarkable histories onto the
page and even on film, recording the memories and lives of her
elderly Chinese witnesses." --"The San Francisco Chronicle "
"Xinran . . . doesn't treat her subjects like something from a 1945
newsreel, the dutiful witnesses of history's march. She pokes them
and flatters them; she gets excited by their stories and on
occasion cries along with them. [In this book] we see the red lines
that many Chinese still draw for themselves in public discourse, or
even privately, the boundaries they dare not cross even today. No
other style of storytelling could have exhibited them with more
clarity or greater rawness."
--Oliver August, "The Times" (London)
"An invaluable social history that textbooks don't reveal."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Extraordinary in-depth interviews with a dozen unlikely survivors
of the cultural revolution (the Policeman, the Acrobat, the Lantern
Maker . . .). This brilliant work of oral history-by a sort of
Chinese Studs Terkel-gives a completely riveting glimpse of
everyday life behind Mao's bamboo curtain and subtly reflects on
the politics of memory and what may be yet to come."
--"The Guardian," Best Books of 2008
"[A] stirring, startlingly honest account of life under Chairman
Mao and the current reformers revamping the socialist state. If the
reader wants proof of how resilient and tough the Chinese people
are, witness the incredible stories related by Lin Xiangbei, a
loyal Communist later branded a counterrevolutionary, or Teacher
Sun and her husband, former political prisoners, or
"Xinran . . . doesn't treat her subjects like something from a 1945
newsreel, the dutiful witnesses of history's march. She pokes them
and flatters them; she gets excited by their stories and on
occasion cries along with them. [In this book] we see the red lines
that many Chinese still draw for themselves in public discourse, or
even privately, the boundaries they dare not cross even today. No
other style of storytelling could have exhibited them with more
clarity or greater rawness."
--Oliver August, "The Times" (London)
"An invaluable social history that textbooks don't reveal."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Extraordinary in-depth interviews with a dozen unlikely survivors
of the cultural revolution (the Policeman, the Acrobat, the Lantern
Maker . . .). This brilliant work of oral history-by a sort of
Chinese Studs Terkel-gives a completely riveting glimpse of
everyday life behind Mao's bamboo curtain and subtly reflects on
the politics of memory and what may be yet to come."
--"The Guardian," Best Books of 2008
"[A] stirring, startlingly honest account of life under Chairman
Mao and the current reformers revamping the socialist state. If the
reader wants proof of how resilient and tough the Chinese people
are, witness the incredible stories related by Lin Xiangbei, a
loyal Communist later branded a counterrevolutionary, or Teacher
Sun and her husband, former political prisoners, or Mr. Changzheng,
a survivor of the infamous Long March. Xinran . . . does not leave
out the average people who were the backbone of the republic, . . .
all of whom reveal a rich, multi-faceted national history that
celebrated individualism as well as collective achievement . . .
[T]he authorputs a bow on these candid interviews with a final set
of astute observations in an especially noteworthy book."
--"Publishers Weekly" (starred review)
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