China Witness: Voices from a Silent Generation by Xinran, translated by Nicky Harman, Julia Lovell, and Esther Tyldesley

Since the 2002 best-seller The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices, Beijing-born London journalist Xinran has emerged as an international dynamo reclaiming the voices of neglected citizens throughout her homeland. Her subsequent titles – Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet, What the Chinese Don’t Eat, Miss Chopsticks and even her children’s picture book, Motherbridge of Love – are tenacious extensions of her life’s work: to acknowledge and preserve the disappearing stories of ordinary, everyday people who have managed to survive extraordinary experiences.

China Witness is Xinran’s most ambitious work – a rich tome filled with unforgettable stories from China’s tumultuous past century. “This book is a testament to the dignity of modern Chinese lives,” she begins.

For most Western readers, China looms large as a vague entity associated with Mao, communism, human rights abuses and – more recent – the 2008 Olympic Games. As China rushes into the new century as a growing superpower, Xinran struggles to “describe a twentieth century that, in many respects, has been full of suffering and trauma.” Ironically, her greatest obstacle proves to be the Chinese people themselves: “Almost no one in China today believes you can get their men and women to tell the truth.” …[click here for more]

Reviews: San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2009

“In Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: New & Notable Books,” The Bloomsbury Review, May/June 2009

Tidbit: Click here to read my 2003 interview with Xinran, shortly after the U.S. publication of her first book, The Good Women of China.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2009