{"title":"Books by Xinran","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780099440789","title":"The Good Women Of China","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor eight groundbreaking years, Xinran presented a radio programme in China during which she invited women to call in and talk about themselves. Broadcast every evening, Words on the Night Breeze became famous through the country for its unflinching portrayal of what it meant to be a woman in modern China. Centuries of obedience to their fathers, husbands and sons, followed by years of political turmoil had made women terrified of talking openly about their feelings. Xinran won their trust and, through her compassion and ability to listen, became the first woman to hear their true stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis unforgettable book is the story of how Xinran negotiated the minefield of restrictions imposed on Chinese journalists to reach out to women across the country. Through the vivid intimacy of her writing, the women's voices confide in the reader, sharing their deepest secrets for the first time. Their stories changed Xinran's understanding of China forever. Her book will reveal the lives of Chinese women to the West as never before.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56222892523893,"sku":"9780099440789","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099440789_368d7a25-d016-4e92-85b1-6f3b3f10336c.jpg?v=1786010974"},{"product_id":"9780099501527","title":"What the Chinese Don't Eat","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince June 2003 Xinran has been writing about China in her weekly column in the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e. She has covered a vast range of topics from food to sex education, and from the experiences of British mothers who have adopted Chinese daughters, to whether Chinese people do Christmas shopping or have swimming pools. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach of her columns inspired letters and questions and more opportunities for Xinran to shed light on the culture of her native land. \u003ci\u003eWhat the Chinese Don't Eat\u003c\/i\u003e collects these pieces together for the first time to give one unique Chinese woman's perspective on the connections and differences between the lives of British and Chinese people today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223021400437,"sku":"9780099501527","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099501527_6717648d-1b4b-496c-93ee-58b4355d1a9b.jpg?v=1786011496"},{"product_id":"9780099461937","title":"Sky Burial","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs a young girl in China Xinran heard a rumour about a soldier in Tibet who had been brutally fed to the vultures in a ritual known as a sky burial: the tale frightened and fascinated her. Several decades later Xinran met Shu Wan, a Chinese woman who had spent years searching for her missing husband who had been serving as a doctor in Tibet; her extraordinary life story would unravel the legend of the sky burial. For thirty years she was lost in the wild and alien landscape of Tibet, in the vast and silent plateaus and the magisterial mountain ranges, living with communities of nomads moving with the seasons and struggling to survive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this haunting book, Xinran recreates Shu Wen's remarkable journey in an epic story of love, loss, loyalty and survival. Moving, shocking and, ultimately, uplifting \u003ci\u003eSky Burial\u003c\/i\u003e paints a unique portrait of a woman and a land, both at the mercy of fate and politics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223418483061,"sku":"9780099461937","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099461937_78e8afe9-32a1-46b1-aaca-80ec031788f9.jpg?v=1786011126"},{"product_id":"9780099535751","title":"Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother","description":"\u003cp\u003eTen chapters, ten women and many stories of heartbreak, including her own: Xinran once again takes us right into the lives of Chinese women and their lost daughters. Whether as a consequence of the single-child policy, destructive age-old traditions or hideous economic necessity, these women had to give up their daughters for adoption, others were forced to abandon them - on city streets, outside hospitals, orphanages or on station platforms - and others even had to watch their baby daughters being taken away at birth, and drowned. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePersonal, immediate, full of sorrow but also full of hope, this books sends a heart-rending message to Chinese girls who have been adopted to show them how things really were for their mothers, and to tell them they were loved and will never be forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223766774133,"sku":"9780099535751","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099535751_7e9c9a1d-f5ca-479a-af0a-8c28badbfaaf.jpg?v=1786033368"},{"product_id":"9780099501534","title":"Miss Chopsticks","description":"\u003cp\u003eSisters Three, Five and Six don't have much education, but they know two things for certain: their mother is a failure because she hasn't produced a son, and they only merit a number as a name. Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut when they leave their home in the countryside to seek their fortune in the big city, their eyes are suddenly and shockingly opened. Together they find jobs, make new friends, and learn more than a few lessons about life...\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223947194741,"sku":"9780099501534","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099501534_40e39c52-5855-4a2c-b591-0f272afb83d8.jpg?v=1786011497"},{"product_id":"9780099501480","title":"China Witness","description":"\u003ci\u003eChina Witness\u003c\/i\u003e is the personal testimony of a generation whose stories have not yet been told. Here the grandparents and great-grandparents of today sum up in their own words - for the first and perhaps the last time - the vast changes that have overtaken China's people over a century. The book is at once a journey by the author through time and place, and a memorial to those who have lived through war and civil war, persecution, invasion, revolution, famine, modernization, Westernization - and have survived into the 21st century. We meet everyday heroes, now in their seventies, eighties and nineties, from across this vast country - a herb woman at a market, retired teachers, a legendary 'double-gun woman', Red Guards, oil pioneers, an acrobat, a female general, a lantern maker, taxi drivers, and more- those whose voices, as Xinran says, 'will help our future understand our past'.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311551328629,"sku":"9780099501480","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099501480_a0529ba1-87d3-45ea-b0e7-adfed5447cad.jpg?v=1786011495"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-xinran.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}