"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. And then there is Xinran herself: an extraordinary woman who, despite her own unhappy past, has given her life to saving the stories of Chinese women from oblivion. And yet this is also a book about love - about how, despite cruelty, despite politics, the female urge to nurture and cherish remains. The stories presented here tell of almost inconceivable suffering: rape, sexual abuse, the separation of parents from their children, the suppression of human emotion in order to survive the Communist regime - never before have the tortured souls of Chinese women been laid so bare. She realised that she knew far less than she had thought about what it means to be a Chinese woman and embarked on a journey of discovery to collect their stories. Soon she was receiving over two hundred letters a day from women telling her their stories. She felt as if she was opening a tiny window into a huge fortress whose inhabitants had never before communicated with the outside world. Xinran's programme revealed aspects of women's lives that had never been talked about in public before. It started in 1990, a time when China seemed to be 'opening up', both for the Chinese and for the world.
Broadcast between 10 and 12 at night, Words on the Night Breeze soon became famous all over China for its powerful, honest discussions of what it means to be a woman in today's China. Her book will reveal the lives of Chinese women to the West as never before.For seven years, Xinran Xue hosted a daily radio phone-in programme for Radio Nanjing during which she discussed women's lives, and invited women to call in and talk about themselves. Their stories changed Xinran's understanding of China forever. Through the vivid intimacy of her writing, the women's voices confide in the reader, sharing their deepest secrets for the first time. This 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. Xinran won their trust and, through her compassion and ability to listen, became the first woman to hear their true stories.
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. 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. When I finished reading-I felt my soul had been altered' Amy TanFor eight groundbreaking years, Xinran presented a radio programme in China during which she invited women to call in and talk about themselves.
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