''The Good Women of China'' () is a book published in 2002. The author,

Xue Xinran Xuē Xīnrán (, pen name ''Xinran'', born in Beijing in 1958) is a British-Chinese journalist, author, speaker, and advocate for women's issues. She was a popular radio personality in China with a call-in program named "Words on the Night Br ...

, is a British-Chinese journalist who currently resides in London and writes for '' The Guardian''. Esther Tyldesley translated this book from Chinese. The Guardian First published on Sun 21 Jul 2002 03.03 BST
Chinese whispers Xinran's accounts of brutality and emotional repression are harrowing - but The Good Women of China is not the new Wild Swans
Geraldine Bedell Sun 21 Jul 2002 03.03 BST ''The Good Women of China'' is primarily composed of interviews Xinran conducted during her time as a radio broadcaster in China in the 1980s. However, she also details some of her own experiences as a woman in China. The interviews usually focus on the embedded cultural perceptions in China about women's rights, roles, and suffering. Many of these interviews were drawn from the call-in portion of Xinran' widely popular radio program, ''Words on the Night Breeze''. She also interviewed other women, whom she sought out for their experiences as Chinese women or opinions about the status of Chinese women. This book attacked key issues such as

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of reso ...

, son-preference, suppression of sexuality, homosexuality, and the sexism embedded in culture and society. For this reason, Xinran had to leave China in order to write the book, which was published in Britain. Though the author herself has some opinions about women, whose inherent differences she describes throughout the book, she acknowledges and confronts the stereotypes about women which she detailed in some of the life experiences of Chinese women she recounted. Many women's stories involved rape, forced marriage, deception, and abuse at the hands of authority figures in society and the government. All of these men gained their power over women from pre-existing cultural practices and furthered their control through the existing power structures. In ''The Good Women of China'', Xinran sheds light both on the persistence of oppression of women in China as well as the new opportunities for women in modern Chinese society. Drawn mainly from anecdotes and interviews, and sparsely substantiated by historical facts and statistics, this book takes on important issues without resorting to a black-and-white view of the situation.

References

2002 non-fiction books Books about China Books of interviews {{gender-book-stub