The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran Xinran - Donna Carrick

When Deng Xiaoping's efforts to "open up" China took root in the late 1980s, Xinran recognized an invaluable opportunity. As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate. Operating within the constraints imposed by government censors, "Words on the Night Breeze" sparked a tremendous outpouring, and the hours of tape on her answering machines were soon filled every night. Whether angry or muted, posing questions or simply relating experiences, these anonymous women bore witness to decades of civil strife, and of halting attempts at self-understanding in a painfully restrictive society. In this collection, by turns heartrending and inspiring, Xinran brings us the stories that affected her most, and offers a graphically detailed, altogether unprecedented work of oral history.

Donna Carrick
Despite its hauntingly beautiful cover, `The Good Women of China' sat unread on my shelf for the past two years. Perhaps I was afraid that its content would not live up to the cover. Maybe I was afraid that it would. In any event, when I finally confronted Xinran's collection of stunningly tragic tales earlier this week, I was not disappointed.

In the late 1980's, Xinran hosted a call-in radio show called `Words on the Night Breeze'. Despite the oppressive and often punitive backdrop of Communist broadcasting restrictions, the show rapidly drew a groundswell of response from Chinese women of every social standing. These women, ranging in age from schoolgirls to grandmothers, had never before been offered a safe forum for their stories.
Suddenly, under the protection of anonymity, these brave, heartbreaking women were free to share their experiences without fear of judgement or reprisal.

`The Good Women of China' drags the reader deep into the womb of a society where a woman's role depends entirely on her ability to contribute, and where her perceived human value is too often barely discernable. Surviving a level of oppression that would grind most people to the bones and facing tragedies of overwhelming magnitude, these women carry on, courageously exposing the secrets of the past to the light of a new day.

This is the story of China, unveiled through the true-life anecdotes of Chinese women and offered to us in the unpolished, authentic narrative voice of Xinran.

It is the story of mankind, raw and bleeding, coursing its way throughout the ages. For if any society is to aspire to prominence, to call itself `evolved' or `civilised', it must first be certain that it can claim freedom and equality for each of its members, great and small.

Sadly, women everywhere can relate too easily to the suffering heard in these `hidden voices'. At times difficult to read, the individual stories tear down our carefully constructed personas, uncovering personal experiences that resonate in painful harmony with the pages before us. I found myself thrown backwards into my own `childhood that I cannot leave behind', struggling once again to find words to describe memories that cannot be spoken of aloud.

Such are the `hidden voices' of all women. Such are the constraints that are placed upon the truth.

It has been said that only `truth' has the power to move us, to lift society to a higher level.

Thank you, Xinran, for helping us hear the honesty of these voices.

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