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Kiinan Kadotetut Tyttäret (2010)

by Xinran(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Atena

review 1: The stories of relinquishment are so heart-wrenching, I found myself crying many times while reading this book. I can imagine the acute ache of loss all those Chinese mothers faced and continue to face by giving up their daughters. I believe my grandmother had been given up and sent away as some of the girls described in this book. And it makes me wonder more now what her young life back in China was like. My mother also spent time in orphanages and as the youngest of 3 daughters, must have wondered daily why she had to be so "unlucky" as to be born a girl. From listening to my mother and from living in China, I had known well about the pressures of having boys in Chinese culture, but I never imagined to what lengths people go to try to have sons under the One Child Policy... more. I also never imagined the pain all those mothers feel for being denied the opportunity to give their daughters the love they want to give. This book makes me want to adopt a girl, to give her as much love as possible, and to make sure she knows that her birth mother loves her.
review 2: I began and finished the book in one day. The stories told are so compelling, so rip-your-heart-out, demanding you bear witness that I could not stop until I had finished.Xinran compiled these 10 chapters and stories of Chinese women who had given up their daughters. Their circumstances run the gamut from being forced to do so because of the (currently shifting) one-child policy and a refusal by their family to accept a girl, to the shame of being an unwed mother, to wanting a better life for their daughter. Some are women with no agency, others made the choice deliberately. some did it to save a daughter who would otherwise been murdered to allow them to keep trying for the necessary son.What becomes clear very quickly is that these mother's all wish they knew what became of their girls. Did they go abroad? Did they survive the under staffed and under funded orphanages? Are they safe, healthy, happy? But the tragedy is that records just don't really exist and both the adopted daughters who wonder about their birth mothers and the birth mothers who wonder about their daughters have no real chance at ever finding each other.Trigger warning-there is frank talk of and descriptions of how infanticide is carried out and a graphic description of one that Xinran witnessed. This can be a difficult read and you will sob. less

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