- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus (4 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0701184027
- ISBN-13: 978-0701184025
- Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 1.9 x 24.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
307,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > Chinese
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Product Description
Review
'This is an extraordinary book told with generosity and warmth by a brilliant storyteller' --Financial Times, 15th February 2010
'harrowing and heartbreaking yet important tales' --SHE Magazine
'This is an extraordinary book told with generosity and warmth by a brilliant storyteller' --Financial Times, February 2010
'harrowing and heartbreaking yet important tales'
--SHE Magazine, February 2010
`No bleaker picture exists of the fate of Chinese female infants...than Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother.'
--Spectator
`... one would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved.' -- Economist
'harrowing and heartbreaking yet important tales' --SHE Magazine
'This is an extraordinary book told with generosity and warmth by a brilliant storyteller' --Financial Times, February 2010
'harrowing and heartbreaking yet important tales'
--SHE Magazine, February 2010
`No bleaker picture exists of the fate of Chinese female infants...than Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother.'
--Spectator
`... one would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved.' -- Economist
Book Description
An extraordinarily powerful follow-up to her bestselling The Good Women of China - heartbreaking, shocking stories, including Xinran's own experience, of Chinese mothers who have lost or had to abandon their daughters and are still searching...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother,
By Eveta Hubbardibus "Mingistar" (Devon, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (Hardcover)
An amazing book, an incredible story or stories ....... not stories but true life. It is so very hard to believe it still goes on today. It has stuck with me.
I am now reading another book of hers ...... sky burial.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking stories,
By
This review is from: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (Hardcover)
As a big fan of Xinran's writing and stories of china in general, I was not disppointed by this new offering although I dont think it quite matched up to "Good Women of China". This book tells the stories of women that Xinran meets throughout China who have either given up, lost or abandoned their babies because they were girls. The reasons for this are explored but are rooted in tradition and land rights and Chinas one child policy. In some cases girls babies were drowned at birth. This is a heartbreaking book in places and a couple of 'happy endings' wouldn't have gone amiss. Amazing to think this was still happening as I was growing up as a young girl in the UK. Definitely worth reading, some of the stories will stay with you long after.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superlative book for anyone who wants to know China,
By Jean M. Lipson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (Hardcover)
I have two daughters adopted from China and will share this book with them as they grow up. It explains the desperation of the oppressed women of China, the intense need for a son and the social ails that exist. After reading the book, I ordered additional books so each of my daughters will eventually have one plus for several friends with children from China so their children can also develop a better understanding of the land of their birth. THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ALL PEOPLE ADOPTIING FROM CHINA! It is both heartbreaking but realistic and will help anyone to know the difficulties of Chinese women, including those who are interested in international studies, women's studies, adoption, international business people and anyone with a general interest in world events.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Caution: Sensationalism vs. An Evolving and more Hopeful Reality,
By Junlei Li - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (Hardcover)
Like the other reviewers, I am also an adoptive parent of two girls. Unlike the other reviewers, I haven't read the whole book, except for excerpt (ideally, I wish I could have given a N/A for rating, since I am not qualified as a book reviewer in this way). What I have read, I cringe. Unlike most other adoptive American parents, I am also a Chinese American and a child development psychologist, and I actually started working in Chinese orphanages to understand and improve care since our adoption.
I do not doubt the truthfulness of the author's stories. But just like the local television evening news that only shows crime, car accidents, fire, and animal abuse during the first 20 minutes of broadcast, a book focused solely on atrocities (and the most extreme at that!) may do a dis-service to China, its people, and most importantly, the girls we have adopted from there. Like many other countries, China is evolving. In the orphanages I've been to (not as a visitor, but actually spend hours and days observing and studying care-giving and child development inside the rooms), things have improved a great deal. Throughout China, I have met dedicated parents, teachers, professionals, and government officials who worked against all odds for the abandoned children. Likewise, the flow of girls into orphanages are now mostly a thing of the past. Domestic adoption and foster care has flourished. Attitude towards girls have dramatically improved, along with the economic position and earning power of girls. (The flow of special needs children continues to be a major issue, and NGOs started by adoptive parents are helping to make a difference!) Even the orphanages have improved -- China has a higher level of care than most other countries. U.S. studies of adopted Chinese girls almost always found them to be healthier and better adjusted than children adopted from other countries. In all the travels of myself and my colleagues, we have seen over 100 orphanages. Only one or two fit the Dickensian description. Most are run by well intentioned administrators and hardworking (low-paying) caregivers. From the excerpts I have read, I do not want to read more and cannot give this book to my girls, even after they grow up -- for the same reason that I turn off the television when news bombard us with the latest stories that bleed. Yes, my own girls' lives started on a street corner, but the world isn't all dark and cruel. I think of the mother who might have fought to spare the girl's life, who probably waited in hiding until the child was found. The strangers who found her and called the police. The doctors who labored to keep her alive (due to prematurity). I know personally the caregiver who took my baby into her arms on day 1 and helped her grow up attached and well for two years. I may be wrong to focus just on the kindness of strangers. But no more wrong than a book that seems to go out of its way to find atrocity and has largely ignored the enormous positive movement spurred by the Chinese people and the adoptive families during the last 10 years. As a journalist expose of past atrocities, perhaps -- as a piece to tell my child about their life stories and their people and country, it is not. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must-read for China adoptive parents,
By C-Kennedy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love (Hardcover)
We bought this book a few months ago in Hong Kong where we were delayed 6 hours before leaving to come home with our second child from China. This book put an even more clear focus on the feelings, emotions and stories of the Chinese mothers and their sacrifices on behalf of their children. It's painful to read which is why I feel it's important to read as it's so brutally honest with the experiences and emotions of what these birth families go through in the name of doing what is best for their child/ children and therefore part of the tapestry of their lives.
It makes me wish more than ever that there was a way to communicate with the birth mothers to let them know how very deeply and unconditionally their children, and they, are loved and appreciated by adoptive parents. |
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