Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love

Translated by Nicky Harman, January, 2010

In the footsteps of Xinran's "Good Women of China", Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother (Chatto & Windus, 2010) is personal, immediate, full of harrowing, tragic detail but also uplifting, tender moments. Ten chapters, ten women and many stories of heartbreak, including her own: Xinran once again takes us right into the lives of Chinese women – students, successful business women, midwives, peasants, all with memories which have stained their lives. Whether as a consequence of the single-child policy, destructive age-old traditions or hideous economic necessity… these women had to give up their daughters for adoption, others were forced to abandon them – on city streets, outside hospitals, orphanages or on station platforms – and others even had to watch their baby daughters being taken away at birth, and drowned.