Private Revolutions - In Pursuit of the Chinese Dream

What does it take to escape the hand you were dealt at birth?This is a book about the coming of age of four women born in China in the 1980s and 1990s, dreaming of better futures. It is about L a , who wants to escape the ''shit life'' of the women in her village. Still underage, she bluffs her way on to the factory floor. It is about June , who at fifteen sets what her family thinks is an impossible goal: to attend university rather than raise a pig. It is about Siyue , ranked bottom of her English class, who decides to prove her teachers wrong. And it is about Sam , who realises that the only way to change her country is to become an activist - even as the authorities slowly take her peers from the streets.With unprecedented access to the lives, hopes, homes, dreams and diaries of four ordinary women over a period of six years, Private Revolutions gives a voice to those whose stories go untold. At a time of rising state censorship and suppression, it unearths the identity of modern Chinese society - and, through the telling, something of our own.>

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A portrait of the country through four women who grew up there in the eighties and nineties - and refused to accept the life laid out for them. Activists, factory workers, pig farmers turned students: they provide incredible insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese people Best Books of 2024 Sunday Times

Product details

• Authors: Yuan Yang
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.05.2024
• EAN: 9781526655905
• ISBN: 978-1-5266-5590-5
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 234 mm x 23 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; China, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Women in Business, economic growth, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, Ethical Issues: Censorship, TRAVEL / Asia / East / China, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Labor / Unions, Political activism / Political engagement