Pages

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

2021 #AtoZChallenge X is for ... Xinran

I've been researching my family history for over thirty years. Along this genealogy journey I have been supported by hundreds of books, many of which I have listed on my Librarything page. 

During the 2021 #AtoZChallenge I will be writing about two of my passions, books and family history. I'll be taking a trip down memory lane and revisiting some of those books that have enriched my genealogy experience.


Xinran is a British-Chinese author and journalist who has been resident in the UK since 1997. I read her best-selling book, The Good Women of China, not long after it was published in 2002. 

My memory of the book is rather foggy but I remember that it made an impression on me. I turned to an entry in  Wikipedia to refresh my memory:

 "The Good Women of China is primarily composed of interviews Xinran conducted during her time as a radio broadcaster in China in the 1980s. However, she also details some of her own experiences as a woman in China. The interviews usually focus on the embedded cultural perceptions in China about women's rights, roles, and suffering. Many of these interviews were drawn from the call-in portion of Xinran' widely popular radio program, Words on the Night Breeze. She also interviewed other women, whom she sought out for their experiences as Chinese women or opinions about the status of Chinese women."

Although this work didn't impact on my personal geneajourney it gave me an insight into another culture and the plights and successes of women in that culture. When reading about family history it is important that we don't restrict our reading to our own culture, we need to broaden our horizons and enrich our understandings  by reading accounts of life in other cultures. 

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on coming up with such an original post for the tricky letter X. I had never heard of the author but I can see why her book, made such an impact on you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sue, I was rather chuffed when I found this in my Librarything list.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So agree on reading about other cultures. This is particularly important in settler colonial countries like mine and yours with their multicultural makeup -- both indigenous and immigrant. https://mollyscanopy.com/2021/04/x-bedroom-i-have-to-move-atozchallenge/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent tip to read about other cultures.
    I love letter X posts! Always such variety.
    It's hard to believe the blogging challenge is almost over for 2021. Then the after survey, reflections, and the road trip sign-up.
    Plus, I'm taking part in the Bout of Books read-a-thon in May. So much excitement!
    J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear what you have to say so I encourage you to say G'day in comments on my posts.

Sorry I have turned word verification on but I am just getting too much spam to allow comments without this feature.