While the West has commonly viewed the last one hundred years in China through the single narrative lens of Mao's rise and rule, the experience for the Chinese themselves has been infinitely more complex. Xinran, a national celebrity and beloved figure in China who hosted a hugely popular radio show in the 1990s, traveled across China in 2005 and 2006 to gather interviews that form the true narrative of the times.
She sought out the nation's grandparents and great-grandparents, the men and women who have experienced change in the modern era firsthand, in cities and remote villages, interviewing them for the first, and perhaps the last, time.
Though many of them continue to harbor a fear of repercussions for speaking freely, they did speak with Xinran with stunning candor about their hopes, fears, and struggles, from the Long March to land reform, from Mao to marriage, from revolution to Westernization.
China Witness gives us the essence of modern China – a portrait intimate, nuanced, and revelatory.
Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958 and moved to London, where she still lives, in 1007. She is the author of The Good Woman of China and Sky Burial.
Bio
Xinran Xue
Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958. She suffered a very difficult childhood during the Cultural Revolution and took the name Xinran later - which means "doing something with pleasure". From 1989 to 1997, she worked as a radio-presenter and journalist, hosting the programme 'Words on the Night Breeze', in which she invited women to call in and share their life stories. Not only did Xinran talk to these women on the radio, she went and met them.
Xinran accumulated material from the thousands of women she interviewed. In 1997, she travelled to the U.K., where she now lives, in London. It was here, for the first time that Xinran was able to write these stories down. In July 2002, they appeared in Britain in the form of a book: The Good Women of China, which has now been published all over the world in more than 30 languages and became an international bestseller.
Sky Burial, her second book, was published in 2004. This is the compelling story of a Chinese woman, Shu Wen, whose husband, only a few months after their marriage in the 1950s, joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet for the purpose of unification of the two cultures.
A collection of Xinran's Guardian columns from 2003 to 2005: 'What the Chinese don't Eat' was published in 2006. It covers a vast range of topics from food to sex education, and from the experiences of British mothers who have adopted Chinese daughters, to whether Chinese people do Christmas shopping or have swimming pools.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Country, eastern Asia. Area: 3,696,100 sq mi (9,572,900 sq km). Population (2009 est.): 1,331,433,000. Capital: Beijing. It is the world's most populous country, the Han (ethnic Chinese) forming more than nine-tenths of the population. Languages: dialects of Han Chinese, Mandarin being the most important. Religions: traditional beliefs, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Daoism (all legally sanctioned). Currency: renminbi (of which the unit is the yuan). China has several topographic regions. The southwestern area contains the Plateau of Tibet, which averages more than 13,000 ft (4,000 m) above sea level; its core area, averaging more than 16,000 ft (5,000 m) in elevation, is called “the Roof of the World” and provides the headwaters for many of Asia's major rivers. Higher yet are the border ranges, the Kunlun Mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south. China's northwestern region stretches from Afghanistan to the Northeast (Manchurian) Plain. The Tien Shan (“Celestial Mountains”) separate China's two major interior basins, the Tarim Basin (containing the Takla Makan Desert) and the Junggar Basin. The Mongolian Plateau contains the southernmost part of the Gobi Desert. The lowlands of the eastern region include the Sichuan Basin, which runs along the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang); the Yangtze divides the eastern region into northern and southern parts. The Tarim is the major river in the northwest. China's numerous other rivers include the Huang He (Yellow River), Xi, Sungari (Songhua), Zhu (Pearl), and Lancang, which becomes the Mekong in Southeast Asia. The country is a single-party people's republic with one legislative house. The head of state is the president, and the head of government is the premier.
I was really moved by the love filled in xinran's speech, and especially the part about what actually built up China, and the part of the Tibetan story..."only light can drive away darkness, but what is light? Where does it come from?" this is a very good question for us in life
member. 
) I've met Xinran, she's a wonderful lady.
