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Born in China in 1958, Xinran suffered a very difficult childhood during the Cultural Revolution. She became a journalist in the late 80s, when the Chinese radio was looking for educated people to run broadcasting. She is very well known in China, where her radio phone-in programme became an institution.
One morning, Xinran Xue, the presenter and producer of a women's radio programme in Communist China, received a letter reading: 'I'm sorry, I can't go on living. You shouldn't have saved me.... Remembering is too painful. I'm leaving.' The letter was written by a 16-year-old girl to her parents. She had been raped by soldiers and left in a ditch. Later she killed herself in hospital and her father died of a heart attack from the shock. This is just one of many stories and letters sent to Xinran for her radio show, 'Words on a Night Breeze', which she had set up to help the abused girls and women of China. The show was instantly and enormously popular; Xinran had many followers among the women of China. However, even though she was aware of the suffering caused by the oppressive regime, she was unprepared for what she heard and read. This book is an account of her experiences. For many of the women who contacted her, the programme was a lifeline - their only opportunity to communicate with someone who understood their problems. Women were unable to speak freely about their feelings - or indeed to express themselves at all - as they had for so long been dominated by their fathers, husbands and sons, who punished them when they 'transgressed'. This misogyny was reinforced by a tyrannical government that regarded women as people of no importance. Despite the horrors of their lives, the love, compassion and fighting spirit of the women shine through. This is an unforgettable book with many distressing stories and some heartwarming ones. Xinran risked censure, even prison, for telling their stories. They changed her view of China and now they will change ours. (Kirkus UK)
