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Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order
A sweeping yet intimate portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society
While serving as the deputy Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times , Chinese-British journalist Yuan Yang began to notice common threads in the lives of her Chinese peers—women born during China’s turn toward capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s, who, despite the country's enormous economic gains during their lifetimes, were coming up against deeply entrenched barriers as they sought to achieve financial stability.
The product of seven years of intimate, in-depth reporting, this transporting and indelible book traces the journey of four such women as they try to make better lives for themselves and their families in the new Chinese economy. June and Siyue are among the few in their villages to graduate high school. Each makes her way to Beijing, June as a young professional and Siyue an entrepreneur. Like Siyue, Leiya lives with her grandparents in their village while her parents send money home; yearning for a different life than those of the women she sees around her, Leiya soon joins her parents in Shenzhen as an underage factory worker. Born to an urban middle-class family, Sam is outraged when her eyes are opened the poor treatment of workers, and becomes a labor activist, increasingly under threat by the authorities.
As the women grapple with government policies that threaten their businesses, their children's access to education, their choice of where to make a home, and, in Sam’s case, their lives, a vivid, damning, and urgent picture emerges of the previously unseen human cost of China’s rising economic tide—and the courage and perseverance of those caught in the swell.
9 hrs. 9 min.
While serving as the deputy Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times , Chinese-British journalist Yuan Yang began to notice common threads in the lives of her Chinese peers—women born during China’s turn toward capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s, who, despite the country's enormous economic gains during their lifetimes, were coming up against deeply entrenched barriers as they sought to achieve financial stability.
The product of seven years of intimate, in-depth reporting, this transporting and indelible book traces the journey of four such women as they try to make better lives for themselves and their families in the new Chinese economy. June and Siyue are among the few in their villages to graduate high school. Each makes her way to Beijing, June as a young professional and Siyue an entrepreneur. Like Siyue, Leiya lives with her grandparents in their village while her parents send money home; yearning for a different life than those of the women she sees around her, Leiya soon joins her parents in Shenzhen as an underage factory worker. Born to an urban middle-class family, Sam is outraged when her eyes are opened the poor treatment of workers, and becomes a labor activist, increasingly under threat by the authorities.
As the women grapple with government policies that threaten their businesses, their children's access to education, their choice of where to make a home, and, in Sam’s case, their lives, a vivid, damning, and urgent picture emerges of the previously unseen human cost of China’s rising economic tide—and the courage and perseverance of those caught in the swell.
9 hrs. 9 min.
10 pages, Audiobook
First published July 2, 2024
213 people are currently reading
8085 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
June 9, 2024
This is one of the most accessible books I've read about China - or rather its female inhabitants. Yuan Yang takes the lives of four disparate women and tells their extraordinary stories.
Along the way, we learn about life for rural Chinese and the vast difference there is between the way these women want to conduct their lives from that of their parents' generation.
What struck me about each of them was their desire to get what they wanted no matter what it took - including 19-hour days or setting up their own NGOs or collectives. It seemed that nothing could hold these extraordinary women back.
Another part of what I found fascinating is the day to day experiences of ordinary Chinese. The hukou system defines what benefits you get depending on where you live. Moreover if you move you need to build up your hukou by extra study, wealth, working more hours. Or the left at home children whose parents would go to the city where they could earn more, leaving the children with grandparents or even home alone if they were able to care for themselves. It sounds utterly alien to me being brought up in the UK but it works in rural China - that's not to say the women in this story wanted that for their own children -- but the story is fascinating all the same.
What truly struck me about these women was their confidence and ability to alter plans when things turned against them. They were all incredibly adaptable in a way that left me in awe.
I'd put this book in the category of "You Don't Know You're Born". Wonderful book. Absolutely mesmerising.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance review copy.
Along the way, we learn about life for rural Chinese and the vast difference there is between the way these women want to conduct their lives from that of their parents' generation.
What struck me about each of them was their desire to get what they wanted no matter what it took - including 19-hour days or setting up their own NGOs or collectives. It seemed that nothing could hold these extraordinary women back.
Another part of what I found fascinating is the day to day experiences of ordinary Chinese. The hukou system defines what benefits you get depending on where you live. Moreover if you move you need to build up your hukou by extra study, wealth, working more hours. Or the left at home children whose parents would go to the city where they could earn more, leaving the children with grandparents or even home alone if they were able to care for themselves. It sounds utterly alien to me being brought up in the UK but it works in rural China - that's not to say the women in this story wanted that for their own children -- but the story is fascinating all the same.
What truly struck me about these women was their confidence and ability to alter plans when things turned against them. They were all incredibly adaptable in a way that left me in awe.
I'd put this book in the category of "You Don't Know You're Born". Wonderful book. Absolutely mesmerising.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance review copy.
December 22, 2024
An honest and holistic portrayal of life in modern China, which is hard to find in the media these days. It was a little hard to keep track of who was who at times, but overall the book is very well written and emotionally engaging. 4 stars.
October 18, 2025
Lovely to see this on my @Shelterbox reading list.
I so enjoyed reading it again and watching the zoom discussion and Q & A session with the writer herself.
An astonishing, painstaking and often painful to read work, it is about the lives of four modern individual Chinese women set against the wider and almost inconceivably vast population of hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of years of tradition.
Written by a Chinese-British journalist, Yuan Yang traces the lives of these young women during the economic boom of the 1980s when opportunities opened up, but demanded a move from rural poverty to the more affluent cities.
But my goodness, are there hurdles to overcome. So many traditional rules and regulations about residency and consequent entitlement or limitation, traditionally, exhaustingly long hours toiling in factories or on the land, missed opportunities and family pressures. But in their own, and very different way, these four do overcome these hurdles, stumbling maybe, but overall, successfully. And the lives they build for themselves are testament to courage, determination and initiative.
This is an important book, which I will never forget.
Bravo Yuan Yang and thank you #NetGalley and #Bloomsburypublishing plc (UK and ANZ) for my pre-release download.
I so enjoyed reading it again and watching the zoom discussion and Q & A session with the writer herself.
An astonishing, painstaking and often painful to read work, it is about the lives of four modern individual Chinese women set against the wider and almost inconceivably vast population of hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of years of tradition.
Written by a Chinese-British journalist, Yuan Yang traces the lives of these young women during the economic boom of the 1980s when opportunities opened up, but demanded a move from rural poverty to the more affluent cities.
But my goodness, are there hurdles to overcome. So many traditional rules and regulations about residency and consequent entitlement or limitation, traditionally, exhaustingly long hours toiling in factories or on the land, missed opportunities and family pressures. But in their own, and very different way, these four do overcome these hurdles, stumbling maybe, but overall, successfully. And the lives they build for themselves are testament to courage, determination and initiative.
This is an important book, which I will never forget.
Bravo Yuan Yang and thank you #NetGalley and #Bloomsburypublishing plc (UK and ANZ) for my pre-release download.
August 28, 2024
4.5 ⭐ but would have prob given it 5 ⭐ if I hadn't read Alec Ash's Wish Lanterns just before reading this. Would be the (new) first book I recommend to people travelling to China as necessary pre-reading.
Pretty surreal to have just finished reading the Epipgue, where Yuan Yang talks about visiting her childhood home and grandma along Emei River, as my gf and I are sitting at Leshan station waiting to go to the base of Emei mountain to do a 2-day hike to the summit. And now, finishing off the review sitting on the bus back to the base after completing the hike that's completely destroyed our bodies (close to 60k steps and LOTS of stairs, sidenote, if anyone wants to do the hike let me know).
Private Revolutions reads almost identical to Alec Ash's Wish Lanterns, with near identical subject matter, in tracking the lives of Chinese millennials born in the post-reform era until now. It also jumps between characters stories in a similar way Ash's does - I got lazy and didn't take notes, so I found it hard to remember what events happened to each character. Had I read this book before I read Wish Lanterns I would have enjoyed it a lot more as there was overlap between the two; the assortment of characters in each book (being, presumably, all Han from relatively similar socioeconomic backgrounds) covered the same main issues e.g. hukou, gaokao. I was also captured by Ash's work more, which could partially be due to it's novelty when I read it (being the first book I read following Han-Chinese millennials). Wish Lanterns was published before Private Revolutions as well. But also, I felt Wish Lanterns had more quirky infobites about Chinese society that drew me in and kept me more engaged than Yang has with Private Revolutions.
Nevertheless, it was a great read and I learned a lot about China especially over the last 10 years with such rapid development and post-COVID changes. Has really helped me contextualise and understand things I observe and people I have met so far during my stay in China. For example, a few days ago, we arrived at Yibin - a smaller city in Sichuan with 800,000 metro inhabitants. While on the high-speed rail in to the city, I read about Chinese property development in the context of June's attempted purchase of an Evergrande flat (Evergrande being the country's largest private property developer). Just after learning about multi-storey property developments that house a fraction of the amount of people they were designed to, stalling construction projects and the massive debt that Evergrande had accumulated (300 bn USD, presumably), we walk out of the train to see a massive Greenland office, another Chinese property developer. Close to the station, there were many skyscrapers that appear to have very few residents (also observed the same close to Changning station). We've also seen, throughout our travels, the large shopping malls in smaller towns and fringe suburb of cities, running inside just to use the bathroom but finding no one really inside. Again, this matches what I've read.
Here's a list of some of the more interesting things I've learned (writing this for myself bc it's long):
• In 2001, China entered WTO and foreign investors set up factories in Pearl River Delta to manufacture cheaply. Young rural migrants worked in these factories bc they were paid more than farming, but was v tough e.g. 15yo Leila worked 8am-2am putting together gift boxes @ Rmb600 monthly, 3x avg farmer pay;
• early 2000s, 50 rmb for fake ID (working underage);
• Uni education consultancies charge 2k-10k yuan to assist students craft the most strategic uni preference list;
• 1 child policy: doctors used to routinely insert IUDs into women that had just given birth to their first child (book says nothing about whether it was consensual). Rural women sometimes were forced to have abortions if they exceeded birth quota;
• Shenzehn school curriculum was much lighter on Mao's revolution and much heavier than Deng's reforms on schools elsewhere (Shenzehn is one of China's most important SEZs);
• companies would formally register unions themselves if workers started mobilising, preventing the workers themselves from registering. Registration process was complicated legally, so it was easy for companies to do this as workers would have difficulty registering by themselves. This would mean company management would remain in control of the union and ensure certain issues were not raised/addressed (and, therefore, such issues could not be escalated to government body arbitration);
• In 2018, China top Uni's started banning their student Marxist societies (e.g. Pekin Uni replaced Marxist society leaders with loyal party members so discourse shifted to "Xi Jinping Thought");
• In 2021, CCP launched "double reduction policy", a complete ban on for-profit tutoring in core academic subjects for children in compulsory education. China's $120bn private tutoring industry collapsed within a few days (e.g. company June worked at, valued at $38bn, collapsed to less than $1bn). Left millions jobless (approx 10 mil worked in sector, many young graduates);
• Didi: Some driver's have 19hr workdays. Driver WeChat groups exchange tips about where to find most passengers and where traffic police will pull over drivers without local hukou. Start day early (i.e. 5am) to catch cheaper electric charging rates (for EVs) and gather intel for days driving. Drivers are chained to Didi's points system, platform priotised sending passengers to drivers with highest points;
• Zhongkao: high-school entrance exam separating students into 2 educational pathways (academic and vocational). Students without hukou corresponding to locality of the school they're applying to may be docked up to 100 zhongkao points (1/5 of total points available);
Other things I learned (less interesting than list above for me):
• first semiconductor materials factory in China built on foothills of Mount Emei (1964);
• parents employed by a danwei (communist work unit) would ordinarily go to schools run by the danwei, usually better than rural schools;
• due to privatisation of old state owned enterprises from 1993 - 2003, 50 million workers were laid off;
• easier for author's parents to become UK citizens in a decade than the author's friend's parents changing their rural hukou (the householdtion dividing China into geographical classes);
• easier to register orgs as companies rather than NGOs as NGO registration requires government agency backing;
• in early 2010s, some cities relaxed hukou requirements to admit some migrant children through adapting points based system. Points accumulated by parents' educational achievements and model citizen behaviour (e.g. CCP award of excellence, blood donations). Points lost for untrustworthy behaviour (e.g. selling poor quality goods or owing money). Parents also needed records documenting legal residence and social insurance payments;
• Chinese unis have a quota for local students with local hukou;
• early 2010s, Bo Xilai (Chongqing (CKG) governor) pushed for more socialist reforms e.g. public infrastructure investment, tax on private luxury homes, relax hukou for rural workers moving into CKG (RR note: is that why CKG metro area has so many ppl?);
• June had to run 2 miles every day as part of Uni physical education requirement, tracked on phone (RR sidenote, Chinese maps app (AMap) tells you how many calories you burn while walking from location X to Y);
• 2020s online education booming with young uni graduates employable as teachers, high-speed internet coverage available everywhere, school CV19 lockdowns;
• needed birth permit to give birth in state hospital. Leila gave birth to child without one via barefoot doc.
• example of shipyard (revolution vs post-reform): workers were all shareholders and decisions made by workers themselves in accordance with skill/experience. Post-reform, management became sole owners, bought out workers shares at low prices without consent of workers and many workers were laid off;
• oversubscribed primary schools demand list of accomplishments of child's accomplishments over first 6 yrs of their lives, parents would make stuff up;
• in mid-2010s, govt figures suggested 13 mil ppl did not have hukous, with 8 mil being children outside parents' birth quotas;
• during 2010s and prior to digitisation, very easy to forge docs (e.g. birth certificates, ID cards, graduation certificates);
• towards end of 2013, factories left Pearl River Delta for cheaper regions (incl SE Asia);
• In 2017, China passed the Foreign NGO Law, restricting the operations of foreign NGOs in China and their ability to fund local projects;
• smaller towns demolishing villages to force urbanisation and to boost local govt revenue.
Pretty surreal to have just finished reading the Epipgue, where Yuan Yang talks about visiting her childhood home and grandma along Emei River, as my gf and I are sitting at Leshan station waiting to go to the base of Emei mountain to do a 2-day hike to the summit. And now, finishing off the review sitting on the bus back to the base after completing the hike that's completely destroyed our bodies (close to 60k steps and LOTS of stairs, sidenote, if anyone wants to do the hike let me know).
Private Revolutions reads almost identical to Alec Ash's Wish Lanterns, with near identical subject matter, in tracking the lives of Chinese millennials born in the post-reform era until now. It also jumps between characters stories in a similar way Ash's does - I got lazy and didn't take notes, so I found it hard to remember what events happened to each character. Had I read this book before I read Wish Lanterns I would have enjoyed it a lot more as there was overlap between the two; the assortment of characters in each book (being, presumably, all Han from relatively similar socioeconomic backgrounds) covered the same main issues e.g. hukou, gaokao. I was also captured by Ash's work more, which could partially be due to it's novelty when I read it (being the first book I read following Han-Chinese millennials). Wish Lanterns was published before Private Revolutions as well. But also, I felt Wish Lanterns had more quirky infobites about Chinese society that drew me in and kept me more engaged than Yang has with Private Revolutions.
Nevertheless, it was a great read and I learned a lot about China especially over the last 10 years with such rapid development and post-COVID changes. Has really helped me contextualise and understand things I observe and people I have met so far during my stay in China. For example, a few days ago, we arrived at Yibin - a smaller city in Sichuan with 800,000 metro inhabitants. While on the high-speed rail in to the city, I read about Chinese property development in the context of June's attempted purchase of an Evergrande flat (Evergrande being the country's largest private property developer). Just after learning about multi-storey property developments that house a fraction of the amount of people they were designed to, stalling construction projects and the massive debt that Evergrande had accumulated (300 bn USD, presumably), we walk out of the train to see a massive Greenland office, another Chinese property developer. Close to the station, there were many skyscrapers that appear to have very few residents (also observed the same close to Changning station). We've also seen, throughout our travels, the large shopping malls in smaller towns and fringe suburb of cities, running inside just to use the bathroom but finding no one really inside. Again, this matches what I've read.
Here's a list of some of the more interesting things I've learned (writing this for myself bc it's long):
• In 2001, China entered WTO and foreign investors set up factories in Pearl River Delta to manufacture cheaply. Young rural migrants worked in these factories bc they were paid more than farming, but was v tough e.g. 15yo Leila worked 8am-2am putting together gift boxes @ Rmb600 monthly, 3x avg farmer pay;
• early 2000s, 50 rmb for fake ID (working underage);
• Uni education consultancies charge 2k-10k yuan to assist students craft the most strategic uni preference list;
• 1 child policy: doctors used to routinely insert IUDs into women that had just given birth to their first child (book says nothing about whether it was consensual). Rural women sometimes were forced to have abortions if they exceeded birth quota;
• Shenzehn school curriculum was much lighter on Mao's revolution and much heavier than Deng's reforms on schools elsewhere (Shenzehn is one of China's most important SEZs);
• companies would formally register unions themselves if workers started mobilising, preventing the workers themselves from registering. Registration process was complicated legally, so it was easy for companies to do this as workers would have difficulty registering by themselves. This would mean company management would remain in control of the union and ensure certain issues were not raised/addressed (and, therefore, such issues could not be escalated to government body arbitration);
• In 2018, China top Uni's started banning their student Marxist societies (e.g. Pekin Uni replaced Marxist society leaders with loyal party members so discourse shifted to "Xi Jinping Thought");
• In 2021, CCP launched "double reduction policy", a complete ban on for-profit tutoring in core academic subjects for children in compulsory education. China's $120bn private tutoring industry collapsed within a few days (e.g. company June worked at, valued at $38bn, collapsed to less than $1bn). Left millions jobless (approx 10 mil worked in sector, many young graduates);
• Didi: Some driver's have 19hr workdays. Driver WeChat groups exchange tips about where to find most passengers and where traffic police will pull over drivers without local hukou. Start day early (i.e. 5am) to catch cheaper electric charging rates (for EVs) and gather intel for days driving. Drivers are chained to Didi's points system, platform priotised sending passengers to drivers with highest points;
• Zhongkao: high-school entrance exam separating students into 2 educational pathways (academic and vocational). Students without hukou corresponding to locality of the school they're applying to may be docked up to 100 zhongkao points (1/5 of total points available);
Other things I learned (less interesting than list above for me):
• first semiconductor materials factory in China built on foothills of Mount Emei (1964);
• parents employed by a danwei (communist work unit) would ordinarily go to schools run by the danwei, usually better than rural schools;
• due to privatisation of old state owned enterprises from 1993 - 2003, 50 million workers were laid off;
• easier for author's parents to become UK citizens in a decade than the author's friend's parents changing their rural hukou (the householdtion dividing China into geographical classes);
• easier to register orgs as companies rather than NGOs as NGO registration requires government agency backing;
• in early 2010s, some cities relaxed hukou requirements to admit some migrant children through adapting points based system. Points accumulated by parents' educational achievements and model citizen behaviour (e.g. CCP award of excellence, blood donations). Points lost for untrustworthy behaviour (e.g. selling poor quality goods or owing money). Parents also needed records documenting legal residence and social insurance payments;
• Chinese unis have a quota for local students with local hukou;
• early 2010s, Bo Xilai (Chongqing (CKG) governor) pushed for more socialist reforms e.g. public infrastructure investment, tax on private luxury homes, relax hukou for rural workers moving into CKG (RR note: is that why CKG metro area has so many ppl?);
• June had to run 2 miles every day as part of Uni physical education requirement, tracked on phone (RR sidenote, Chinese maps app (AMap) tells you how many calories you burn while walking from location X to Y);
• 2020s online education booming with young uni graduates employable as teachers, high-speed internet coverage available everywhere, school CV19 lockdowns;
• needed birth permit to give birth in state hospital. Leila gave birth to child without one via barefoot doc.
• example of shipyard (revolution vs post-reform): workers were all shareholders and decisions made by workers themselves in accordance with skill/experience. Post-reform, management became sole owners, bought out workers shares at low prices without consent of workers and many workers were laid off;
• oversubscribed primary schools demand list of accomplishments of child's accomplishments over first 6 yrs of their lives, parents would make stuff up;
• in mid-2010s, govt figures suggested 13 mil ppl did not have hukous, with 8 mil being children outside parents' birth quotas;
• during 2010s and prior to digitisation, very easy to forge docs (e.g. birth certificates, ID cards, graduation certificates);
• towards end of 2013, factories left Pearl River Delta for cheaper regions (incl SE Asia);
• In 2017, China passed the Foreign NGO Law, restricting the operations of foreign NGOs in China and their ability to fund local projects;
• smaller towns demolishing villages to force urbanisation and to boost local govt revenue.
May 5, 2024
I don’t tend to read a lot of nonfiction, but it’s books like this that make me want to read more. Yuan Yang’s fascinating portrayal of the lives of four different women coming of age in modern-day China delivers a personal, human insight into a country and culture deeply affected by tensions between tradition and reform, the ever-widening gap between wealth and poverty, and the challenges faced by a population seeking financial and personal security in the midst of a rapidly changing economic and political climate.
This is narrative nonfiction at its finest; Yang’s masterful storytelling seamlessly weaves together the lives of these four ordinary yet unforgettable women against the backdrop of wider social and cultural change, and in doing so provides a powerful glimpse into recent history from a deeply personal perspective. I couldn’t put this book down, and I know it’s one that will stay with me for a long while.
Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for the advance reading copy.
This is narrative nonfiction at its finest; Yang’s masterful storytelling seamlessly weaves together the lives of these four ordinary yet unforgettable women against the backdrop of wider social and cultural change, and in doing so provides a powerful glimpse into recent history from a deeply personal perspective. I couldn’t put this book down, and I know it’s one that will stay with me for a long while.
Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for the advance reading copy.
February 11, 2025
In the last three decades of Chinese transformation the glass ceiling for women was pushed further and further up. Provided one was healthy, determined and willing to work 007, climbing a social ladder has been possible.
Yuan Yang in her extremely readable book “Private Revolutions. Coming of Age in a New China” describes private revolutions of four strong women born in the last two decades of the 20th century who successfully navigated the maze of the capitalist market economy of China of the 21st century. Leiya, June and Siyue, all born in rural villages dreamt big and reinvented their fate, getting education, working hard and proving to themselves and others that their ambitions could not be mocked. Sam, the only one born to urban middle-class parents, became a Marxist activist.
Yang’s protagonists’ stories are centred around the factory work, private education and tutoring sector, social and labour activism and the communities that women create in Shenzen, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. Even though I knew a lot about the reality described from other books, I still learned about certain aspects of living, working and raising children in 21st century China. This page-turner is a book for those who already have knowledge about contemporary China as well as for those who know little about it. I was often genuinely moved by these young women’s drive and willingness to grab every opportunity, taking risks whenever it was necessary. Life has been very hard for all of them, yet they never gave up but overcame every obstacle. I felt these women’s resilience rubbed on me and I started to see my life in a new light. Reading “Private Revolutions” really helped me last week.
Leiya, Siyue, Sam and June are still young, life will still overwhelm them at times but I have faith in them. I wish my Chinese students also read this book and gained strength and wisdom from it.
Yuan Yang in her extremely readable book “Private Revolutions. Coming of Age in a New China” describes private revolutions of four strong women born in the last two decades of the 20th century who successfully navigated the maze of the capitalist market economy of China of the 21st century. Leiya, June and Siyue, all born in rural villages dreamt big and reinvented their fate, getting education, working hard and proving to themselves and others that their ambitions could not be mocked. Sam, the only one born to urban middle-class parents, became a Marxist activist.
Yang’s protagonists’ stories are centred around the factory work, private education and tutoring sector, social and labour activism and the communities that women create in Shenzen, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. Even though I knew a lot about the reality described from other books, I still learned about certain aspects of living, working and raising children in 21st century China. This page-turner is a book for those who already have knowledge about contemporary China as well as for those who know little about it. I was often genuinely moved by these young women’s drive and willingness to grab every opportunity, taking risks whenever it was necessary. Life has been very hard for all of them, yet they never gave up but overcame every obstacle. I felt these women’s resilience rubbed on me and I started to see my life in a new light. Reading “Private Revolutions” really helped me last week.
Leiya, Siyue, Sam and June are still young, life will still overwhelm them at times but I have faith in them. I wish my Chinese students also read this book and gained strength and wisdom from it.
December 26, 2024
A readable book tracing the lives of four Chinese women today. Look, this is fine, but to me it stands out neither as a journalistic book about modern China (books I would recommend first: Little Soldiers, Factory Girls, Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden, or anything by Peter Hessler) nor as a group biography of several contemporary people whose lives are variations on a theme (favorites in this style: Soldier Girls, Strangers to Ourselves, several of the China books listed above). The one thing it does have over all those other books is that China is changing fast and this book covers its subjects’ lives through 2023, introducing the reader to some contemporary Chinese women rather than being stuck in the world of 20 years ago.
I was engaged enough with the stories to read the book fast, and they do illuminate different aspects of life and different experiences. However, the selection didn’t quite gel for me: the women seem too similar to each other to be representative of China as a whole, but too different to describe the book more specifically than that. Three were raised in the countryside before moving to the city; one was not. Three are well-educated and financially well-off; one is not. Three have a social conscience; one does not. They aren’t quite members of the same generation: there seems to be an age gap of 20 years or so between the oldest and youngest, leaving the book jumping around in time between chapters.
My biggest issue, though, is just that this book doesn’t dig deep in its observations or analysis, so I didn’t find myself stopping to reflect, or feeling I knew these women and getting emotionally invested in their lives. (I did like Siyue and Leiya better than June and Sam, just because they seemed more admirable. This is perhaps a bit harsh on Sam and maybe the way Yang writes about her is to blame, but she struck me as someone who makes activism their identity but nopes out when the going gets tough, without actually accomplishing anything. Leiya on the other hand forms nonprofits to help working-class women in her community, to the detriment of her own finances, and Siyue makes good money while providing what sounds like holistic, outside-the-box education. June makes no pretense of doing anything beyond making money, though the obstacles she has overcome in life would probably make me admire her anyway if her story had come to life as more than just facts on a page.) Overall, a fine way to learn a bit about China, especially if you don’t know much, but I’d have liked it better had it done more than skim the surface.
I was engaged enough with the stories to read the book fast, and they do illuminate different aspects of life and different experiences. However, the selection didn’t quite gel for me: the women seem too similar to each other to be representative of China as a whole, but too different to describe the book more specifically than that. Three were raised in the countryside before moving to the city; one was not. Three are well-educated and financially well-off; one is not. Three have a social conscience; one does not. They aren’t quite members of the same generation: there seems to be an age gap of 20 years or so between the oldest and youngest, leaving the book jumping around in time between chapters.
My biggest issue, though, is just that this book doesn’t dig deep in its observations or analysis, so I didn’t find myself stopping to reflect, or feeling I knew these women and getting emotionally invested in their lives. (I did like Siyue and Leiya better than June and Sam, just because they seemed more admirable. This is perhaps a bit harsh on Sam and maybe the way Yang writes about her is to blame, but she struck me as someone who makes activism their identity but nopes out when the going gets tough, without actually accomplishing anything. Leiya on the other hand forms nonprofits to help working-class women in her community, to the detriment of her own finances, and Siyue makes good money while providing what sounds like holistic, outside-the-box education. June makes no pretense of doing anything beyond making money, though the obstacles she has overcome in life would probably make me admire her anyway if her story had come to life as more than just facts on a page.) Overall, a fine way to learn a bit about China, especially if you don’t know much, but I’d have liked it better had it done more than skim the surface.
February 20, 2025
I know this is unpopular but I was just at bored with this book. My first DNF from the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist. I found it difficult to distinguish between the four women with the way the book separated their stories. The writing style wasn't anything particularly special and I felt it was quite dry. It seemed to be a regurgitation of interviews the author had held with the women without much writing prowess added to engage the reader through a clear angle, expressive prose or edgy reportage. Nothing to hold my interest - DNFd at p100.
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August 4, 2025Shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize, Nonfiction
this was tough to finish, not because of subject matter or etc, but because the writing style was very dry & absolutely not engaging… couldn’t hear much difference in the four women, but also think that is due to flaws by the writer / layout / editing of their interviews… least favorite so far & disappointed that it took a spot on the shortlist, with other excellent books not making the cut! but so it goes!
rankings (shortlisted books numbered)
2025 Women’s Prize—Nonfiction
* Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
* By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice by Rebecca Nagle
1. Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle by Rachel Clarke
2. What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen Scales
3. A Thousand Threads: A Memoir by Neneh Cherry
4. Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley
5. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
* Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum
* Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men by Harriet Wistrich
* Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
* Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
* The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
6. Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang
[14/16 read, & calling it; saving two in our library for later: Tracker by Alexis Wright & Ootlin by Jenni Fagan]
this was tough to finish, not because of subject matter or etc, but because the writing style was very dry & absolutely not engaging… couldn’t hear much difference in the four women, but also think that is due to flaws by the writer / layout / editing of their interviews… least favorite so far & disappointed that it took a spot on the shortlist, with other excellent books not making the cut! but so it goes!
rankings (shortlisted books numbered)
2025 Women’s Prize—Nonfiction
* Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
* By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice by Rebecca Nagle
1. Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle by Rachel Clarke
2. What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen Scales
3. A Thousand Threads: A Memoir by Neneh Cherry
4. Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley
5. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
* Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum
* Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men by Harriet Wistrich
* Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
* Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
* The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
6. Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang
[14/16 read, & calling it; saving two in our library for later: Tracker by Alexis Wright & Ootlin by Jenni Fagan]
January 25, 2025
Too close to a novel to survive such bad writing. Bellow standard journalistic prose, mind-numbingly dull.
The actual stories were also surprisingly uninteresting. I don’t think that anyone with a reasonable grasp of China’s recent history will have their perspectives enriched by learning about these women’s lives – which is a feat.
Yang didn’t have a book project. She just bundled together some close-to-random women and then stringed up some flat, unexamined plots from seemingly superficial interviews.
The actual stories were also surprisingly uninteresting. I don’t think that anyone with a reasonable grasp of China’s recent history will have their perspectives enriched by learning about these women’s lives – which is a feat.
Yang didn’t have a book project. She just bundled together some close-to-random women and then stringed up some flat, unexamined plots from seemingly superficial interviews.
August 21, 2025
Expected this to read a little more like a novel but still really enjoyed it, super interesting and eye opening, has left me feeling guilty about all my made-in-China products and desperate to visit for my next big trip
March 19, 2025
I like Sam’s story, I’ve been called by police because I bought some traditional Chinese books about history, it really feels depress.
October 29, 2025
Lubię książki, które poszerzają moją wiedzę. Yuan Yang, poprzez życiorysy czterech kobiet urodzonych w latach 80. i 90. XX wieku, odsłoniła mi realia życia najpierw na chińskiej prowincji, później w dużym mieście. Życiorysy te, zaskakująco podobne, okazały się przejmujące i dalekie od polskiej rzeczywistości.
Siyue, June, Leiya i Sam. Dziewczęta, którym udało się coś osiągnąć, ale cena, jaką musiały zapłacić, często była bardzo wysoka. W tych życiorysach sporo punktów wspólnych. Trudne dzieciństwo na biednej wsi, z dziadkami, bo rodzice harowali w mieście, w fabrykach. Wcześniejszy początek edukacji, bo co robić w domu z małym dzieckiem? I te maluchy, niedojrzałe jeszcze, nieprzygotowane do szkoły, nie radziły sobie wśród starszych kolegów, z nauczycielami, którym brakowało empatii. Wątek edukacji jest tu rozbudowany i dla mnie najciekawszy. Przepełnione oddziały, nauczyciel, który w jednym gabinecie miał uczniów z różnych klas i jakoś musiał ten swój czas podzielić. Później ogromny rynek korepetycji, bo jakoś te dzieci do trudnych egzaminów trzeba przygotować...
Nasze bohaterki nie miały zbyt dużego wsparcia. Siyue była notorycznie krytykowana za złe stopnie, które zbierała, bo była za mała na edukację!
Kolejną kwestią, którą porusza autorka, jest polityka rodzinna Chin, a szczególnie ta dotycząca jednego dziecka w rodzinie. Jednego i to oczywiście syna, bo "rodziny bez synów się gnębi". Presja społeczna, łańcuch ciąż i aborcji, ogrom cierpienia. Co ciekawe, Chiny od tego restrykcyjnego prawa odeszły dopiero w 2015 roku i to naprawdę małym kroczkiem.
Bardzo zaskoczył mnie chiński status matki z nieślubnym dzieckiem. Na takie państwo "nie wyraża zgody", więc niedogodności naprawdę są daleko idące.
Tak jak napisałam wcześniej, naszym bohaterkom się udało. Ich działania obejmują teraz edukację, kwestie społeczne, politykę. Yuan Yang, równolatka swoich bohaterek, w ciekawy sposób opisała ich walkę o normalne, godne życie.
Wybór konkretnych kobiet sprawia, że bardziej przejmujemy się ich losami, a szerszy kontekst polityczny i społeczny daje nam naprawdę interesującą porcję wiedzy na temat współczesnych Chin.
Polecam!
Siyue, June, Leiya i Sam. Dziewczęta, którym udało się coś osiągnąć, ale cena, jaką musiały zapłacić, często była bardzo wysoka. W tych życiorysach sporo punktów wspólnych. Trudne dzieciństwo na biednej wsi, z dziadkami, bo rodzice harowali w mieście, w fabrykach. Wcześniejszy początek edukacji, bo co robić w domu z małym dzieckiem? I te maluchy, niedojrzałe jeszcze, nieprzygotowane do szkoły, nie radziły sobie wśród starszych kolegów, z nauczycielami, którym brakowało empatii. Wątek edukacji jest tu rozbudowany i dla mnie najciekawszy. Przepełnione oddziały, nauczyciel, który w jednym gabinecie miał uczniów z różnych klas i jakoś musiał ten swój czas podzielić. Później ogromny rynek korepetycji, bo jakoś te dzieci do trudnych egzaminów trzeba przygotować...
Nasze bohaterki nie miały zbyt dużego wsparcia. Siyue była notorycznie krytykowana za złe stopnie, które zbierała, bo była za mała na edukację!
Kolejną kwestią, którą porusza autorka, jest polityka rodzinna Chin, a szczególnie ta dotycząca jednego dziecka w rodzinie. Jednego i to oczywiście syna, bo "rodziny bez synów się gnębi". Presja społeczna, łańcuch ciąż i aborcji, ogrom cierpienia. Co ciekawe, Chiny od tego restrykcyjnego prawa odeszły dopiero w 2015 roku i to naprawdę małym kroczkiem.
Bardzo zaskoczył mnie chiński status matki z nieślubnym dzieckiem. Na takie państwo "nie wyraża zgody", więc niedogodności naprawdę są daleko idące.
Tak jak napisałam wcześniej, naszym bohaterkom się udało. Ich działania obejmują teraz edukację, kwestie społeczne, politykę. Yuan Yang, równolatka swoich bohaterek, w ciekawy sposób opisała ich walkę o normalne, godne życie.
Wybór konkretnych kobiet sprawia, że bardziej przejmujemy się ich losami, a szerszy kontekst polityczny i społeczny daje nam naprawdę interesującą porcję wiedzy na temat współczesnych Chin.
Polecam!
March 28, 2025
As with a lot of biographical work, I find it very difficult to rate this book, and preface this by saying the stars are for the written piece and not for the women under the spotlight, who I would not presume to judge. I was engaged with the stories and found them interesting and worth the read. I wasn't so sure about the way in which the stories were brought together and presented, though.
The author tells the stories of four women coming of age in China after Deng Xiaoping's influence and follows through to post-COVID years. All stories are extremely accessible and shown like snapshots of their experiences over different times, places, and stages of life. I recommend this book to anybody wanting an insight into women's lives in modern China, as long as we keep in mind that four women cannot be representative of the depth, breadth, and diversity of women's experiences in such a huge country.
I thought the book did a good job of raising some common challenges in the astounding rate of change, the hukou system, the rigidity of the traditional style of education, generational interactions and tensions, the growing gap between haves and have nots, the plight of migrant workers, and women's autonomy.
While stories were narrated in simple and direct language, which is great, I didn't find the writing style particularly compelling. Some descriptions were a bit much (the applying of makeup comes to mind), and I felt an odd sense of emotional detachment from the women themselves, which I found disconcerting in view of the struggles they went through to survive and thrive. I thought maybe this was for the purpose of objectivity to better support the message of the book, but there didn't seem to be much of an argument as such. The author left the reader to do the heavy lifting in drawing any links and conclusions. I didn't mind this and was happy to reflect, but it meant the book lacked punch for me.
If the aim was simply to present the women's stories and let us make of them what we will, I thought this was done a bit haphazardly, since the stories were broken up, and the women are from different places and grew up at different times, which was confusing. Especially since China is a huge country with strong regional differences and, as already mentioned, the rate of change is phenomenal.
I lived in China 2007-2011, was there for some of the events described, travelled widely across the country as a Mandarin speaker, have been up close and personal with the education system both in China and through assisting Chinese students who have come to my own country for secondary and tertiary education in the years after. All this to say that I still found the jumping around somewhat confusing, although I recognise this was probably exacerbated by listening to the audiobook.
The audiobook was pretty well done. My one gripe is that some pronunciation was a bit dodgy and threw me off. Hukou and Bo Xilai come to mind, especially considering how often the word hukou is used. The kou in hukou should not sound like cow.
To bring this looong review to an end, there is a LOT of food for thought here. I appreciate this and the sense of nostalgia Private Revolutions brought me.
The author tells the stories of four women coming of age in China after Deng Xiaoping's influence and follows through to post-COVID years. All stories are extremely accessible and shown like snapshots of their experiences over different times, places, and stages of life. I recommend this book to anybody wanting an insight into women's lives in modern China, as long as we keep in mind that four women cannot be representative of the depth, breadth, and diversity of women's experiences in such a huge country.
I thought the book did a good job of raising some common challenges in the astounding rate of change, the hukou system, the rigidity of the traditional style of education, generational interactions and tensions, the growing gap between haves and have nots, the plight of migrant workers, and women's autonomy.
While stories were narrated in simple and direct language, which is great, I didn't find the writing style particularly compelling. Some descriptions were a bit much (the applying of makeup comes to mind), and I felt an odd sense of emotional detachment from the women themselves, which I found disconcerting in view of the struggles they went through to survive and thrive. I thought maybe this was for the purpose of objectivity to better support the message of the book, but there didn't seem to be much of an argument as such. The author left the reader to do the heavy lifting in drawing any links and conclusions. I didn't mind this and was happy to reflect, but it meant the book lacked punch for me.
If the aim was simply to present the women's stories and let us make of them what we will, I thought this was done a bit haphazardly, since the stories were broken up, and the women are from different places and grew up at different times, which was confusing. Especially since China is a huge country with strong regional differences and, as already mentioned, the rate of change is phenomenal.
I lived in China 2007-2011, was there for some of the events described, travelled widely across the country as a Mandarin speaker, have been up close and personal with the education system both in China and through assisting Chinese students who have come to my own country for secondary and tertiary education in the years after. All this to say that I still found the jumping around somewhat confusing, although I recognise this was probably exacerbated by listening to the audiobook.
The audiobook was pretty well done. My one gripe is that some pronunciation was a bit dodgy and threw me off. Hukou and Bo Xilai come to mind, especially considering how often the word hukou is used. The kou in hukou should not sound like cow.
To bring this looong review to an end, there is a LOT of food for thought here. I appreciate this and the sense of nostalgia Private Revolutions brought me.
June 25, 2025
Yuan Yang’s Private Revolutions is the story (names and a few other details changed to help protect their identities) of four Chinese women, all of them born in the 1980s and beyond.
There's Siyue, who grew up in the countryside but came to the city to study. June, whose life was turned around as a result of the early inspiration of a teacher who came from a city. Leiya, dropping out of school and faking her age in order to get employed at a factory and start earning. And Sam, a city girl from Shenzhen, who drifted into work with helping labour fight for their rights.
The way Yang approaches the lives of these four strong-willed, educated, and tenacious women is to tell their stories in instalments, a few years in Siyue's life followed by a period in June's, then Leiya, then Sam, and circling back. Not always in a predictable sequence. Though it did become a bit confusing (I kept forgetting which was which, and mixed them up), in the final analysis it didn't really matter. Also, it works: it helps do away with any possible monotony, while also showing, through their varied lives, how four fairly different women in four different circumstances could end up facing similar problems, or problems brought on by similar external factors.
... And what an eye-opener this book turned out to be. While I've read (who hasn't?) at least something about the plight of the common people in China, to actually see, up close, what it means to be powerless, not-too-wealthy, and female in China today is a different ball game. The politics surrounding industrialization and commercialization. The rat-race that is education. The regressive rules around housing, primary school education, and 'where you belong'. Labour laws that exploit the worker and favour the rich. And, of course: Big Brother is watching you.
I found this book utterly engrossing. Horrifying, unsettling - but ultimately, also, in a small way, inspiring, because of the four women (and others in their circles) who are the focus of Private Revolutions. The fire in the belly, the ability to dream, the courage to reach for those dreams (against the most mind-boggling of odds) - these women have it, and I couldn't help but marvel at their gutsiness in the face of such opposition from all sides.
Highly recommended.
There's Siyue, who grew up in the countryside but came to the city to study. June, whose life was turned around as a result of the early inspiration of a teacher who came from a city. Leiya, dropping out of school and faking her age in order to get employed at a factory and start earning. And Sam, a city girl from Shenzhen, who drifted into work with helping labour fight for their rights.
The way Yang approaches the lives of these four strong-willed, educated, and tenacious women is to tell their stories in instalments, a few years in Siyue's life followed by a period in June's, then Leiya, then Sam, and circling back. Not always in a predictable sequence. Though it did become a bit confusing (I kept forgetting which was which, and mixed them up), in the final analysis it didn't really matter. Also, it works: it helps do away with any possible monotony, while also showing, through their varied lives, how four fairly different women in four different circumstances could end up facing similar problems, or problems brought on by similar external factors.
... And what an eye-opener this book turned out to be. While I've read (who hasn't?) at least something about the plight of the common people in China, to actually see, up close, what it means to be powerless, not-too-wealthy, and female in China today is a different ball game. The politics surrounding industrialization and commercialization. The rat-race that is education. The regressive rules around housing, primary school education, and 'where you belong'. Labour laws that exploit the worker and favour the rich. And, of course: Big Brother is watching you.
I found this book utterly engrossing. Horrifying, unsettling - but ultimately, also, in a small way, inspiring, because of the four women (and others in their circles) who are the focus of Private Revolutions. The fire in the belly, the ability to dream, the courage to reach for those dreams (against the most mind-boggling of odds) - these women have it, and I couldn't help but marvel at their gutsiness in the face of such opposition from all sides.
Highly recommended.
September 19, 2025
Four stories of hardship about four women from different backgrounds. The commonality in these stories is that they all went through challenges and hardship; no one lives comfortably without facing difficulties.
Siyue lives with her grandparents in the village while her parents work in the city. When they returned to the village bringing wealth and business, Siyue changed schools five times in five years due to moving. Siyue moved to the city of Shenzhen and was somewhat surprised by the culture and way of speaking there, as the dialect used was more Cantonese compared to Mandarin in the village. Schools in the city had more co-curricular activities than in the village. When she moved back to the village, she had to struggle to learn English on her own and scored top marks in the exam.
My favorite story is June’s. June lives with her father, grandmother, and her sister May after their mother died suddenly. Growing up, June was happy to see May start working, earning her own money, and dressing stylishly. June has aspirations to continue her studies despite her grandmother often telling her that women do not need ambitions. According to traditional thinking, a woman’s place is only at home, waiting to be married to a man from a good background. Her grandmother even bought a pigsie for June, wanting her to raise it instead of wasting time and energy on studying. Behind all her struggles, there was a sacrifice by a teacher named Teacher Song. Will June achieve her ambitions?
Next is the story of Leiya who wants to change her life in the city. She does not want to continue living confined in the village with limited job opportunities. Leiya did not finish her schooling; instead, she created a fake ID to get jobs from the age of 15 years to 18 years. She faced many obstacles.
Once the story of Sam begins, my reading got distracted and I couldn’t fully focus. What I understood was that Sam wants to become an activist to change the world.
Siyue lives with her grandparents in the village while her parents work in the city. When they returned to the village bringing wealth and business, Siyue changed schools five times in five years due to moving. Siyue moved to the city of Shenzhen and was somewhat surprised by the culture and way of speaking there, as the dialect used was more Cantonese compared to Mandarin in the village. Schools in the city had more co-curricular activities than in the village. When she moved back to the village, she had to struggle to learn English on her own and scored top marks in the exam.
My favorite story is June’s. June lives with her father, grandmother, and her sister May after their mother died suddenly. Growing up, June was happy to see May start working, earning her own money, and dressing stylishly. June has aspirations to continue her studies despite her grandmother often telling her that women do not need ambitions. According to traditional thinking, a woman’s place is only at home, waiting to be married to a man from a good background. Her grandmother even bought a pigsie for June, wanting her to raise it instead of wasting time and energy on studying. Behind all her struggles, there was a sacrifice by a teacher named Teacher Song. Will June achieve her ambitions?
Next is the story of Leiya who wants to change her life in the city. She does not want to continue living confined in the village with limited job opportunities. Leiya did not finish her schooling; instead, she created a fake ID to get jobs from the age of 15 years to 18 years. She faced many obstacles.
Once the story of Sam begins, my reading got distracted and I couldn’t fully focus. What I understood was that Sam wants to become an activist to change the world.
September 21, 2025
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China’s New Social Order by Yuan Yang is a fascinating and timely exploration of the courage and determination of four ambitious Chinese women — June, Sam, Siyue, and Leiya — as they navigate the shifting landscape of modern China.
The stories are compelling and deeply human, but I found the structure a bit convoluted. Each chapter jumps back and forth between the four women, which often disrupted the narrative flow. Personally, I would have preferred to read each of their journeys in full, one by one, before moving to the next.
Still, Yuan Yang’s message comes through clearly: these women embody the resilience and adaptability needed to face the unpredictability of life. In the epilogue, Yang reflects that these women demonstrate “the creative ability of humans to transform themselves and to make possible what was previously unimaginable.” That truth lingers long after the final page.
Here are the quotes and lines that stayed with me while reading:
• “Life gets worse and better for different groups in different ways.”
• “If you don’t study properly, there’s no hope.”
• “She had never known someone who loved to wander so much and who was so captivated by the ordinary beauty of the landscape.”
• “Life isn’t about fairness or unfairness. What you can do now is prepare for those good opportunities.”
• “Watchfully waiting: it feels like I’ve been doing that since I was born.”
• “I can’t make sense of time. Some things I had thought of as very recent are further and further away.”
From the section about the women’s communities and ambitions:
• “When the children are wise, so is the nation. When the children are strong, so is the nation.” — Shenzhen Children’s Library mission
• “In China’s business world, the most important thing was to satisfy your customers’ desires as quickly as possible.”
• “If you’re in a state of fear, you can’t take anything in. You have to solve the problem of fear before you solve anything else.”
• Alfred Adler’s philosophy is highlighted: children thrive under “firm, respectful parenting rather than cycles of reward and punishment that breed resentment and dependency.”
• “In Chinese, a man ‘receives’ a wife, but a woman gets ‘married out’ — like a parcel being shipped.”
Cultural notes that stood out:
• On encouraging men to cook: “You have to encourage them like children. You say, ‘My dear, this tastes great, you’ve done such a good job, it’s just missing one flavor.’”
• “There was a level of wealth that meant you could ‘lay flat’ — the Chinese slang term for opting out of the rat race and still doing well.”
• “Humans are hardwired for connection.”
• Chinese saying: “Fallen leaves return to their roots.”
• “The Buddhists of Emei Mountain are right that the only constant in life is change.”
And finally, while the pacing and structure weren’t perfect, this book gave me a deeper understanding of the personal revolutions happening behind the scenes in today’s China. It’s a testament to the quiet strength of women who refuse to let circumstances define them.
The stories are compelling and deeply human, but I found the structure a bit convoluted. Each chapter jumps back and forth between the four women, which often disrupted the narrative flow. Personally, I would have preferred to read each of their journeys in full, one by one, before moving to the next.
Still, Yuan Yang’s message comes through clearly: these women embody the resilience and adaptability needed to face the unpredictability of life. In the epilogue, Yang reflects that these women demonstrate “the creative ability of humans to transform themselves and to make possible what was previously unimaginable.” That truth lingers long after the final page.
Here are the quotes and lines that stayed with me while reading:
• “Life gets worse and better for different groups in different ways.”
• “If you don’t study properly, there’s no hope.”
• “She had never known someone who loved to wander so much and who was so captivated by the ordinary beauty of the landscape.”
• “Life isn’t about fairness or unfairness. What you can do now is prepare for those good opportunities.”
• “Watchfully waiting: it feels like I’ve been doing that since I was born.”
• “I can’t make sense of time. Some things I had thought of as very recent are further and further away.”
From the section about the women’s communities and ambitions:
• “When the children are wise, so is the nation. When the children are strong, so is the nation.” — Shenzhen Children’s Library mission
• “In China’s business world, the most important thing was to satisfy your customers’ desires as quickly as possible.”
• “If you’re in a state of fear, you can’t take anything in. You have to solve the problem of fear before you solve anything else.”
• Alfred Adler’s philosophy is highlighted: children thrive under “firm, respectful parenting rather than cycles of reward and punishment that breed resentment and dependency.”
• “In Chinese, a man ‘receives’ a wife, but a woman gets ‘married out’ — like a parcel being shipped.”
Cultural notes that stood out:
• On encouraging men to cook: “You have to encourage them like children. You say, ‘My dear, this tastes great, you’ve done such a good job, it’s just missing one flavor.’”
• “There was a level of wealth that meant you could ‘lay flat’ — the Chinese slang term for opting out of the rat race and still doing well.”
• “Humans are hardwired for connection.”
• Chinese saying: “Fallen leaves return to their roots.”
• “The Buddhists of Emei Mountain are right that the only constant in life is change.”
And finally, while the pacing and structure weren’t perfect, this book gave me a deeper understanding of the personal revolutions happening behind the scenes in today’s China. It’s a testament to the quiet strength of women who refuse to let circumstances define them.
August 21, 2025
Interesting account of four women struggling against China’s class systems over the last couple of decades. It opened my eyes to things like the “hukou” system which prevent social mobility for many rural Chinese people.
October 19, 2025
3,5
Największym minusem tej książki jest jej konstrukcja.
Największym minusem tej książki jest jej konstrukcja.
August 6, 2025
A poor man’s pachinko
October 8, 2024
Interesting look at modern-day China from the 80s to the Covid Pandemic through the eyes of young women around my age.
August 22, 2025
Følger fire kinesiske kvinner på min alder sine liv. Man får et innblikk i hvordan det var å vokse opp i en gjenåpning mot Vesten, til et gradvis mer autoritært og innelukket regime. Interessant å få et innblikk i å vokse opp under ettbarnspolitikken.
Samtidig så er den litt skuffende, for boka kunne vært så mye MER basert på alt det interessante som faktisk taes opp
Samtidig så er den litt skuffende, for boka kunne vært så mye MER basert på alt det interessante som faktisk taes opp
August 24, 2025
Private Revolutions is an engaging book that highlights striking examples of social mobility achieved at an incredibly high cost during times of change. It reveals the multifaceted price individuals must pay to advance within Chinese society—a reality we in the West may not always see or imagine.
November 10, 2025
Actually I liked reading this and got through it quickly, but felt it lacked depth, with the women’s stories too similar. A lot of interesting insights into contemporary Chinese women’s lives though.
July 3, 2025
The author could have made more interesting choices by exploring policies that affect women’s lives. The one child policy was discusses briefly, but not explored fully. If this really was a journalistic novel then why is there no journalism?
March 26, 2025
This book is about the lives on four Chinese women over the course of three or four decades, as well as some anecdotes about the author's own family. I liked it! It was really interesting because the main 'characters' were all so different from one another. I liked Siyue's reflections and theories on parenting; Leiya and June had very interesting lives. The only sections I felt lukewarm about were Sam's sections. I liked how the author used their lives to highlight some parts of Chinese history. All in all, I felt like this was a solid nonfiction but I wish that there was more reflections from the author.
August 8, 2024
Easy to read and quite interesting. I learned how to translate or describe some common terms we have in Chinese. It's like an updated version of "Factory Girls" by Leslie T. Chang. The four women selected in the book are around the same age as me, which makes the book more relatable. They come from slightly different class backgrounds.
I like the parts about the student activist and front-line social worker, who also works full-time in a factory. Those two storylines reveal aspects of China that I rarely read about in Chinese domestic media. The writer has a special focus on migrant workers and the inequality embedded in China's current labor system, including the hukou system, which imposes immense difficulties for migrant workers trying to settle in cities.
I do find that character portrayals occasionally feel biased. For example, one character who achieves success in the education sector by catering to wealthy clientele is portrayed with a somewhat forced elevation of her motives, concluding with the suggestion that she aims to "save children from parents." This embellishment, though perhaps well-intentioned, feels unnecessary and slightly undermines the author's credibility.
And it was a surprise to find that the writer is now a Labour Party politician in the UK.
I like the parts about the student activist and front-line social worker, who also works full-time in a factory. Those two storylines reveal aspects of China that I rarely read about in Chinese domestic media. The writer has a special focus on migrant workers and the inequality embedded in China's current labor system, including the hukou system, which imposes immense difficulties for migrant workers trying to settle in cities.
I do find that character portrayals occasionally feel biased. For example, one character who achieves success in the education sector by catering to wealthy clientele is portrayed with a somewhat forced elevation of her motives, concluding with the suggestion that she aims to "save children from parents." This embellishment, though perhaps well-intentioned, feels unnecessary and slightly undermines the author's credibility.
And it was a surprise to find that the writer is now a Labour Party politician in the UK.
December 17, 2024
The story of China’s millennial generation told through the lives of four women. I enjoyed this look at contemporary China; the stories are told in a straightforward fashion, and the book highlights how macroeconomic events and government policy filter down to the lives of ordinary people. The downside was that the four women chosen for the profiles are quite similar in a number of ways, so much so that their stories bled into each other, and I had a hard time keeping them straight. I think a more diverse cast of characters might have helped to fill out the story and present a wider panorama of such a complex country.
September 28, 2024
雖然錯過了讀書會，但還是勉強在一個月內看完了。書中好幾個人的故事都能引起我的共鳴。同時代的小城鎮普通女性的人生，個人選擇與奮鬥的偶然被必然的時代裹挾下，他們像一棵棵堅韌的某種植物，抓地生長。我以為我沒有達到想象中的那樣，但似乎不知不覺中也走出來了。
October 14, 2025
The four women in this book are, as the blurb says, examples of the new China. Born in rural villages with often illiterate grandparents looking after them. Parents seek work in the cities as the economy booms, they hardly know their children. The children follow to the city in due course.
The limitations of education by rote, unsympathetic teachers most of the time, and the extraordinary grind of factory work for 12 or 14 hours a day, makes for a fairly grim picture. Yet this work is much better financially than the miserable income from farming. It isn’t slavery, the women are free to move around, but that is all that is on offer for most. It’s not hard to see how it has destroyed manufacturing in the West. Leiya became a campaigner for better conditions, and Sam also becomes an even more radical activist.
Education is the escape from the grind, and childbirth .,Siyue has great success in private tutoring, setting up her own firm, approaching education in a holistic way, not the usual cramming. June worked as a tutor. It was a huge industry that abruptly stopped as a result of a political decision.
The hukou residence certificate system impinged hugely on migrants, controlling access to education,pensions, and other services.
The author was a journalist for the Financial Times , and it reads at times as reportage, with in places, statistics and background commentary on politics , and is fully indexed. It also digs into the feelings and motivations of her four subjects.But the focus is on the personal impact on the individuals, and the gradual tightening of control of protest and activism after Xi becomes president. All the women face big challenges, over and above the usual ones familiar in the West.
The dynamism of the Chinese economy comes over indirectly, but is perhaps not given enough credit, the conversion from a vast poor country to a moderately prosperous one in a few decades has been truly remarkable, as is the entrepreneurial energy shown by many Chinese such as Siyue. Some areas are even post industrial, as factories close to move to areas with cheaper labour.
The four stories are divided up. It would have been an easier read if they were consecutive, especially if , like me, you have a break in reading.
It could be seen as a sort of sequal to “ Good women of China” by Xinran,, published 20 years ago, which drew on a radio phone in programme, and focussed more on rural life and patriarchy.
An interesting read,I had from the Shelterbox book group, a UK based disaster relief charity.
The limitations of education by rote, unsympathetic teachers most of the time, and the extraordinary grind of factory work for 12 or 14 hours a day, makes for a fairly grim picture. Yet this work is much better financially than the miserable income from farming. It isn’t slavery, the women are free to move around, but that is all that is on offer for most. It’s not hard to see how it has destroyed manufacturing in the West. Leiya became a campaigner for better conditions, and Sam also becomes an even more radical activist.
Education is the escape from the grind, and childbirth .,Siyue has great success in private tutoring, setting up her own firm, approaching education in a holistic way, not the usual cramming. June worked as a tutor. It was a huge industry that abruptly stopped as a result of a political decision.
The hukou residence certificate system impinged hugely on migrants, controlling access to education,pensions, and other services.
The author was a journalist for the Financial Times , and it reads at times as reportage, with in places, statistics and background commentary on politics , and is fully indexed. It also digs into the feelings and motivations of her four subjects.But the focus is on the personal impact on the individuals, and the gradual tightening of control of protest and activism after Xi becomes president. All the women face big challenges, over and above the usual ones familiar in the West.
The dynamism of the Chinese economy comes over indirectly, but is perhaps not given enough credit, the conversion from a vast poor country to a moderately prosperous one in a few decades has been truly remarkable, as is the entrepreneurial energy shown by many Chinese such as Siyue. Some areas are even post industrial, as factories close to move to areas with cheaper labour.
The four stories are divided up. It would have been an easier read if they were consecutive, especially if , like me, you have a break in reading.
It could be seen as a sort of sequal to “ Good women of China” by Xinran,, published 20 years ago, which drew on a radio phone in programme, and focussed more on rural life and patriarchy.
An interesting read,I had from the Shelterbox book group, a UK based disaster relief charity.
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