饥饿的女儿

by 虹影

正版授权 卖家 : Boolee
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书名:饥饿的女儿
简介:茅盾文学奖得主阿来作序推荐，29种语言版本，5000,000册畅销书，荣获意大利年度“罗马文学奖”，台湾《联合报》读书人奖。食的饥饿，爱的饥饿，性的饥饿，一个民族的动荡岁月。
作者:虹影
出版社:四川文艺出版社
出版时间:2016年03月

装订方式:精装

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, Chinese Literature, Biography, Asia

Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate as it provides fascinating (and uncomfortable) detail of poverty and slums along the Yangtze River in China, but it is difficult to "like" or "admire" the author. The details are brutal about day to day life, so one learns a lot. The family mystery centers around the 6th daughter who feels she doesn't belong and feels the family doesn't like her. The main time frame of the story takes place when Hong Ying is late teens, early adulthood with flash back fill in details. There is a lot of mean spirited interaction with moments of coming together. It is worth reading, but uncomfortable.

[Michael Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading K-the art of love, I became very curious about its author and decided to read her autobiography next. It didn’t exactly tell me how she came to write K, nor how she came to write at all, but it turned out interesting nonetheless.

Hong Ying was born at Chongquing in 1962, at the end of a major famine that hit China as a result of population growth and mismanagement of the agricultural production. Thus, her novelized recollection of her childhood, culminating in discoveries about herself that she makes on her 18th birthday, could have easily produced one of those misery memoirs that have been so epidemic in recent years.

What saves it from descending that road is the curiously detached voice of the author who never seems to pity herself or the other protagonists. She describes hunger, violence and the regular sight of dead bodies floating down the river with equal emotional detachment, making the reader wonder whether this is a natural defence that children develop when they grow up in horrific circumstances, or whether there is an Asperger gene or two at play. For a teenage girl, our heroine cares remarkably little about what other people think. She sometimes even muses about her own detachment and aloofness.

Driven by her quest to solve the mysteries of her past, this story is quite gripping, even though the signposting often gives the events away beforehand. Most of all, it makes readers born at around the same time in a different place (like me, for example), consider ourselves very lucky indeed. What we now need from her is a sequel telling us how she escaped from the life of misery that could have become her destiny, and how she became a writer recognized around the world.

[Melinda Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hong Ying is almost 18, and is beginning to seek answers to the many questions that have lived inside her for all of her life. Born during the Great Famine of the 60's, she was born hungry, and has felt disconnected from her family, searching for reasons why.

Hong Ying seeks the candour of her eldest sister. 16 at the time of her birth, she expects to receive answers from her, but isn't quite sure what she will hear.

Following her birth and childhood, Daughter of the River narrates Hong Ying's quest for answers. It tells the story of a family and the secrets it keeps. Every page brings you closer to the truth, and the heart of the family's story is told.

[Wang Wei · Rating 4 out of 5]

A confused girl recommended this book to me two month ago. The first thought that came to my mind when I closed the book was:“ That was the history of my parents too. I have to write a review on Daughter Of The River; Not only writing for others, but also for myself.”
Daughter of the River is an autobiography by Hong Ying, a female writer born in China in the 1960s. This unreserved story tells the miserable life of a girl who was born during the Great Famine, and how, raised in the slums of Chongqing. She suffered from hunger and terrible experience in family during 1960s to 1989. The complicated relationship with her family and her teachers, like an ever lingering ghost, haunted her through her adolescence.And it was not until her real father appeared in her life, that she could get rid of this ghost. She realized the painful experience of her parents is the source of her pain. But nothing can fill the hollow in her soul and stomach, even the brief and impulsive romance with her history teacher, she remains in a huge trauma in the end.
Aware of hunger and sacrifices required to survive build the girl’s life, also build the most people’s life in China. The modern Chinese history was a changeable and radical history, people live in turmoils and revolutions with the short of materials. The suffers and pains from elder generation were transmitted in blood to their next generation. This is what we called transgenerational transmission of trauma in psychology.
My friend (who was a psychology researcher) once told that the trauma of parents echoing on their children. Then I realized that, the trauma in Hong Ying’s parents caused by the history and the environment they lived. Not only the Great Famine, but also the attitude of a society without sympathy. The river in her story is not just the one near the slums, but the flowing history of misery. As the life that most of our elder generation have lived, It was a historical collective trauma in China.
There are two concepts with blurred boundaries: the collective trauma, and the historical trauma. All of them happens to large groups of individuals and can be transmitted transgenerationally and across communities. War, genocide, slaverism, and natural disasters can cause collective trauma, which can be further defined as historical, ancestral, or cultural. Historical trauma, and its manifestations, are an example of transgenerational trauma. Psychologist Maria(2003)defined that a historical trauma was:” cumulative emotional and psychological wounding, over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences”[ Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart "The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship to substance abuse: A Lakota illustration." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 35(1)](p. 7). Nevertheless, some of the symptoms of traumas include rage, depression, denial, survivor guilt and internalized oppression, as well as physiological changes in the brain and body which can bring on chronic disease( Lisa Gale Garrigues).
Wikipedia shows, there are five ways to spread trauma within the family: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect. The transgenerational trauma established the definite home Hong Ying grew up with. The poor family didn’t have a bathroom, everyone lived in a room without boundaries. Her “ugly” mother always shout on her trivial fault, and sneer at her self-esteem. She hates her mother. But when she looked back for the reason, she found a tough woman, who gave her life, who was struggling in a huge abyss of misery. It was no one’s fault, but unchangeable history.
In this story, she was powerless to fight to the history and environment. Even with her romance, it turned out to be an abortion, then earned a new trauma. It seems helpless with these kinds of hungry story; But I think there have ways that can reduce the influence of transgenerational trauma, and help someone change their future.
But how?
I found some methods in a psychological platform named Know Yourself in WeChat. It suggests 3 ways to reduce the influence of transgenerational trauma for a descendant in such families:
First, try to change the environment you lived in. To leave the family in trauma has been proved an effective way to help you become more independent. A distance is also helpful to rethinking the inner system in your family.
Second, try to encourage the elder generations to express their emotions and thoughts freely, after ensuring your own safety. To share the past trauma experience in a suitable way can highly reduce the neglect influence deep in their heart. But you have to assure that you are in peace and will not be hurt by the huge emotional fluctuations from your parents.
Third, try to understand the historical and social environment in the past time of your parents. As a later generation of survivors, you may truly understand their pains and despair when they hurt you unconsciousness. Of course you may not choose to forgive them; but when their strictly behavior become understandable, you are ready to go forward in your own pace.
Know your parents, know yourself.

Hamlet Wang
write in PHILO COMMUNE CAFE
2018/08/01

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐ - it was meh

Boring and not really picking up at all... The Finnish translation's writing at least was very nice and easy.
I don't get why this book exist really 😅

[Eszter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Geschichte von "Nummer sechs", dem sechsten (lebenden) Kind einer armen Familie aus Chongquing, neben dem Fluss Jangtse, ist mitreißend, hoffnungslos und voller Schmerz.

Ihre Autobiographie handelt von ihrer Kindheit und ihrer Jugend in Armut und der Sehnsucht nach der Liebe. Die Familie mit acht Kindern, der Vater fast blind, aber fürsorglich, die Mutter verkrüppelt von der Arbeit, aber mutig, begegnet Nummer sechs immer mit einer tiefen Abscheu, dessen Ursprung sich Hong Ying anfangs nicht erklären kann. So beginnt sie mit 16 Jahren, sich nach den Geheimnissen ihres Lebens zu erkundigen, sucht nach einer Antwort auf die Frage, wie sie in der Gebärmutter ihrer Mutter das Ende der Hungersnot überstand und ob dies der Grund für den tiefen Hass ihrer Mutter gegenüber ihrem letzten Kind ist. Auch will sie erfahren, wer der Schatten ist, der sie, seit sie sich erinnern kann, verfolgt und doch keine Bedrohung darzustellen scheint.
In unserer Familie tat inzwischen jeder Dinge, von denen die anderen nichts wussten.
Und dann ist da noch ihr Geschichtslehrer, dessen Leben ein tragisches Ende nimmt, wobei sie doch so sicher war, dass er ihre Liebe erwidert hat.

Ich schien plötzlich er zu sein, und mir gegenüber auf dem Hocker saß ich, ein dummes kleines Mädchen mit stumpfem Haar. Sie redete, und ich hörte zu oder warf eine Bemerkung ein, um sie zum Weitersprechen zu ermuntern. Sobald es still im Raum wurde, bekam er etwas Furchteinflößendes. Sobald nicht mehr gesprochen wurde, schien sich der Staub des Untergangs über diese einsame Welt zu senken.

Während sie von dem Gefühlschaos, in dem sie sich zu der Zeit befand, berichtet, schildert Ying auch die Lebensumstände der Bevölkerung unter Mao und liefert geschichtliche Hintergründe, was das Buch für mich umso spannender macht.

Die, die körperlich arbeiteten, erkannte man am durchdringenden Schweißgeruch, und da es sowieso an jeder Straßenecke stank, fiel das nicht weiter auf.

"Die Tocher des großen Stromes" ist eine Leidensgeschichte und schwer zu verkraften. Obwohl man das Gelesene wohl nicht "mögen" kann, sind diese teils poetischen Zeilen es wert, gelesen zu werden.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing memoir of a woman who grew up in extreme poverty in Chongqing during the difficult famine of the 1960s. I was impacted by the extreme efforts required to make a living and the horrible living conditions. This is a story of urban poverty in China. I was completely mesmerized by this story.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s still to come a memoir that I didn’t like to read and Daughter of the River was not an exception even though it was certainly my least favourite so far.

Both the writing style and the way the story was structured didn’t grip me to these pages. The climax, if that was one, also disappointed. Yet, I will relativize this as this was an autobiography and, on top of that, one set in a very different cultural background than mine that I can’t possible relate to.

I think in the end this is what bothered me with this book: I was struggling to find a connection or even simple empathy with Little Sixth Sister. Or any of them except for the parents. This didn’t feel great as the story narrates a pretty miserable and heart-breaking not so long ago period of Chinese history. The cultural and societal context as explained by the author was my favourite part about reading this.

Lastly, I have to point out at the feeling of betrayal I felt as a reader towards the last chapters. I felt as if the author was hiding, not letting us peak in at what was undoubtedly a complicated and and challenging moment of her life: how did she survived living on the streets? How did she go from that to getting high education? Why did she decided to regain contact with her family? This was a big disappointment for me all the way until the end of the book.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good but emotional read. I had a hard time putting it down, as I followed Hong Ying through her difficult life in Chongquing, China. It is a coming of age story for a poor young girl who tries to discover her past as well as find a way out of the barely sustainable life she and her family have been given. Although, it has many heartbreaking moments, one can't help but get caught up in the determination of this strong minded young lady and the family dynamics. I definitely would recommend this book !

[Marcia Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, for the story itself and it's impact on opening my mind, I would give this book a solid four stars. I don't think I've ever been more aware, or thankful, for the luck of my draw to be born to American parents. I can't even fathom the millions of people worldwide who are born and die in ghettos with no opportunities available to them to get out. They live every day of their lives just struggling to survive.
The mechanics and the editing, on the other hand, would have been a two. I didn't check whether it was a big house that published this book, but editor did a horrible job. It was so difficult to tell sometimes whether the author was talking about the past or the present, or the present or a dream. When she left home without any thought given to it at all and was sleeping wherever, how did she have the money for an abortion? So many holes that a halfway decent editor should have addressed. I understand the language barrier, but even in translation, these details should not have been lost. I understand also that she was writing about events that happened a long time ago, but it was all just handled poorly.
That being said, I'm glad she was able to get out of the ghetto and make something out of herself.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt as though this author was dangling a carrot in front of me through the entire book and taking me through a maze to reach said carrot. I realize that this book was translated from Chinese, but I felt that the story jumped around too much from event to event. While reading it was difficult to see how the events connected. That being said, I learned more about China and how difficult life was there in the 1970 adn 1980s. A review compared this book to Angela's Ashes and I can see how the reviewer made that link. What made this book a challenge to read is that the deplorable living conditions in Angela's Ashes took place long before I was born. The horrors of Daughter of the River mostly took place while I was alive. It is hard to reconcile my mind to the fact that right now, life is such a challenge for people in so many parts of the world.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This remarkable memoir was translated from the original Chinese to English. The book includes photos, which I always love in a memoir because they personalize the story so much more.
I am fascinated by stories and memoirs set in the turbulent 1960s through the 1970s, during China's horrific years of Chairman Mao's increasingly chaotic campaigns. This memoir is raw and strong and told with a clear voice.

I usually never pass along my books by Chinese authors or non-Chinese authors but about China, but this one was sent off to someone else who has a similar interest in China, and my bookshelf is lighter by one.

[KathyJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to say that I "enjoyed" this memoir, for life along the Yangtze River during the 1960's and 1970's was rather brutal for Hong Ying, from an impoverished family, with little love shown by parents or siblings, political upheaval, unsanitary conditions. That said, I do feel that I learned a lot about China during this period, the Cultural Revolution, and the lives and ordinary Chinese people. Unsettling, but definitely a worthwhile read.

[lukoto · Rating 3 out of 5]

我不知道能不能说在看虹影的这本自传体小说的时候被“触动”，将一个女孩，“私生”女孩的成长生活介绍给这个世界，很多片段的细腻和伤痛似乎是作者把自己最隐秘和疼痛的部分展露给读者。作为“女性主义”小说的当代代表作，却似乎因为强调女性成长的“伤痛”和“隐秘”而将女性处于更不平等的地位。从对父权的依赖和渴望，到被父权背叛后感到的厌倦和孤独。渴望独立和出走成为了六六治愈伤痛的方式，而末尾回归和面对生父的死亡以及养父和生母的老去，是她对自己过去伤痛的直视。大抵的女性成长伤痛小说似乎都有这样的路径：迷茫瘦小，尝试性爱，被伤害，出走和回归。只是在描写自己无力和对性的奋不顾身时，似乎某种程度上满足了父权社会对女性成长的设定。到底女性书写是逃离或者解构了父系压迫的体系，还是成为了父系话语的另一个附属？

[Jessaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a lot like Wild Swans only a lot shorter. Such a tragic true story that is very well written.

[Ribhu Agrawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over 15 years ago but it still stayed in my memory. I picked it up randomly from the library but was not disappointed. Eloquently written

[Hannnah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with an incredible story of survival in a place where the inevitability of death comes early and from anywhere. It’s a beautiful account of a life living off pain.

[Siobhan Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chronique sur mon blog.

Cet ouvrage est l’autobiographie de l’enfance et de l’adolescence de l’autrice, en Chine dans les années 1980. Tandis qu’elle grandit après l’époque maoïste, et qu’elle essaie de retracer l’histoire de sa famille – notamment de ses parents et de l’aînée de la famille – la vie de Hong Ying s’ancre dans l’Histoire du pays. Je ne connais pas grand-chose de l’histoire de la Chine mais Hong Ying rappelle à chaque fois les grands événements et les changements qui ont pu arriver avec la mort de Mao. Ses parents ont connu la révolution culturelle, la famine, et à présent elle-même connaît des gens menacés par le Parti. La période est loin de se prêter à la joie et l’insouciance, et la situation familiale de Hong Ying est loin d’être plus légère. L’histoire est si sombre, si tragique qu’on aurait presque du mal à croire qu’il s’agit d’un récit autobiographique – les photos de la famille de Hong Ying permettent de dissiper le doute.

Le récit est assez complexe puisqu’il n’est pas chronologique et qu’il faut parfois s’accrocher pour comprendre dans quelle temporalité on se trouve : Hong Ying raconte l’histoire de sa grande-sœur, de son père, de sa mère… J’ai parfois été un peu perdue même si j’arrivais toujours à m’y retrouver au bout d’un moment – il est fort possible que le fait que je connaisse si peu de choses de l’histoire chinoise ne m’ai pas permis de me resituer facilement.

Si aux premiers abords, la famille de Hong Ying a l’air tout à fait normal, elle se rend compte au fur et à mesure que de nombreux secrets se trament, et elle décide donc d’aller au bout des choses pour découvrir ce qui se cache derrière les non-dits, les traitements différents entre ses frères et sœurs, jusqu’à découvrir enfin sa propre histoire.

L’autrice ne prend pas de gants dans ses descriptions et dans certains détails de sa vie, je pense qu’un certain passage où elle va utiliser les toilettes publics et où il est question de vers intestinaux restera gravé longtemps dans ma mémoire (j’espère que ce ne sera pas la seule chose de ce livre qui y restera…). On suit finalement la vie d’une adolescente un peu perdue dans ses sentiments et ses relations avec sa famille ou encore avec son professeur d’histoire.

Cette lecture était tout sauf simple, autant au niveau de la chronologie que des événements qui nous sont racontés, mais elle était intéressante et assez émouvante par moment malgré le détachement avec lequel l’autrice semble conter son histoire.

Trigger warnings : maltraitance d’enfants, assassinats politiques, famine, avortement violent, sexe, relation professeur / élève (avec élève majeur).

[Ligeia · Rating 4 out of 5]

autobiografia controversa e avversata in patria di una delle più famose scrittrici contemporanee cinesi

nata a Chongqing negli anni della Grande carestia
subito dopo il Grande balzo in avanti

Hong Ying racconta della sua infanzia nella città vecchia
dal lato sbagliato del fiume
quello dei poveri e di coloro che tirano a campare con poco

lo Yangtze separa le due parti con chirurgica precisione
non è possibile per nessuno cambiare sponda del fiume e salire di livello

lei è una ragazza sveglia ultima di sei figli
con una famiglia dalla storia travagliata

e cerca di scoprire il motivo per cui si sente estranea alla sua stessa famiglia

i segreti sono un punto focale delle storie cinesi
anche questa non fa eccezione
e il segreto è quello di molte famiglie che hanno avuto la vita spezzata dagli sconvolgimenti politici della Cina

nonni e padri che hanno servito Chiang Kai-shek e figli e nipoti che serviranno Mao
cambia l'Imperatore
ma la loro vita è sempre la stessa

a ogni cambio corrisponde un'epurazione
e loro cercano di seppellire il passato per non farsi travolgere

ma il passato torna sempre
e dovranno pagare per quello che non hanno scelto ma che hanno dovuto fare per sopravvivere

lei sceglie di andarsene
come molti prima di lei

e quando torna sarà da scrittrice famosa
il suo ultimo capitolo
è in Piazza Tiananmen in quel maggio 89 che precede i carri armati
e ancora una volta lei è testimone

ne racconterà in L'estate del tradimento

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This memoir was easy to read in the sense that I read it in a day but the subject matter was hard going. While not overly graphic -except for some sex scenes- it was overwhelmingly depressing and left this reader without a sense of hope for the author. Having read other biographies of this time period set in communist China I was familiar with the sheer desperation with which people lived at that time but there was always a sense of hope as circumstances changed.

I have never come away with such a feeling of concern for the mental and emotional well being of an author. I think this is because as shocking and tragic as the socio political circumstances of that era were, a lot of the tragedy in this authors life is brought about by the extreme family dysfunction which I think would have operated outside this particular setting. The cold calculations with which individual family members but particularly the author made their life altering and other decisions pointed to a lack of that almost universal moral compass you come to expect in most societies regardless of culture. Where the conscience did make an appearance it was almost always tamped down very quickly and firmly. Perhaps this is not the family's reality but how the author interpreted her history due to her own emotional trauma. I did note especially towards the end there were big gaps in the narrative and details which did not tally with what the author was trying to convey about her relationship with her family.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daughter of the River is a memoir of China unlike any other. Born during the Great Famine of the early 1960s and raised in the slums of Chongqing, Hong Ying was constantly aware of hunger and the sacrifices required to survive. As she neared her eighteenth birthday, she became determined to unravel the secrets that left her an outsider in her own family. At the same time, a history teacher at her school began to awaken her sense of justice and her emerging womanhood. Hong Ying's wrenching coming-of-age would teach her the price of taking a stand and show her the toll of totalitarianism, poverty, and estrangement on her family. With raw intensity and fearless honesty, Daughter of the River follows China's trajectory through one woman's life, from the Great Famine through the Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square.

[Lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book which invites you to get to know troublesome childhood and youth of the famous Chinese author and also gives deep insight of what meant to live during the Mao's great famine period in China.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a young woman who grows up very poor in Chongqing, China and discovers some truths about her past. Many parts of the book are painful but give a good picture of what her life was like

[Tobias]

高中的时候这本书在我们女生宿舍里人气奇高，另外两本人气很高的读物是《荆棘鸟》和漫画《霸王爱人》。现在想来，姑娘们当时是憋坏了。

这里面的微观个案，可以作为biopolitics这个概念的注脚，物资匮乏会造成某种大众心态的倾向。但是作为『女性主义文学』就略显无趣，讲文化、时代冲击下的母女关系，《喜福会》在我心里更胜一筹。有些人看见作者为女性就往『女性主义』套的条件反射真的可以歇歇了，挺无聊的。

[Wenjing Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

刚开始看就哭了... “原来那个年代的女作家作品是这样的”... 我这样感叹的时候又有些愧疚。// （比较喜欢这个版本的豆瓣介绍，所以标记在这一页了）这本书我刚开始看就哭了，一直哭到最后，很久没有这样的阅读体验了。很难描述我在为什么哭泣，从最开始社会背景的铺垫，到自我寻找、对世界不满，“我想是我选了那个下签，我不希望出生”，于是“我”的一切愤怒、放纵都有自己的理由。但多年之后再回看，也会遗憾当时的自己没有关注到“他人”、关注到更多的复杂性。也许很难说谁做错了什么，“我”的选择更不可能被指摘，但遗憾也是真实的。呜呜呜呜呜让我再哭一会儿。

[Hongxiaochun · Rating 5 out of 5]

读的台版，大陆版删减太多。

假期最后一天，偷半日清净，早晨咖啡馆还没开门，酒店大堂沙发可以是很舒服的地方，逃离小孩˘ᵕ˘☕️在多件待办的事情中挑了一件自己最想做的，把《饥饿的女儿》看完。发现微信读书又一优秀功能，转换竖版书，以前体验觉得出错率很高，现在出错率可以接受，终于不用瞪着眼睛看竖版书了。

这本自传体小说，很多农村景象和我的童年90年代很像，倒尿壶，煤灰清扫鸡屎，头发里的虱子，用莲角壳煲水洗头，架子床，精神不稳定的母亲的猜忌和咒骂，复杂的身世和人际关系，我的童年和竟然作者有点像，我甚至对作者的经历能感同身受，在童年里，我常常觉得自己是一个多余的人。

[Jenny Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about people living in horrible conditions and being mean to each other. I guess when you grow up with so little comfort and love, you never learn how to be nice and empathetic. The stories are super sad, but somehow manageable, because the author doesn’t describe them in an emotional way.

[M.H.B. Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly gives another view of how miserable life in China could be - depressing as all get out. Not sure others would like it, except real China mavens of the period and place.

[Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Gavin Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very powerful book, lots of interesting history. I was hoping for more about her journey and development after her graduation and move to England.