{"id":8417,"date":"2011-04-18T04:04:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T04:04:02","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:01:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:01:52","slug":"author-tells-the-story-of-poor-chinese-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=8417","title":{"rendered":"Author Tells the Story of Poor Chinese Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qian Xiaohong, the heroine of \u201cNorthern Girls,\u201d a critically admired novel by the rising literary star Sheng Keyi, could be any young woman serving you in a restaurant, or leaning on a mop watching you walk over the floor she has just washed or, though she fights this fate, sitting behind a glass door in a pink-lit \u201chairdresser\u201d shop, its rotating barber pole outside signaling illegal sexual services within. Millions of women like Ms. Qian have left China\u2019s villages for its cities, looking for their place in the sun, since the government began sweeping economic \u2014 though not political \u2014 reforms in 1978.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The result has been enormous social change affecting everything from family relationships to fashion to sexuality. \u201cThese are women whose eyes and bodies see and feel the ruthlessness of the age, the difficulty of surviving,\u201d Ms. Sheng writes in an afterword to a new edition of her novel, published this year. Barely educated and vulnerable, \u201cThey are women on whom society\u2019s eyes rarely rest for long. I feel that to present their struggle for survival, that\u2019s interesting, and it\u2019s valuable, it\u2019s important.\u201d <\/p>\n

A major part of migrant women\u2019s struggle is dealing with attempts to exploit them sexually in the big cities, where prostitution flourishes and often offers better pay than other jobs, making their sexuality a central issue, says Ms. Sheng.
\nWith five novels and a clutch of short stories to her name, Ms. Sheng, 38, is well known in China. In 2003, she won the Most Promising New Talent award. \u201cNorthern Girls\u201d was first published in Chinese in 2004 and is to be published in English next year by Penguin. <\/p>\n

A shy person who doesn\u2019t appear to seek the limelight, Ms. Sheng nonetheless appeared recently at the Beijing Bookworm International Literary Festival. Dressed in a black skirt and black boots, her long hair framed a quiet, pale face. \u201cI wanted to write a story about girls from the countryside, what it\u2019s like to be seeking yourself in the city and trying to maintain your independence. And I think it\u2019s very hard,\u201d she said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
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