Kirjahaku

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE PICKFINALIST FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NONFICTION "Riveting . . . a powerful snapshot of four young Chinese women attempting to assert control over the direction of their lives." --The New York Times Book Review "As powerfully intimate as it is politically incendiary." --British Vogue 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.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAAJTE PRIZE 2025A Financial Times, New York Times and Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year'As powerfully intimate as it is politically incendiary' VOGUE'Could be a Netflix series, for family, violence and romance abound' IRISH TIMES'A portrait of China through four women who refused to accept the life laid out for them. Incredible' SUNDAY TIMES'A revelatory, moving and tender tale of hopes, fears and change' PETER FRANKOPAN Yuan Yang, the first Chinese-born British MP, tells the stories of four Chinese women striving for a better future in an unequal society. From June, who dreams of going to university rather than raising pigs, to Sam, forced into hiding as her activist peers are lifted from the streets, this is a singularly immersive portrait of a rapidly changing nation – and of the courage of those caught in the swell.

'As powerfully intimate as it is politically incendiary' VOGUE'Private Revolutions could be a Netflix series, for family, violence and romance abound' IRISH TIMES 'A portrait of China through four women who refused to accept the life laid out for them. Incredible' SUNDAY TIMES 'A revelatory, moving and tender tale of hopes, fears and change' PETER FRANKOPAN*A Sunday Times, Observer & BBC Highlight for 2024*This is a book about the coming of age of four women born in China in the 1980s and 1990s, in a society about to change beyond recognition.It is about Leiya, who wants to escape the fate of the women in her village. Still underage, she bluffs her way on to the factory floor. It is about June, who at fifteen sets what her family thinks is an impossible goal: to attend university rather than raise pigs. It is about Siyue, ranked second-to-bottom of her English class, who decides to prove her teachers wrong. And it is about Sam, who becomes convinced that the only way to change her country is to become an activist – even as the authorities slowly take her peers from the streets. With unprecedented access to the lives, hopes, homes, dreams and diaries of four ordinary women over a period of six years, Private Revolutions gives a voice to those whose stories go untold. At a time of rising state censorship and suppression, it unearths the identity of modern Chinese society – and, through the telling, something of our own.

Neljän naisen tarinat kuvaavat ravisuttavasti nyky-Kiinaa suurten muutosten keskellä.Siyue kasvaa isovanhempien luona maaseudulla mutta ei halua kylän naisten kohtaloa. Koulussa menestynyt June tähtää korkealle, yliopistoon Pekingiin. Leiya lähtee alaikäisenä tehdastyöhön. Keskiluokkaisen perheen tytär Sam järkyttyy työläisten kohtelusta, ja hänestä tulee vainottu aktivisti. Kaikki he pinnistelevät epätasa-arvon puristuksessa kohti unelmiaan.80- ja 90-luvulla syntyneiden naisten silmin näemme Kiinan muutoksen: kylissä ei ole juoksevaa vettä, mutta kaupungissa kohoavat pilvenpiirtäjät. Vavahduttava teos kuvaa ruohonjuuritasolta Kiinan nousevan talouden inhimillisiä kustannuksia.