Xinran QUOTES

2 " Writing can be a source of strength

-Wang Liang "

― Xinran , Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet

4 " Writing is a kind of repository and can help create a space for the accommodation of new thoughts and feelings. If you don't write these stories down, your heart will be filled up and broken by them. "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

6 " Just as books are read one word at a time, roads are taken one step at a time. "

― Xinran , Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet

8 " This generation possessed freedom and material wealth their elders could only dream of, and they looked for the miracle of love in the void between Chinese and Western culture. They created idealised versions of themselves on the internet, and pushed the boundaries of what they thought love could be. But as this generation grew accustomed to the loneliness of living without brothers and sisters, the family could no longer be considered the backbone of Chinese culture. "

― Xinran , The Promise: Love and Loss in Modern China

10 " The chicken in the coop has grain but the soup pot is near; the wild crane has none but its world is vast. "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

12 " No one likes crying, but tears water our souls. "

― Xinran , Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet

14 " I received no praise for the rescue of this girl, only criticism for "moving the troops about and stirring up the people" and wasting the radio station's time and money. I was shaken by these complaints. A young girl had been in danger and yet going to her rescue was seen as "exhausting the people and draining the treasury". Just what was a woman's life worth in China? "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

16 " (While interviewing The University Student:)
'Oh, poor Xinran. You haven't even got the various categories of women straight. How can you possibly hope to understand men? Let me tell you. When men have been drinking, they come out with a set of definitions for women. Lovers are "swordfish", tasty but with sharp bones. "Personal secretaries" are "carp", the longer you "stew" them, the more flavour they have. Other men's wives are "Japanese puffer fish", trying a mouthful could be the end of you, but risking death is a source of pride.'
'And what about their own wives?'
'Salt cod, because it keeps for a long time. When there is no other food, salt cod is cheap and convenient. "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

18 " (As a "grandchild of a capitalist household":)
At school, I was forbidden to take singing and dancing lessons with the other girls because I was not to "pollute" the arena of the revolution. Even though I was short-sighted, I was not allowed to sit in the front row in class because the best places were reserved for the children born to peasants, workers or soldiers; they were deemed to have 'straight roots and red shoots'. Similarly, I was forbidden to stand in the front row during PE lessons, though I was the smallest in the class, because the place nearest the teacher were for the 'next generation of the revolution'. "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

20 " Xinran, do you know that it is the really bad women who are the lucky ones? I believe the saying “Money makes men bad; badness makes women money. "

― Xinran , The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices