Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother

The author of The Good Women of China sticks to the subjects she knows best with these heartbreaking stories from Chinese mothers. All of the women Xinran features here, as well as the rare tale from a father, have abandoned their girl children - a result of a cultural preference for boys and China’s one child policy. Xinran wrote the book partly to explain to the thousands of girl children who’ve been adopted worldwide why and how their mothers came to give them up and partly so that the broken hearted women who’d been forced to give up their girls could tell their stories. Even now, in rural communities, if a woman gives birth to a girl child, she’s considered a failure and a useless wife. If she’s lucky, the child is abandoned in an orphanage; if she’s not, the midwife drowns the newborn in a bowl of water prepared before the birth. The water is Killing Trouble water if the baby is a girl; its known as Watering the Roots bath if the baby’s a boy. This is not an easy read but the stories are raw and real and beautifully told.

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