The Promise

Love and Loss in Modern China

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Pub Date 8 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2020

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Description

At the start of the twentieth century in China, the Hans were married in an elaborate ceremony before they were even born. They went on to have nine children and chose colours portrayed in some of their favourite poems as nicknames for them – Red, Cyan, Orange, Yellow, Green, Green Tangerine, Purple, Blue and Rainbow. Fate, and the sweep of twentieth-century history, would later divide them.

Xinran begins with the magic and tragedy of one young couple's wedding night in 1949, and goes on to tell personal experiences of loss, grief and hardship through China's extraordinary century.

A spellbinding and magical narrative, this is the story of modern China through the women who lived through it.

At the start of the twentieth century in China, the Hans were married in an elaborate ceremony before they were even born. They went on to have nine children and chose colours portrayed in some of...


Advance Praise

“A brilliant storyteller.” – Hilary Spurling

“This book cracks the code of love, loneliness, and belonging in contemporary China.” – Xiaolu Guo, author of Once Upon a Time in the East

“Reporting on four generations of one Chinese family and their diverging paths, Xinran shows how the country's social norms have changed through politics and the rise of modernity.” – New York Times

“Xinran Xue is a gifted storyteller and The Promise reads like an unputdownable novel. William Spence's translation from Chinese into English cannot be over-praised.” – Washington Book Review

“[A] graceful work that restores a lost generation to history.” – Kirkus Review

“Exploring love and loss in modern China is a big job but it is in simplifying the overwhelming that Xinran excels. And in the introduction to this compelling and moving book, the author clarifies just how she has managed the task...In these carefully told vignettes, Xinran takes the reader through a century of tumult and change in China, her writing beautifully reflecting the intimate and honest voices of the women whose stories of love she tells.” – The Weekend Australian

“'Xinran writes with a fine balance of economy, compassion and wisdom, and manages to be at once proud, critical, forward-looking, nostalgic, sad, angry and hopeful.'” – The New Statesman

“A brilliant storyteller.” – Hilary Spurling

“This book cracks the code of love, loneliness, and belonging in contemporary China.” – Xiaolu Guo, author of Once Upon a Time in the East

“Reporting on...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781448217892
PRICE US$14.00 (USD)
PAGES 288

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Featured Reviews

The Promise is a powerful account of social change in China, told through the relationships and marriages of four generations of women from one family. From the traditional arranged marriages that still prevailed at the start of the twentieth century to today's online dating and virtual relationships these women's stories reflect the political cultural and social changes that have rocked the country and totally transformed it. Xinran brings her trademark style and uses her considerable interview skills to draw these women out in a way that makes them comfortable enough to discuss the most private and personal aspects of their lives. Through the lens of their very human experiences the reader is given a new perspective on history and the realities faced by the people living through it.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

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“A persons character is inextricably linked to their local environment” - Chinese proverb

This book is a fascinating account of the history of modern China through the lens of four generations of women from one family. Four very different stories of love, life and loss.

I had to remind myself several times that this wasn’t a piece of fiction, but the oral history of real life women who were sharing their memories for the first time...not just with the world, but each other. Whether their marriages were arranged, politically advantageous or based online (and we think the older generation is weird!) their stories emphasise how the changing politics and westernisation of the country directly impacted their personal narratives.

Written in the form of an interview of sorts, I was shocked, humbled and intrigued by some of their experiences and enjoyed how the author has brought an emotional side to a country we know for its economy! A riveting read for anyone interested in women’s literature, human nature, Chinese culture (I lost count of all the quirky traditions) and history.

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Xinran’s latest is a labour of love. She has worked on it since spring 2013, since when several of its subjects have died, as well as her husband, legendary literary agent Toby Eady, who is memorialised in the foreword and afterword (and occasionally in the narrative). Xinran’s heart is on every page, as is her love – for her husband, for women, and for Chinese women in particular, who have been her perennial subject. This book is about love, specifically talking love (谈恋爱). I’ve always been a sucker for romanticism, particularly that poetic, thoughtful, pained Chinese romanticism, and it doesn’t disappoint.

The book is structured in four parts, all from a single root. A friend had introduced Xinran to an elderly lady, Han Anhong, whose husband’s dying wish was that she take a virginity test. She does so, and is shown never to have had sex in 61 years of marriage. Through Xinran, who interviews her over a long period, Han (known as Red) tells her story, which starts when she was nine during the Chinese civil war with her father arranging her marriage to his friend’s son. He has another love, who has disappeared, and so their long celibate marriage is one of ‘ceiling gazing’ and talking about love; for her, the Cultural Revolution was the ‘longest holiday I had during the “life sentence” of my marriage’. Thanks to his love for another, she is unable to become a wife or a mother.

Red is one of nine siblings; three died young, three stayed into revolutionary China, and three left. Xinran interviews more members of Red’s family. We are told the story of Red’s sister Green, educated at one of Beijing’s best schools in the early communist period (in one of the most vivid depictions of that time I have read), during which time she falls in love with a man from an extremely poor Shandong background. Xinran then tells us the story of Green’s daughter Crane, who is rusticated during the Cultural Revolution and teaches poetry to her commune while ‘picking up bad habits from the peasants’ and falling in love. After Crane, we hear the stories of a third younger generation.

Xinran has alighted on a fantastically rich and deeply personal trove of stories. There is heartache, tragedy and pure romance, told by a family of women with a deep and abiding love for Chinese poetry. Each person in the family even has colour-based nicknames that translate well to English for readers less familiar with Chinese. It is skilfully composed, reading fluidly as if recounted by her subjects, with amusing and interesting turns of phrase and observations. The sections are punctuated by the occasional short intervention by Xinran herself to remark, exclaim or explain (and Xinran is clearly a talented teacher, and fantastically good at explaining aspects of Chinese culture concisely and effectively). If there is a criticism to make it is that at times it is rather too effective at feeling like your Great Aunt recounting a story, complete with some tangents that are a little rambling.

For the first three quarters we are in familiar territory – the Chinese twentieth century being told through the experiences of one family of women. So far, so Wild Swans. By telling through testimony it can glide over complex history; it feels fresh and is often heart-meltingly romantic. Only the assurance that these are real stories separates them from nostalgic romantic movies like The Road Home (我的父亲母亲) or one of those long Chinese TV series about rusticated youth falling for each other (and for the People too, of course).

But the last quarter is the intriguing and distinguishing part. In this quarter we hear from three of the current younger generation. Xinran has an innocent bemusement at WeChat and the video calling technology she must use for these interviews. Their stories are incomplete, of course, and while they felt a little self-indulgently angsty at times their experiences of modern love are profoundly depressing. Somehow the insights are a little triter and the language a little riper than in the previous sections (“I felt very strongly that her heart was like a clear spring formed from the drops of her tears”). The contrast between their soulless sibling-free world of meaningless sex, online flirting, throwaway mistresses – and marriages – and fatherless children and the earlier generations’ great romances is stark. One of the three subjects links speed dating to the ‘loss of our Chinese civilisation’. But this puts doubts in my mind that Xinran doesn’t explore. Is it true, and is it fair? Is the new generation really so much worse off? It is a deeply pessimistic note to end on if so. The trials of the older generations have an anguished nostalgia – their times do not come across as easy, but they do feel fulfilling and full of life. Did they feel so at the time? One of the subjects compares dating to exhausting travel. When this younger generation looks back on their youth will they only remember the exhaustion and pain, or will they also allow themselves a wistful smile at their ‘journey’ and lost loves in uncertain times?

While the final section did leave me feeling a little hollow, I did love this book. Xinran had originally planned a fifth section to retell some classic Chinese love stories – they are not needed, as there is plenty of love in this book already.

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This book opened my eyes and broke my heart in equal measure. When I first started reading I wondered why I had requested a copy of this, as I have such little interest in politics, and I’ll admit I found the political elements of this book difficult to keep up with, but at its heart this is a book about love, a universal theme.
This is the story of four generations of Chinese women, and how the political landscape and familial expectations affected the way they loved - we begin with the story of Red, an 80-something virgin who has been in an arranged marriage all her life to a man in love with someone else, and finish with 3 of the latest generation who are experimenting with online dating and flash marriages.
There is a lot of tragedy and heartbreak in this story, from unrequited love to the horrors of revolution, but there is also beauty in the strength of many of the relationships, and I loved the poetry that tied so many of the generations together. I found this absolutely engrossing and harrowing, but also found that it shone a light on the best of humanity as so many of these stories were full of selfless, warm and kind people living in the best way they could. I cried, I learnt a lot and I think this one will stay with me for a very long time - an absolute must read.

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The Promise gives an insight into the China we rarely hear about.
Exploring the relationships through four generations of women - Xinran Xue provides a deep and yet richly narrated non fiction text which details love, heartbreak, relationships and revolution.

It was at times hard to read, very emotional and raw.

I really enjoyed The Promise, it was enlightening and informative.

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