Private Revolutions

This is the book I've been wanting to read for some time: an inside account of normal female lives in today's China as the country oscillates between a managed economy and the new capitalism. Yang tells four stories of different young women who deal with the issues we all do as we mature but with the additional background of a changing China. Dealing with education, work, family, what it might mean to be an activist in a repressive regime, this is enlightening for the way difference is represented, and for the way these female lives are completely relatable.

At times the writing is a little dry but the contents are illuminating and informative.

An astonishing, painstaking and often painful to read work, about the lives of four modern individual Chinese women set against the wider and almost inconceivably vast population of hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of years of tradition.
Written by a Chinese-British journalist, Yuan Yang traces the lives of these young women during the economic boom of the 1980s when opportunities opened up, but demanded a move from rural poverty to the more affluent cities.
But my goodness, are there hurdles to overcome. So many traditional rules and regulations about residency and consequent entitlement or limitation, traditionally, exhaustingly long hours toiling in factories or on the land, missed opportunities and family pressures. But in their own, and very different ways, these four do overcome these hurdles, stumbling at times,maybe, but overall, successfully. And the lives they build for themselves are testament to courage, determination and initiative. And have massive impacts on many others.

This is an important book, which I will never forget.
Bravo Yuan Yang and thank you #NetGalley and Bloomsbury publishing plc (UK and ANZ) for my re-release download.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book - I have read a few books set during the 1950s and 60s in China, but this was fascinating as it covered the era I grew up in, of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It was really interesting to have a glimpse of how China pivoted from rural farming labour to manufacturing and education in huge cities. The women had many things in common, particularly the movement of their families to the cities, and some were more successful than others. It really painted a picture of how attitudes have changed over the past few decades, and how the internet and technology have had an impact, especailly for workers' and womens' rights which are both woefully inadequate. A very interesting factual read.

Really well-researched, yet personal and intimate. A great insight into contemporary China and a peek into one slice of being a working woman.

In the vein of The Good Women of China and Factory Girls, Yuan Yang tells the stories of four millennial women coming of age in a fast-changing China.

Leiya, Siyue, June and Sam are all engaging protagonists: ordinary, remarkable young women. Yang weaves their stories together to represent a cross-section of the modern female experience in China, a world of breakneck change. Yang tackles some weighty themes and sprawling political concepts - economic reform, emerging labour movements and the pressures of urbanisation - but by keeping a tight focus on her four subjects, she keeps these issues intimate and relevant. I felt like I learned a lot without really trying: Yang's fluid, personable prose makes for a compelling read.

Private Revolutions is an impressive piece of biographical non-fiction: a coming of age story not just of four young women, but of twenty-first centry China itself.