Pen name: Xinran
Xinran is a British-Chinese journalist and writer. She began hosting her own radio show in China, Words on the Night Breeze, in the late 1980s, before moving to London in 1997. Her seminal book on Chinese women’s lives, The Good Women of China, was published in 2002 and relatedmany of the stories she heard on her radio show. It has since been translated into over thirty languages.
Sky Burial, Xinran’s second book, was published in 2004. It told the incredible true story of Shu Wen, whose husband joined the Chinese army only a few months after their marriage in the 1950s, and was sent to Tibet to try and unify the two cultures.
What the Chinese Don’t Eat, a collection of Xinran’s Guardian columns from 2003 to 2005, was published in 2006. It covers a vast range of topics,from food to sex education, from the experiences of British mothers who have adopted Chinese daughters to whether Chinese people do Christmas shopping.
Miss Chopsticks, Xinran’s first novel, was published in July 2007. It explores the uneasy relationship between Chinese migrant workers and the cities they flock to, and how the country’s economic reforms have changed the role of so-called ‘chopstick girls’. Once considereddisposable, they now take city jobs as waitresses, masseuses, factory line workers and cleaners, and bring bundles of cash home. This earns them respect in their patriarchal villages, as well as the respect and hearts of city dwellers.
China Witness, Xinran’s fifth book, was published in October 2008. It is based on twenty years’ worth of interviews she conducted with the last two generations in China. She hopes it will ‘restore a real modern history of China, from real people after most historical evidence was destroyed in the Culture Revolution’.
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, Xinran’s Sixth book, was published in 2010. It is a collection of heartbreaking stories from Chinese mothers who have lost their children, or been forced to abandon them.
Buy Me the Sky, Xinran’s seventh book, contains stories from the first generation of China’s one child policy. It was published in the UK in May 2015, and in other countries in 2016.
The Promise, Xinran’s eighth book, was published in 2019. The storytells the romantic journeys of four generations within one Chinese family, spanning a century marked by profound social change. It is dedicated to the Xinran’s beloved husband Toby Eady, the renowned literary agent, who succumbed to bladder cancer on December 24 2017, after a bravethree-year battle.
Still Hot a collection of surprising, affecting, funny and emotional stories about forty-two women, including Xinran, who share their very personal stories of the menopause. It was published in 2020.
Barefoot Books Water is a collection of stories, published in 2021, told by a friendly water droplet, guiding children through topics ranging from melting and freezing to the ways in which water literally shapes the Earth. These stories are told by storytellers from around the world, includingXinran.
The Book of Secrets, Xinran’s ninth book, was published by Bloomsburyin February 2024. It tells the incredible story of a Chinese man through thesecret letters he left to his wife and daughter, providing unique insight into the history of war, love, deceit, betrayal and political intrigue in Chinaover the past century.
China Adorned was first conceived by Toby Eady in 2009. From 2009 to 2014, Xinran and Toby led a team in seeking out an author and a photographer with the necessary expertise and experience. In 2018, Chinese anthropologist Deng Qiyao became attached to the project and began writing the text, which was translated into English by Will Spence and Fan Wu. From 2019-2022, the book was brought together and designed by publishers Thames & Hudson in Australia/UK and Yilin Pressin China, with Xinran serving as Executive Editor. The book, the first ever Chinese-English bilingual picture book on Chinese ethnic minorities, was published in 2022.
2004 Xinran set up ‘The Mothers’ Bridge of Love’ (MBL) with a group of volunteers to reach out to Chinese children in all corners of the worldby creating a bridge of understanding between China and the West and between adoptive culture and birth culture. MBL ultimately wants to help bridge the huge poverty gap which still exists in many parts of China.
2007 The MBL book for adoptive families, Mother’s Bridge of Love,came third in TIME magazine’s list of the top ten children’s books of the year.
2004-2024 MBL has been supporting MBL Adoptive Families in nearly twenty countries.
2005-2023 MBL has set up 28 village school libraries in poor regions of China with the Books for Kids project.
2013-2018 MBL organised an annual Chinese Spring Festival celebration with the V&A Museum of Childhood and China Exchange.
2020-2022 MBL set up MBL Culture Dialogue, a monthly online event fostering better understanding between China and the West, and helping overseas Chinese students during Covid. MBL social media also published 500 short essays by Xinran on the pandemic.
2022-2023 MBL, with Fusion Education (FES) and KYX International (KYX), organised the 1st and 2nd UK English Chinese Bilingual Recitation Competition, for students from across the UK, aged six to eighteen, competing in five different age groups. The events weresupported by over 40 MBL volunteers.
2024 MBL joined a UK education project by British Council and the Consulate of Chongqing in China, and set up an online quarterly event Dialogue about Adoption, helping Chinese adoptees to communicatebetween birth and adoptive culture.
MBL is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024!
Xinran often advises western media (Including BBC, CNN and Sky) about western relations with China, and makes frequent television and radio appearances.
2008, for the 40th anniversary of Time Out magazine, Xinran was selected as one of the 10 ‘Beijing Heroes’.
2011, for the 100th International Women’s Day, Xinran was named in theGuardian’s 100 Most Inspirational Women in the World.
2013, Xinran was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Anthropology by Hamilton College USA and was selected as ‘Year Writer of The Library of Congress –Asia, LOC.USA’. 2014-2015, Xinran’s book The Good Women of China was selected for the ‘UK Vintage Classical Collection’; and in the ‘Penguin Drop Caps’ series of twenty-six editions with an ‘A’ for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, ‘B’ for Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre… and ‘X’ for Xinran’s Sky Burial.
2019, Xinran was awarded as a Woman of The Year and a Woman of Influence in the UK.
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Jon Snow (Presenter, Channel 4 News)
‘Extraordinary’
The Guardian
‘Xinran’s stories tell of lovers doomed by Communist Party rules, spouses separated by the party’s call to duty, a generation of leaders’ wives ditched in favour of more suitable models for the New China and of the emotional cruelty of the Cultural Revolution.’
New York Times
‘Remarkable. . . . Heart-wrenching from beginning to end.’
New Statesman
‘Xinran writes with a fine balance of economy, compassion and wisdom… at once proud, critical, forward-looking, nostalgic, sad, angry and hopeful.’
The Australian
‘Her book opens a window to the hidden world of Chinese women’s inner lives. With every sentence it demolishes the official lie that they share equal status with men.’
Metro
‘Xinran’s writing…has offered a window to Westerners on to
Chinese culture and society’
Financial Times, Geoff Dyer
‘a series of raw interviews with a remarkable collection of older Chinese, mostly in their seventies and eighties… this book does showcase Xinran’s rare talent rare talent for getting ordinary Chinese to open up – a considerable achievement in a country where even casual conversations with strangers are often still governed by webs of self-censorship… China Witness says as much about contemporary China as it does about the recent past’
Eve
‘an unforgettable book’
The Sunday Telegraph
‘The power of her book stems from its simplicity.’