Take a photo of a barcode or cover
11 reviews for:
Compre-Me O Céu: A Incrível Verdade Sobre As Gerações De Filhos Únicos Da China
Xinran
3.46 AVERAGE
11 reviews for:
Compre-Me O Céu: A Incrível Verdade Sobre As Gerações De Filhos Únicos Da China
Xinran
3.46 AVERAGE
The first children to be born under China’s one child policy are now in their mid-thirties. The consequences of such a policy have been enormous, and not always in a good way. One very serious downside is the huge gender imbalance with millions of men having to face the fact that they will never marry and have their own children. And then you get something like a devastating earthquake which collapses a school, and hundreds of only children are lost.
Xue Xinran is a Chinese born journalist, broadcaster, speaker and advocate for women’s issues. She moved to London in 1997 where she still lives, and has a son who was born during the one-child policy, and now also lives in London. So she has a foot in both camps, so to speak. With the huge migrations of Chinese young people to Western cities for study and/or work, this has made her the perfect architect to work on initiatives that help build understanding between China and the West, and between the birth culture and the adoptive culture. It follows that she has developed some unique insight into the differences between the two cultures. In this book she looks at the effect the one child policy has had on these young people as they take on the huge load of expectations that their parents have piled onto them since birth. The young people whose lives she documents come from both rich and poor families, urban and rural. Some are educated, some are not. Some get on with their families and parents, some do not. There are extremes in the capabilities of these young people, the most startling being the young man who has no idea how to open his suitcase. One of the students comes to this country, New Zealand, for her study. It is a little unsettling reading about the city you live in, that has a very large Chinese student population, being seen by the Chinese as quite far down in the pecking order of desirable places to study in, but is still much better than going nowhere at all! I would be alarmed if this was my one and only precious child.
This collection of interviews also highlights the consequences for personal development that the one child policy has – narcissism, over indulgence – hence the title ‘Buy Me the Sky’, inability to understand the concept of personal responsibility, the overwhelming/ingrained from birth need to please one’s family to the exclusion of any personal enjoyment, and trying to straddle the East/West cultural divide.
In our Western cities, many of us now live in close proximity to families who have, in recent years, migrated from mainland China. I wanted to read this book to give myself a greater understanding of the type of society and world that my new Chinese neighbours have come from. So different in every possible way from the type of society and cultural norms I come from. I found this book such an eye opener, and with the large migrations taking place from China to the West, so informative in helping even if just a little, to understand and learn how other societies operate.
Xue Xinran is a Chinese born journalist, broadcaster, speaker and advocate for women’s issues. She moved to London in 1997 where she still lives, and has a son who was born during the one-child policy, and now also lives in London. So she has a foot in both camps, so to speak. With the huge migrations of Chinese young people to Western cities for study and/or work, this has made her the perfect architect to work on initiatives that help build understanding between China and the West, and between the birth culture and the adoptive culture. It follows that she has developed some unique insight into the differences between the two cultures. In this book she looks at the effect the one child policy has had on these young people as they take on the huge load of expectations that their parents have piled onto them since birth. The young people whose lives she documents come from both rich and poor families, urban and rural. Some are educated, some are not. Some get on with their families and parents, some do not. There are extremes in the capabilities of these young people, the most startling being the young man who has no idea how to open his suitcase. One of the students comes to this country, New Zealand, for her study. It is a little unsettling reading about the city you live in, that has a very large Chinese student population, being seen by the Chinese as quite far down in the pecking order of desirable places to study in, but is still much better than going nowhere at all! I would be alarmed if this was my one and only precious child.
This collection of interviews also highlights the consequences for personal development that the one child policy has – narcissism, over indulgence – hence the title ‘Buy Me the Sky’, inability to understand the concept of personal responsibility, the overwhelming/ingrained from birth need to please one’s family to the exclusion of any personal enjoyment, and trying to straddle the East/West cultural divide.
In our Western cities, many of us now live in close proximity to families who have, in recent years, migrated from mainland China. I wanted to read this book to give myself a greater understanding of the type of society and world that my new Chinese neighbours have come from. So different in every possible way from the type of society and cultural norms I come from. I found this book such an eye opener, and with the large migrations taking place from China to the West, so informative in helping even if just a little, to understand and learn how other societies operate.
An interesting, and easy to read, collection of essays on the struggles of China's one-child families.
As the parent of an only child, I could clearly see that my cultural background is significantly different to that of these children. In many parts of the book, the sweeping generalisations about only children annoyed me, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was their culture, and in mine its a different experience - children are treated differently, and only children aren't a new / enforced situation. And perhaps its that forced situation that makes these only children so precious in China - that because I can decide for myself that one is enough, I don't feel the need to pour all the desires of my many potential children into that one child. Nor am I concerned about who will look after me in my old age.
Comparatively, these only children have been babied spectacularly, and released into the world effectively unable to do anything for themselves. And it reads as though the parents like it that way?!? Is not our role as parents to be guardians of our children, raising them to independent adulthood and then letting them go? These are people my age, who left home unable to cook for themselves, and in some cases, unable to clean up after themselves!
I did love the increased feel for Chinese culture that I was granted through reading this book, and I would love to read more by Xinran. I would love to see her to a work on the lives of the parents of these only children - as she touched on in the last chapter, there are a lot of untold stories of how these families stayed at only one child, which many Chinese expats seem to feel are unknown around the world (they aren't, the fact of female child infanticide in particularly rural China is definitely something many are aware of, but do not speak about).
Xinran's translator has done a wonderful job in making this an easy read.
As the parent of an only child, I could clearly see that my cultural background is significantly different to that of these children. In many parts of the book, the sweeping generalisations about only children annoyed me, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was their culture, and in mine its a different experience - children are treated differently, and only children aren't a new / enforced situation. And perhaps its that forced situation that makes these only children so precious in China - that because I can decide for myself that one is enough, I don't feel the need to pour all the desires of my many potential children into that one child. Nor am I concerned about who will look after me in my old age.
Comparatively, these only children have been babied spectacularly, and released into the world effectively unable to do anything for themselves. And it reads as though the parents like it that way?!? Is not our role as parents to be guardians of our children, raising them to independent adulthood and then letting them go? These are people my age, who left home unable to cook for themselves, and in some cases, unable to clean up after themselves!
I did love the increased feel for Chinese culture that I was granted through reading this book, and I would love to read more by Xinran. I would love to see her to a work on the lives of the parents of these only children - as she touched on in the last chapter, there are a lot of untold stories of how these families stayed at only one child, which many Chinese expats seem to feel are unknown around the world (they aren't, the fact of female child infanticide in particularly rural China is definitely something many are aware of, but do not speak about).
Xinran's translator has done a wonderful job in making this an easy read.
Xinran is a somewhat obvious choice for completing "X" on my 2016 Author A-Z challenge, but it's an author whose work I've enjoyed in the past. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Buy me the Sky, Xinran's investigations on China's "one child policy".
This book follows the first generation of only children, to see what impact the policy has had on their family life. However, without exception the stories turned out to be detailed exposés of selfish children, their ineffectual parents, and how Xinran could sweep in at a moment's notice to save them both. The stories were formulaic and I have to say that by the time I got 60% of the way through the book, I had given up.
Personally it would have been more interesting to follow the second generation of only children. The ones who were truly alone without aunts, uncles or cousins. I'm sure this must have changed the dynamic even further. But this wasn't a book I could get into - despite my love of all things China.
This review was originally posted on Babs' Bookshelf
This book follows the first generation of only children, to see what impact the policy has had on their family life. However, without exception the stories turned out to be detailed exposés of selfish children, their ineffectual parents, and how Xinran could sweep in at a moment's notice to save them both. The stories were formulaic and I have to say that by the time I got 60% of the way through the book, I had given up.
Personally it would have been more interesting to follow the second generation of only children. The ones who were truly alone without aunts, uncles or cousins. I'm sure this must have changed the dynamic even further. But this wasn't a book I could get into - despite my love of all things China.
This review was originally posted on Babs' Bookshelf
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
an interesting take on the one-child policy, can't really call this a positive one either but something that is often ignored. Reading more about the infanticides and Chinese politics behind this issue would have been interesting as well but I do understand the author's decision to leave those out. This is not a general book on the issue, but if you want to know about something more niche, check this out.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Buy Me the Sky documents the lives of nine children born during the time of China's One Child Policy (1979 to mid 1980s). This is the first book I've read about the policy and the fact it's written by a female Chinese author makes my heart happy. Xinran has a clear passion for China and its people, that shines through her words in the book. She briefly touches on other subjects like infanticide and mothers wanting to only birth male children. Though very interesting, I found there was a lot of repetition in the book... lots of the 'one and onlies' shared similar feelings of loneliness and high expectations. I also found her conversations with them were written out, making the book read more like a play, which I think made it less readable.
emotional
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced