Northern Girls

• I’ve noted before, in the fiction of Ouyang Yu, that Chinese writing can be rather ‘earthy’ and this is certainly true of Northern Girls. Set in the 1990s as China’s economic development surged, the Northern Girls are young women who leave their villages for the bright lights and apparent freedom of the city where they have to learn to be streetwise very quickly. It’s an old, old story in a very new setting.

• I listened to it as an audiobook on Czech Radio; I loved both the content and the production. It was wonderfully pleasant to listen to, with a clear and engaging plot. Together with Etzler's book on China, it gave me a detailed portrayal of rural people migrating to megacities hundreds of miles away to earn a living for themselves and their families.

• This was in the end a very good book and Xiaohong, the heroine, grows into a fascinating character as the novel develops. I was for the first 60% of the novel constantly reminded of those 18th century picaresque novels in which the hero finds himself in all sorts of strange situations which ultimately always get resolved for the best. Thereafter the story seemed to become much less episodic but much more gripping.

• The author places great importance on the emotional layer. What I appreciate most in this book is the way feelings and emotions are expressed—simple and subtle, yet saying so much.

• A brilliantly told, poignant story about societal pressure, a form of cancel culture that drives people to despair, and bad (yet best available) choices made in the face of exclusion. Very good.

1 / 5