Xinran Quotes.

1. "When you walk into your memories, you are opening a door to the past; the road within has many branches, and the route is different every time."
- Quote by Xinran

2. "إنْ كان هناك حياة أُخرى، فلا أريد أنْ أُخلق إمرأة من جديد"
- Quote by Xinran

3. "Guardei o segredo da Catadora de Lixo e nunca contei ao filho que ela passara um longo tempo acompanhando seus movimentos. Mas nunca mais fui à casa dele, pois a Catadora de Lixo, cuja memória eu prezo muito, nunca atravessou sequer a soleira daquela casa. Embora ele parecesse tão abastado, ela é que era realmente rica."
- Quote by Xinran

4. "Everybody says women are like water. I think it's because water is the source of life, and it adapts itself to its environment. Like women, water also gives of itself wherever it goes to nurture life...."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

5. "I received no praise for the rescue of this girl, only criticism for "moving the troops about and stirring up the people" and wasting the radio station's time and money. I was shaken by these complaints. A young girl had been in danger and yet going to her rescue was seen as "exhausting the people and draining the treasury". Just what was a woman's life worth in China?"
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

6. "(As a "grandchild of a capitalist household":) At school, I was forbidden to take singing and dancing lessons with the other girls because I was not to "pollute" the arena of the revolution. Even though I was short-sighted, I was not allowed to sit in the front row in class because the best places were reserved for the children born to peasants, workers or soldiers; they were deemed to have 'straight roots and red shoots'. Similarly, I was forbidden to stand in the front row during PE lessons, though I was the smallest in the class, because the place nearest the teacher were for the 'next generation of the revolution'."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

7. "(While interviewing The University Student:) 'Oh, poor Xinran. You haven't even got the various categories of women straight. How can you possibly hope to understand men? Let me tell you. When men have been drinking, they come out with a set of definitions for women. Lovers are "swordfish", tasty but with sharp bones. "Personal secretaries" are "carp", the longer you "stew" them, the more flavour they have. Other men's wives are "Japanese puffer fish", trying a mouthful could be the end of you, but risking death is a source of pride.' 'And what about their own wives?' 'Salt cod, because it keeps for a long time. When there is no other food, salt cod is cheap and convenient."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

8. "(While interviewing at the Hunan women's prison:) 'I have lived with several men, and let them amuse themselves with me. Because of that, I have been sent to two labour reeducation camps and been sentenced to prison twice. (...) When people curse me for having no shame, I don't get angry. All the Chinese care about is "face", but they don't understand how their faces are linked to the rest of their bodies."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

9. "(While interviewing The University Student:) 'Good Chinese women are conditioned to behave in a soft, meek manner, and they bring this behaviour to bed. As a result, their husbands say that they have no sex appeal, and the women submit to oppression, convinced the fault is their own. They must bear the pain of menstruation and childbirth, and work like men to keep the family when their husbands don't earn enough. The men pin pictures of beautiful women above the bed to arouse themselves, while their wives blame themselves for their care-worn bodies."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

10. "No matter how revolutionary people were, he said, they could not live without books. Without books, we would not understand the world; without books, we could not develop; without books, nature could not serve humanity."
- Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices