Xinran of 'Buy Me the Sky' Discusses One Child Policy and China's Future
With March's 2016 edition of the Bookworm Literary Festival on the horizon, we are currently in the process of interviewing all of the Penguin China authors poised to attend the festival. We first talk to Xinran, the Beijing-born author of Buy Me the Sky who currently resides in London, to learn more about her experience growing up in China and her book.
The book looks at the generation of only children born in China between 1979 and 1984. When asked about what she perceives their grievances to be, Xinran says that they are: “lonely, confused, and maybe tangled too. Lonely because they don’t have any history, experience, and knowledge to learn about how to be a child in a single child society. Neither do their parents, who come from big families which are rooted by Chinese tradition and culture. Confused, because China has reformed and challenges many historical, political, and traditional values during their growing up under the 36-year-long one child policy period. And tangled, because no one is able to advice or guide them on how to deal with their unique society, and how to follow the fast changing environments in China. For example, will their own family have one or two children?”
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There’s a big difference between the generation she writes about, and her own generation. “I have three words on the back of my iPad: silence, forgiveness, and love. It’s too painful to talk about my childhood during the Cultural Revolution, but without forgiveness I wouldn’t be able to care about and love the country of my roots, and love is the powerhouse of my life.”
As with almost everything, there were a wide range of pros and cons to the now defunct one child policy. Lower population has most certainly aided China’s fast development since its "opening up" in 1989, however, contemporary Chinese society now also battles gender imbalance and other issues as a direct result of these same policies, as Xinran explores in Buy Me the Sky.
Deeper troubles as a result of the one child policy, Xinran explains, lie at the core of Chinese family values, which, according to Chinese tradition, is one of the cornerstones of society. “This has been damaged by a single children society. The Chinese have become confused by social changes, family structure without rules, and polluted by some Western celebrity culture such as drugs and sexual behaviors,” she tells us.
For future generations, now that the one child policy is no more, Xinran expects there to be a big changes afoot. “China is a fast learner and a hard worker! There is no other country in human history that could have reformed in such a short period of time, from a poor boy into a rich big brother.”
“I do believe that new generations of Chinese will live a much better life if China can allow an independent legal system and the freedom of beliefs and speech. If China can be honest about its own history within the education of the new generations.”
When asked whether or not she herself would consider giving up London to move back to Beijing, she exalts: “Oh, I dream to! If the blue skies come back to Beijing.” That's something we can definitely get behind.
Buy Me the Sky is available at The Bookworm.
More stories by this author here.
Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
Instagram: s.xuagram
Photos: independent.co.uk, courtesy of Penguin
