馬燕日記

Ma Yan began to write her diary when she was thirteen in her last year in elementary on her way to middle school.  But her family could not afford to support her middle school, and she was asked to stay home.  She begged to continue her schooling for her goal as she wrote in her diary was “I have to study hard to make a contribution to my country and my people.  That’s my hope.

Her family has five members — her parents, two brothers and herself. They live in the village of Zhangiashu of Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia [ 寧夏回族自治區 ].

China is much developed now as many cities have new high rise buildings, and full of commercial activities, one cannot deny the prosperous of a nation when entering all these big cities. Unfortunately, families living in rural areas have found great difficulties in support their children to get education. They work so hard in keeping their existence, let alone educationing them. There is no free education even for elementary schooling in China.  Villagers find that their children get no education, thus their next generation will probably be a reserve for the cheap labour force of the future.  There are many cases that parents go extra mile to work day and night picking scraps for money for one child to go to school.  Hoping this one child will change their life in the future.

This book was first published in France in 2002. It has created an outpouring of support for Ma Yan, and was later translated into English and published in UK. Now the book is published in America by Harper Collin Publishers in 2005. 

A note on the book jacket indicates that “A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The Association for the Children of Ningxia."

A very good book. 

—–

Filed: books
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.