About this item
Like a suspense novel, this book is impossible to put down. All readers interested in China, as well as memoir fans especially of success stories, must read this astonishing title.--Library Journal Starred Review In Aisling Juanjuan Shens remarkable and assured memoir, a peasant girl born to illiterate parents and bleak prospects rises to prominence as the first person in her village to graduate college. Determined to escape the trappings of rural village life, she leaves the stability of a government-assigned teaching post behind and bravely ventures to the south in search of wealth and happiness. Shen offers a brutally honest and vivid portrait of the early days of Chinas economic boom, the fascinating interplay between the provinces, the lives of those who leave and those who remain behind, and the cost of abandoning tradition for the promise of prosperity.
About the Author
I was born to illiterate peasants in a tiny rice-farming hamlet in China's Yangtze Delta in 1974. Pronounced useless by my parents because I wasn't good at planting rice, I became the first person from my village ever to attend college. After graduating from a teachers' college, I was assigned by the government to a remote and low-paying teaching job that I was expected to hold for the rest of my life. Deeply dissatisfied, I bought my way out of my secure government job and left for the special economic zones of southern China in search of happiness and success in the business world. In 2000 I immigrated to the U.S. and graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 2005. I am currently working as an equity research associate in an investment management firm in Boston.
