Description
‘I broke a law simply by being born.’
In the late 1980s, Shen Yang was born during the fiercest years of China’s One-Child Policy. As the second daughter of the family, she was a massive liability – an excess child, a product of illegal birth.
From being raised by her grandparents in a remote village as soon as she was born, to being whisked away to her aunt’s home in a distant faraway city, Shen Yang’s existence was doomed to be shrouded in the utmost secrecy and silence. Armed with a false identity and ID card, she experienced years of neglect and humiliation from her aunt’s volatile family who saw her as yet another burden to bear. On top of it all, it seemed her own biological parents had come to forget about her.
In a riveting memoir, by turns witty and inspiring, Shen Yang bravely provides a vivid account of the family planning era in China, as she jots down her journey towards overcoming the limits of her upbringing and forging her own identity amidst the sorrows of her childhood.
More than One Child is not only Shen Yang’s story; it is the untold story of the enormous, yet invisible community of excess-birth children. And this book is Shen Yang’s way of saying goodbye to her childhood, and goodbye to an era.
The book sparked a lot of interest in the western media and has already been translated into Finnish and Arabic.
More Information
Rights Information
The title was originally written in Chinese but unpublished. It was translated in English by Nicky Harman and published by Balestier Press.
The rights of the English version belong to Balestier Press
The rights of the original Chinese version belong to the author Shen Yang (for inquiries: shenyang11-21@qq.com)
Endorsements
"This is the voice of China’s Invisible Generation - vividly written, well balanced, brilliant, humorous and very sharp - it elicits a rollercoaster of emotions that breaks through the silence shrouding the lives of excess children born during the One-Child Policy."
— Xinran Xue, Author of The Good Women of China, The Promise: Tales of Love and Loss in Modern China and more
"Now that the one-child policy has been relaxed, the stories of these illegal children will soon be a part of China’s national collective memory. But to those who grew up tainted with this humiliation, the scars are permanent. One is Chinese writer Shen Yang, who wrote her story in part to extinguish the nightmares that still haunt her."
— The Guardian
"More Than One Child would be important and interesting as an historical record regardless of its literary merits, but these are considerable. It is vividly-written and thoughtfully-structured. Though as a child Shen Yang was often weeping, her recollections of doing so never descend into self-pity. She can write about the bleakest circumstances with humor."
— Rosie Milne, Asian Review of Books
Reviews
★★★★★ Natalie (Amazon)
This book is incredibly written! If you are looking for a book that perfectly describes the perspective of an excess child during the one child policy, you should definitely check that out! It’s really touching and convey a deeper meaning of what it’s like to be an excess child.
★★★★★ John Traphagan (Goodreads)
This is a superb book that should be read by anyone interested in the experience of people who are excluded from society. Yang writes a poignant and touching account of her life growing up in China under draconian population laws. We learn what it was like to be a non-citizen, and basically a non-entity, in Chinese society simply as a result of being born. The book is personal and brings the reader through many difficult experiences, while somehow retaining a positive tone. I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in China, but also to those who want to understand the lived experience of being rejected by society as well as the strength and resilience the author develops as she grows up and learns to be independent. It's a wonderful book.
This book is incredibly written! If you are looking for a book that perfectly describes the perspective of an excess child during the one child policy, you should definitely check that out! It’s really touching and convey a deeper meaning of what it’s like to be an excess child.
★★★★★ Atulya Kriday (Goodreads)
More Than One Child is a moving memoir of a girl’s resilience and her ability to forge through life despite her bitter circumstances. It is history—a mosaic of inked words legitimating the experiences of the illegal, a brave voice echoing the memories of the countless children otherwise lost in the labyrinth of time.
Author Biography
Shen Yang came to the world as an "excess child" (heihaizi) and does not legally exist to this day.
Born in Shandong China in 1986, she belongs to the millions of “invisible children” who violated the One-Child Policy and were forced to live in the shadows of the Chinese society.
Amidst a troubled childhood, Shen Yang found solace in literature: with More Than One Child serving as a farewell to both her childhood and an era, her debut illustration book, Golden Childhood, is a vibrant celebration of her fondest memories in the idyllic countryside.
Graduated in English, Shen Yang studied script writing at Beijing Film Academy, and has also written opinion pieces for The Telegraph and South China Morning Post. You can find more info at shenyangyang.com or on her instagram/twitter @shenyang_1121.
Balestier Press
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Balestier Press
- Publication Date September 2021
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781913891091 / 1913891097
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 16.99 GBP
- Pages280
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2021
- Dimensions216 x 138 mm
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