Critics' Opinion:
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Published Feb 2018
288 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
Factory Girls meets The Vagina Monologues in this fascinating narrative on China's single women - and why they could be the source of its economic future.
Forty years ago, China enacted the one-child policy, only recently relaxed. Among many other unintended consequences, it resulted in both an enormous gender imbalance - with a predicted twenty million more men than women of marriage age by 2020 - and China's first generations of only-daughters. Given the resources normally reserved for boys, these girls were pushed to study, excel in college, and succeed in careers, as if they were sons.
Now living in an economic powerhouse, enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage - or not marry at all - to spawn a label: "leftovers." Unprecedentedly well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners in a society where gender roles have not evolved as vigorously as society itself, and where new professional opportunities have made women less willing to compromise their careers or concede to marriage for the sake of being wed. Further complicating their search for a mate, the vast majority of China's single men reside in and are tied to the rural areas where they were raised. This makes them geographically, economically, and educationally incompatible with city-dwelling "leftovers," who also face difficulty in partnering with urban men, given the urban men's general preference for more dutiful, domesticated wives.
Part critique of China's paternalistic ideals, part playful portrait of the romantic travails of China's trailblazing women and their well-meaning parents who are anxious to see their daughters snuggled into traditional wedlock, Roseann Lake's Leftover in China focuses on the lives of four individual women against a backdrop of colorful anecdotes, hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic research to show how these "leftovers" are the linchpin to China's future.
"[An] invigorating account of China's rapidly changing culture, told from the perspective a particularly unique segment of the population." - Publishers Weekly
"An interesting read for the layperson and a useful book for scholars of everything from gender studies to economics, opening up Chinese culture in a way that is engaging and informational." - Library Journal
"A solid debut book providing intriguing insights into the current state of China's sociocultural system." - Kirkus
"If you think dating in twenty-first-century America is confusing, read Roseann Lake's fascinating survey of singlehood and marriage in China, where seismic shifts have rendered the social landscape virtually unrecognizable. Packed with lively interviews and fascinating historical details, Leftover in China is vivid, generous, and illuminating." - Kate Bolick, author of Spinster
"As a Chinese woman, I can feel and hear Chinese women's minds and voices radiating through Leftover in China. It conveys a powerful message that encapsulates and epitomizes today's rapidly changing China." - Xinran, author of Buy Me the Sky
"What a fascinating book. Roseann Lake captures China's tense sociopolitical climate today, as their ancient, deeply rooted traditions, values and beliefs about sex, romance, and marriage clash with the powerful current trend toward individualism in this dedicated collectivist society. The aftershocks of the 'one-child' policy; Chinese women entering the market in droves; today's antiquated Chinese courtship codes; this book depicts the profound global shift in human family life with elegance, clarity, insight, humor, and verve. It's a great read." - Helen Fisher, author of The Anatomy of Love
This information about Leftover in China was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Roseann Lake is The Economist's Cuba correspondent. She was previously based in Beijing, where she worked for five years as a television reporter and journalist. Her China coverage has appeared in Foreign Policy, Time, The Atlantic, Salon, and Vice, among others. She lives between New York City and Havana.
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