Very interesting look at the poverty and hopes of a rural Chinese girl. ( )

Very interesting look at the poverty and hopes of a rural Chinese girl. ( )

EL DIARIO DE MA YAN

Ma Yan vive en Ningxia, una de las zonas más deprimidas de la China rural. Sus padres no pueden seguir pagando sus gastos escolares y la niña sabe que pronto deberá abandonar la escuela y sus esperanzas de tener una vida mejor. En su diario, Ma Yan describe sus penas, sus anhelos y su durísima vida diaria en ese rincón de China olvidado por las autoridades, expresa su rabia y habla de sus ganas de estudiar y del amor que siente por sus padres. Ma Yan nos cuenta las dificultades casi siempre insalvables con las que se enfrenta. Pero un día su madre analfabeta entrega estos diarios a un periodista francés de paso por la región, y a partir de ese momento la vida de Ma Yan cambia radicalmente...

Ma Yan and her family live in one of the poorest village in China. Everyday Ma Yan and her two brothers would walk over four hours to get to school, even in the rain and snow. Whenever it get tough, she would think of the sacrifices that her parents had to make in order for her and her brother to stay in school. She would remind herself constantly in her journal all the things her parents have done for her. She pushes herself to work harder in school whenever she thinks of them. Education is the only way she knows how to get her family out of poverty. From Ma Yan’s short journal passages of her every day life, make me appreciate everything I have even more. In a way, it also makes me feel guilty for the things I took for granted such as meat, able to drive to school, and the privilege to go college. ( )

It was a very interesting book to read. On the one hand it made me feel guilty for all the wealth we have and usually take for granted. It was also nice to learn how things work in the Chinese rural community. I was often very moved by the despair that Ma Yan so obviously felt.
I was a bit annoyed by the constant repetition of 'I have to study hard to get a better life and make my mother's life better' or words like these. It almost feels like a mantra to me, if you say it loud and often enough, you automatically start believing it.
What shook me most is, that there's such a ginormous gap in development between urban and rural areas and that the (central) government is not doing anything about it. As it seems from the last part of the book, things haven't changed a lot (yet). ( )