Note: Xinran has heavily accented English, so listeners will probably find it easier to listen while reading the transcript, which you can find below.

Xinran is an internationally acclaimed author, journalist, and activist. 

Born in Beijing in 1958 to educated parents, Xinran was separated from her mother and father during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution because her parents were imprisoned.

In this episode, Xinran tells host Josh Steimle the moving recollection of her early memories, when she came home from school to find her parent’s house on fire after being set alight by the Red Guards. She recalls losing all her books during that traumatic event.

Raised by her grandparents, Xinran hosted a radio show, Words on the Night Breeze, in the 1980s. It aired between 10 p.m. until midnight because, she was told, no one listened to her show. 

However, she received hundreds of letters from listeners every day, revealing the true and enormous size of her radio audience. These letters as well as phone calls became the basis of some of her books later on, and hugely influenced her writing.

Xinran’s most recent book is The Promise. Other books include

Message From An Unknown Chinese Mother, Buy Me The Sky, and her first novel, Miss Chopsticks, released in 2007.

Xinran says: “If you read all of my books, 99 percent are not my life story. It’s all the people’s story.”

She explains that when she started writing she realized she didn’t know the real China. 

“I found this history . . . that I didn’t know. It wasn’t in my textbooks, wasn’t in books. People never talk about this,” she says. “People in the countryside are very poor, but people never talked about it. It was three generations in silence.”

I DIDN’T HAVE A RIGHT TO TALK TO ANYONE

Xinran dreamed of writing because she knew people were scared to speak out, and she wanted to help them. But she never dreamed this would become a reality until she moved to the UK in 1997.

Xinran moved to London in 1997, she worked as a cleaner, eventually getting a job as a  part-time teacher. Her students encouraged her to write a book because they loved the stories she told about China and her friends there. 

That seminal first book, The Good Women Of China, is a memoir relating the stories Xinran heard while hosting her radio show. The book reveals many Chinese women's thoughts and experiences that took place both during and after the Cultural Revolution.

Published in 2002, The Good Women Of China has been and has been translated into more than 49 languages.

After its success, Xinran went on to write Sky Burial, published in 2004. This book focuses on Tibet and follows Shu Wen, whose husband joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet to help unify the two cultures. 

Between 2003 and 2005 Xinran wrote a regular column in The Guardian, and these were published in 2006 as What the Chinese Don't Eat. The book delves into a vast range of subjects, from food to sex education, as well as the experiences of British mothers who’ve adopted Chinese daughters.

A BRIDGE OF LOVE

In August 2004 Xinran set up ‘The Mothers’ Bridge of Love’ (MBL). MBL reaches out to Chinese children in all corners of the world. By creating a bridge of understanding between China and the West and between adoptive culture and birth culture, MBL aims to help bridge the huge poverty gap which still exists in many parts of China. The MBL book for adoptive families is Motherbridge Of Love, translated into more than 20 languages.

LINKS

• MothersBridge.org

• About Xinran

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Josh Steimle

Welcome to the Published Author podcast where we help entrepreneurs learn how to write a book and leverage it to grow their business and make an impact. I'm your host, Josh Steimle. Hey, I normally don't do an intro before these podcast episodes. But today due to audio quality issues and such, and our guest's . . . her admittedly strong Chinese accent, you might struggle a bit to understand the audio version of this. And so if you go over to YouTube, and you do a search for Published Author podcast, you'll find our channel and there you can watch the video with captions, which will make it a little bit easier for you to understand everything that's going back and forth in this interview. So head on over to YouTube, search for the Published Author podcast to watch this with captions. And hope you enjoy the show with our amazing guest, Xinran. Also, while you're over on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button to be notified whenever we launch new podcast episodes over there. Today my guest is Xinran. Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958. She is the author of several books, including Miss Chopsticks, Message From an Unknown Chinese Mother, and her latest The Promise. Her first book, The Good Women of China, published in 2002, sold in over 30 languages and became an international bestseller. Her charity, the Mother's Bridge of Love, was founded to help disadvantaged Chinese children and to build a bridge of understanding between the West and China. Xinran, welcome to the show.

Xinran

How are you?

Josh Steimle

Thank you so much for spending time with us here today. So before we get into the books, we'd love to learn a bit about your background and upbringing. I was reading in your bio that you grew up during a lot of upheaval in China. And it said that you were born into a wealthy family and your first memory was of your house being burned down when you were six years old by the government, that was kind of shaken up and shaking up the country at that time. Can you take us back to your childhood and what it was like growing up, and how that shaped you into the person you are today?

Xinran

Thank you. As you just introduced, I was born 1958 and at 30 days old, I was ascended to my parents at both sides. So, I’d been traveling and delivering the (unclear) Beijing all the time. So my first memory about my mum when I was 5 years old, at railway station and later on my seven half I was sent back to my parents for education in the military place nearby Beijing. And that time I remember only 3 weeks later, when I arrived in the area, and one day about 3.30 after my school and on the way back to home I saw a very big smoke (unclear). I must be, you know, the direction is your house, your parents’ house so when I arrived, I got the big fire in my house. My father was accused by the Red Guards and all the furniture and stuff including my toys, books were in a fire. That time I didn’t have any memories or feelings with my parents or back home at all because I’m in 3 weeks with them or you know I called my parents in “Dad” “Mum”- three weeks’ time but more I care about my books and my toys. So once so my little doll was in fire and tried to rescue it. Red Guards grabbed me and held my hair with big scissors and cut my fore hair with very (unclear). Oh, that was my memories and before that was grown up in a very wealthy family from my parents from my mother side and father side. (unclear). My life is upside down. So after that was six and a half years, I lived in a political home, children () 14 of us were caught by Red Guards without any parents or families and daytime (). And in the night, we were lying in one room, on the ground with a dry grass mattress and was there six and half years. I did not have any rights to play with other children or to talk to each other and didn’t get any help from any people. And the most scary thing was in the night.

Josh Steimle

Did you have any contact with your parents during this time?

Xinran

Oh No. No way. No way. We all (unclear), we’re . . . children, our parents were imprisoned or someone (unclear) almost every single night. That was very hard, six and a half years. So, never really go out of that six and half years, so until now in the night, hmm without my husband, my husband passed away in 2017, I have to put a lot of lines like books, pens or something around my bed to remind me while I have encountered this kind of nightmares, to remind me not that era anymore, I have grown up, I’m in England, I’m in somewhere or I’m doing so normally about nightmares, took me few minutes to come out from these kind of scaring.

Josh Steimle

Wow, so even all these years later, it's still so fresh and impactful on you. So for those who aren't familiar with that era in Chinese history, explain to us why these people were burning down your house? Why were they putting you in this prison for children? Why would they do this?

Xinran

Yeah, because they are called, the history called that cultural revolution between 1960 and 1976, so because my parents during cultural revolution, falls kind of people was in highly educated that is come from wealth family, because that time 95% of Chinese was highly educated person, very, very few people are educated and my parents can speak 4 languages so and second one is the family, the family background of the anyone worked with the British(unclear) for 1949 and they called it, you know big spy and anyone worked with British or America or overseas relatives and my grandfather used to work with British JEC company and also my uncles they are in United State from 1990s, oh 1940s. And those kinds of background we called it the new revolution I mean in your hostel, you’re a black person you are whatever, (unclear) so there is a risk, my family almost got all. So my mother was, my parents were in the political (unclear) people said imprisoned for almost 10 years.

Josh Steimle

Wow. So what happened after you were in this institution for children? How did you get out of there? What was the next step after that?

Xinran

Actually, it’s not any chance, it was my house burnt down I went to the hospital. I was sent to the hospital, so I stayed, survived about four years in the hospital. Then afterwards, in that time, I read a lot, a lot. So, by 1977s, and China, the first year rebuilt the education systems and started university exams so, I took the chance and started my education.

Josh Steimle

Okay, so you got into university and then take us forward from there. You went to university, studied, and then what?

Xinran

Yeah, I studied the international relationship and English. Unfortunately, my English is very…I think it is the last one in the classroom and the yeah . . .

Josh Steimle

Okay, so after you graduated from university, what happened in between that and then you've ended up getting on to the radio station. But what was the path in between those times?

Xinran

Actually, after university I was capped in my university. I worked there 12 years and partly some daily work and partly a lot of journals and included writing and yeah (unclear) quite a lot. Until 1988, when China very first started this kind of release the Central Government controlled the media because before that it was private, only one radio or television center and it should have said only one. So in China, it was (unclear) and then the capability to have this kind of systems and small power of cities didn't have this kind of radio or television. At that time there was no television or telephone either. So when the Central Government started this kind of process and it was very difficult to follow government to do well-educated people to learnt the radio and on live, live one because before that the radio station is huge body because it need published the articles or pronounce called broadcast any articles, they had to pass 5 stages, yeah from interview topic, editing, (unclear), recording and finally when after recording, they have to sensor again and make sure nothing’s wrong. And so at 1998, I want to try a live one , it was very difficult first because there is no one knew how to do air, at that time such a bigger (unclear) and I want start my radio shows and the first training I put a long, long list of what I popped and many things in convention includes Christmas, Easter, and all the foreign events, or religion or even name of the China fungus, it was quite a lot. So, we had the long-time training for that. So, I have to remember that and also I started my program and was quite scared because in case anything was wrong, it could be arrested and they can treat you as a criminal. So, this is why they decided my program to start from 10 o’clock at night because they believe that most of the time most of the people there are people who went to bed so no one would listen to my program. So, we start in a safe way, from 10 o’clock to midnight. Surprisingly, I mean in the first three weeks, I got more than 100 letters every single day. I was really surprised how many people really listen.

Josh Stiemle

Maybe they were mistaken. Maybe people were working during the day and had time to listen at night, it sounds like.

Xinran

Hmm I have no idea, I remembered the first letter came to me and I have, because I didn’t have any rights that could talk freely, so I only played the music, read a few books, and in last minutes I was talking about my personal life. I still remember the first day I talked about my little boy, he was only 1 year old. So, I talked about how wonderful being a mother and to the boy. And the letter coming is how dare you said the laugh and it’s the capitalism and someone even sent blades and knives to me. Saying that you must change your voice, your voice is too soft and it’s not the revolution voice. (unclear) ABC and BBC in a wrong way. And I wasn’t popular that time, could be almost like more than half year, the people realized what I talked about is they realized for all laughs between family members and it’s not acting, only the laugh of the fun of baby and laugh by the parents, and children laughed by the school and between married couple or being grandparents, you should be or you have the right to be laughed according to Chinese culture and culture of human beings.

Josh Steimle

Now, this radio show is being broadcast . . . how far was it just within the city where you were, or was it going further?

Xinran

No, not radio. Actually, I worked at about three radio stations, (unclear) all I talked about. But the very quickly one and actually this radio station was in HangZhou, it belongs to CCTV, the Central Government controlled. And in the 1950s, they used this channel to send out and disturbing “zzzzz...” to all Asia, to stop people listening to ABC and BBC. So, by 1988, they turned this channel, which is very big, it covered almost all Asia, turned to the (unclear) of channel. This is what I studied all the radio on top of person selected from 14,000 people, they only chose seven women and seven men.

Josh Steimle

Wow, because this was being broadcast literally to millions of people, tens of millions.

Xinran

Yeah, more than that possibly. And later on I remembered I got hundreds and hundreds letters everyday caused something happened in the audience (cuts out). Really, it’s about the letters. I thought it was just me, but in fact more and more letters were sent to me asking for help. Until one girl, she was 19, she wrote to me that she became a bad girl; because the schoolboys (unclear) in the street, so all my relatives said I was dirty and my parents asked me to write. And I didn’t think anything was wrong and not my fault. Do you help me? If you could reply (unclear) about me, I have to die. Later on, her parents came to the radio station and shouted at me and said I am a murderer because their daughter has committed suicide. I was very shocked, and I learnt big lessons, so I realized the letter is not just for fun or something, it is quite serious and the message from unknown, society or hidden voices. So since then, I started inviting more than 10 university students every single day. So, we live the letter in three different parts: one part is just my creating, one part is need help, and another part is (unclear) is the law where we gave it to advertisement. So, we read letters quite a lot every single day.

Josh Steimle

Wow. And these letters, and then also the calls that you had coming in, these influenced your books. These became parts of your books later on, right?

Xinran

Yeah, and actually if you read either all my books or I’ve been written and published it, all of the stories, 99 percent are not my life stories, except in China I had input my childhood of my mum stories. It’s all people stories I interviewed because since 1988 I started this radio job, I realized that real China I didn’t know by that time. I thought I’ve been highly educated, I’m a Chinese mum, I’m a Chinese daughter. When I started my journey into people, actually just outside of ZhengZhou, 40 minutes driving from ZhengZhou, the capital of Henan, I was really shocked. I saw people’s life are poor and you know the girls and the boys didn’t have trousers in the summer. So, I realized there is something I didn’t know about my country. When I started to interview about the modern history from 1911 and when the time (unclear) I found so many histories and all the generation talks I didn’t know. It wasn’t in my textbooks; it wasn’t in the books I read and never have people talked about this. You know even I asked my colleagues: “Hey do you know this? In the countryside, very poor.” I remembered my colleagues, they were two parts: one part said “Oh don’t be silly. Always that, we come from there,” another said, very small group said: “Are you sure? You saw the same thing, by yourself?” It was very surprising because we worked in the same radio station, you know we never talk about this. Whole country, whole and at least x generation are in silence about the real history and real China.

Josh Steimle

So do you remember the spark when you said, I need to write a book about this? Was this something you thought about for a long time? You talked about how you loved reading when you were younger? Had you always wanted to write a book? Or what was that spark that made you say, I need to write a book about this?

Xinran

Well, I got dream in one when I was little girl, you know I said (unclear) children person lied down there so scared, I was thought I want to be one, you know, the first one I wanted to write something as a writer, so I can tell people my stories because I didn’t have the rights to talk to anyone. And secondly, I’d like to be a journalist because once I stayed with my grandparents, I heard my grandma listened to the radio all the time and then I wanted to be a lawyer because my grandma read books and said, “if you have troubles, you go to the lawyer.” And I wanted to be a diplomat, because my grandfather used to work with JEC, a British company and came to the UK so I thought, wow, you can travel all the time. But obviously during my grad, I didn't have a chance until 1988, when the Central Government announced, you know, they wanted to select people from the whole China, everybody can apply as journalists. I took the chance. I gave up my very good job and I moved to the, you know, radio station and as a journalist. But I never dream I write books, I wrote quite a lot of articles for Chinese magazines, government magazines, young people magazines, or you know a lot like technologies, social problem things in 1989. And then, I never thought I could write a book until I moved to the UK. In 1997, I moved to the UK and (unclear) worked as a cleaner because I didn’t have enough language and I didn’t have enough money or any friends to ask for help. So, I worked very hard as a cleaner to get any chances for myself. And finally, I got a chance to have like a part time teacher, so as school of Asia and Africa Studies, and then out of my teaching there, is the foreign offices, was the media included Financial Times, The Guardian, or Independent, and Primes and also included lots of companies what they are going to set up business in China. During this kind of lesson, all of my students asked why don’t you write a book, because every lesson you told us some nice stories about your cultures, your (unclear) and your friends, and that was the start...yeah. I started my first book writing.

Josh Steimle

And the first book was The Good women of China. Is that right?

Xinran

Yeah, and actually the first book I finished was 30 stories, so when I sent it to the publishers, they loved it but they saw it’s too heavy and too much so they cut it in half.

Josh Steimle

They cut half of it out. So that was published in 2002. And did you have any anticipation of how popular it would become? Or was that a surprise to you?

Xinran

No, err, yes. I think six or eight months, I saw the book being published, it was like over 20 languages, and few years ago . . . now this book was in 49 languages as well.

Josh Steimle

Wow, 49 languages now?

Xinran

Yes.

Josh Steimle

That’s amazing. And so after that, did you already have ideas for your next books? Did you want to put the interviews they cut into the next books? Or where did you go from that first book?

Xinran

Oh, because that book was cut in half, so one of the stories or articles I always want to write and always influenced my life is Sky Burial. I interviewed this woman in 1995 and the audience called me and said we’d found someone from Tibet; we never heard any Tibet stories from Tibet. When I interviewed her, for me, I was very naïve time and no knowledge, and I travelled to Tibet a few times for cultural things. I never really stayed with the Tibetans and finally I did something. So, I met this woman at tea house in Suzhou. She was waiting for me outside the tea house. Her body was smelly, very big smell, it was like you are in Tibet, people drink yak milk, each wearing yak skin, and everything is about yak so there are smells on the body. It’s full of this.

Josh Steimle

Everybody smells like yak.

Xinran

Yeah. Anyway, when we sat down in the tea house and in a few minutes, because all of the tea house was empty, people left so must be that way I thought as well. So that night, we shared a tiny room in a hotel because I realized that she could tell me quite a lot of stories and because I didn’t have much knowledge about what she was talking about and only facilitated the last story, she spent more than 34 years in Tibet for her missing husband. How did she survive? I was very naïve and asked her, “How could you last the 34 years?” Then she looked at me very shocked, said, “Because for me I never thought that long, for me is every single tomorrow.” Also true, (unclear) before we went to bed. (unclear). And the woman, she wore the robe, the Tibetan robe, looked very squared, so I thought she was quite strong. But once she opened, and then she took out her maps, knives, books and all that her body became smaller, smaller, smaller. Actually, this Tibetan robe is her luggage. Then she lied down, and she put everything on that robe and this, immediately had me realized when I once in Tibet, I followed people and walked to Lhasa and they prayed without any luggage. I used to be surprised by that, I realized. So, she told me her stories and the most thing she really, really influenced in my life was her, is when I asked her until you come back, you lost her parents, you lost her husband and you didn’t have anyone back to their hometown. Will you regret it? She said I don’t know. I learnt the biggest thing in Tibet was the Tibetan families, she said regret, moodiness, hate - it’s about the past, but your life is for tomorrow. You shouldn’t waste your tomorrow on the pain of the past. So, before I met her, you know, I was very moody because I come from this kind of Cultural Revolution. It gave me regret. So after that I spent another nine and half years thinking about what she told me in Tibet. So this is Sky Burial. I am very proud of this book. And also being selected by the Penguin Classics as well.

Josh Steimle

Now you also have a children's book that you wrote, it's there on the shelf behind you, The Mother Bridge of Love. And this became this is also the name of the charity that you funded. Can you tell us a little bit about the children's book and about the charity and why you started that?

Xinran

Okay, this book is called The Motherbridge of Love. Because my books have been published around the world in more than 20 languages. I had lots of chances for around maybe more than five countries. And so everywhere I realized something I never knew before: It is the Chinese children are popular with foreign parents. Later on we discovered over 27 countries, including Iceland. (Unclear) 99 percent are girls.

Josh Steimle

Yes, and it is so meaningful. And for the listeners, I have a personal connection to this because my wife and I, we adopted a daughter from China two years ago who's now 15 years old. And so this is very personal for us. And I'm so thankful that you've created that book and these other books. When I read a message from an unknown Chinese mother, that was so touching for me because I want to understand where my daughter came from, as well. And so it wasn't just . . . I mean, I hope she reads it someday. And I hope she can feel like “Okay, maybe this is the story of my birth mother in China”. But for me, too, it was, well, I want to know who her birth mother was. I want to know what those circumstances were as her adoptive parent here in the West. And so that book has been so helpful for me to say, well, maybe this is how things happened for our daughter, maybe this is her history. Of course, we don't know exactly what it is. But it's nice to be able to imagine that she had a birth mother in China who loved, her who was brave, and who said my daughter needs something that I can't provide. And so I'm going to quote unquote, I don't like using the word “abandon” I feel like that's not an accurate term but that she tried to give her something more that she wasn't able to give her for whatever reason.

Xinran

That’s true, that’s true . . . . The one story I didn't put in was before that book . . .my husband, my English husband, uh, we (unclear) China. Normally I went every year to update my knowledge about China. And so we always went to the countryside to see the difference between the city and the countryside. I'm sure you have many friends in China and you can see the huge difference. So I remember one lady. When she saw my husband, she came to me and said: “You know, foreigners.” I said “Yes?” She said: “Have you seen foreigners in the country?” I said: “Yes”. She said: “Have you seen (unclear) how they hold our Chinese child.” At the very beginning I didn't understand what's the norm. So then she pointed at my husband and she said: “Oh, our poor children must be very scared. Their face is very different from our face. When you hold the baby they must cry quite a lot.” I said: “Oh possibly you make sense. But when you hold our Chinese baby no matter what kind of language or what kind of face, the heart moms have, the baby will come. When I heard this tears came pouring down and never thought about this. So I guess his mother must be one of his . . . current mother, you know, gave up her baby and for the better life. Now also I have interviewed so many Chinese women, even they have never been to the UK. And you can feel the pain they have in their heart. It is like a big hole every single day, reminding them. And so because China knows much about her, her life, living conditions quite a lot, and a conversation quite a lot, and people's social media. This kind of information is (unclear) around, so many people have more and more knowledge about this kind of adoption of foreigners, adoptive children. So things go back to things for China's society, or so for many parents who lost their babies, there must be a struggle as well.

Josh Stiemle

Right. That's the kind of pain that never goes away. That's such a hard thing. So yeah . .

Xinran

Yeah, even if you have a computer or mobile iPhone, the one day you're missing or you're lost, you know, you get regretful or annoyed for a few days, that is the baby’s mom . . . carried in her tummy.

Josh Steimle

I'm trying to hold it together here as you're talking because this strikes so deep to our family, too. So you care a lot about these orphans in China and the families, the birth mothers, the adoptive family, you started Motherbridge of Love. Tell us a little bit about the charity and what it does?

Xinran

Well, yeah, we started this charity from 2004. And so after we struggle, the first 10 years, how to help poor children in the countryside and how to help adoptive children, how to help the Chinese. Now I realized most of the information in adoption families is not true, about a nearly 80% is fake because of the reasons some is by lack of education, some is just human tracking possibly, and some is local corruption. So, we tried to figure out what is the best way to help them and also . . . the countryside, the children’s birth town, birth village could be punished, how to say hmmm…(unclear). So, we set up the program called the “Books for Kids”. “Books for Kids” is based on three steps. First step when the family sent the information to us, we do the research, because some families said oh my children from SiChuan, is that true? So we sent a volunteer to search in the local area. We got some of the information but we are not very sure. We started this kind of countryside library. We send the books to the village's school to help them to fill up the libraries and the stationery and the sport items. So the children . . . they have something you know, to learn, to read, to play and at the same time, we send all the information to the schools or the villages; have you heard anything about the lost daughters or children missing. And they will confirm something with us. Then later on, we will talk to the adoptive families, or this country, the society, we can arrange certain big visit to the village, or have this (unclear) bridge them together to see each child to help them find their parents or similar information because we found in China, and this often is just they send children from same orphanage to Western countries. But sometimes, sisters, siblings, are sent out to different countries. So that is quite serious. So, during this program until last month, we have 27 village libraries or village school library. So that means 27 areas, we are doing this already. So, during this project, we can, you know, have adoptive family (unclear) help each other to share information, particularly who have the children coming from the orphanage. You know when they start dating, when they have friends, when they have a marriage, very shocked, questions they have to face, where have you come from, why you are looked very different from us, why don’t you have the information from your first family and what’s your culture (unclear). It also, it is why (unclear) very worried about this kind of (unclear) situation. You know, that could damage the adoptive families as well. So that is where China also we try to help young students, particularly adoptive children with families to visit China. We send a volunteer to accompany them, to see what is the real China. Not just in the Western media, not just in the people’s gossip, not just in the publication, not just in Shanghai (unclear). So that is our charity’s way.

Josh Stiemle

That's fantastic. So let's skip forward to your latest book, The Promise. Now, with Sky Burial and The Promise . . . online I saw these described as novels but I'm reading The Promise right now. And it sounds like nonfiction. Is it partly fiction, partly nonfiction? Or is it all nonfiction? Or what's the story behind The Promise?

Xinran

Actually, to be honest, often my books are nonfiction. I found this very interesting. Sometimes the editors are quite scared, and they have some self-censorship about religion or (unclear) so much prefer, you know, the label this is a fiction. I am very clear telling you, this is nonfiction. And how do you say it for the promise in my life I’ve spent more than 25 years following the group of the Chinese elders in the last two, three generations. So I interview that and follow them. And for more than 25 years, so that was a big project. And that project was the book . . . witness. I know witnessing how . . . . I can’t believe how . . . I was told this is the reference book by over 100 universities. So in that book is quite a lot of Chinese history. But during the process of that book, I've discovered something very interesting, it is noticing generation, grandparent’s generation, they hardly tell what's happened to them, or their parents, or their own children. So the conversation between the generation in their own family is cut off. (Unclear). When you mention “Have you told your children about your childhood, and in 99 percent of it they said, No. So difficult to tell, scared to tell, or someone's I (unclear). So in the young generation, they don't have a chance, what's going on in their group, or in their grandparent’s life. Secondly, because China (unclear) it has changed so much in the past 40 years. In Western countries, they spent 250 years to from state religious contro to the (unclear). China, after the Cultural Revolution until now is less than 50 years ago. So China just jumped from being a very, very poor country. You know, when I was little, we spent hours on a piece of tofu and the family cooking oil only have (unclear) for a whole month. Now China, it is like Big Brother; its economic base is so strong, we start buying streets in Paris, in America, in London, everywhere! So, how much has changed in China between generations? I think that is scared, lots of parents have a conversation with their children and also for children, young children, they didn’t not have the chance to know from history books, from class, from social media, from anything to know what has really happened before. The Cultural Revolution in China and 100 years history . . . (cuts out) published 2016. For ten years the Cultural Revolution covers half a page. So how can young people understand what’s going on. You know, when they talk about Korean War, everybody knows in China, the war with America. They didn’t realize it is with 16 countries that came from the United Nations. All kinds of these histories, we didn’t have that. So, lots of people complain, saying young people don’t care about history, they don't care about the country. But for me, I always believed, we have to understand why this happened. And another thing is when I wrote the idea for The Promise, they don’t understand where their parents come from, they don’t understand parents’ marriage, faithful marriage, and also history and traditions, like my age, you know, we didn’t have this kind of knowledge, that you have sexual relations before your marriage. When it comes to my son’s generation, if you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend, everybody looks down at you, even your parents will say, why don’t you have a girlfriend or boyfriend. You can see this kind of life change, not just big shock, it’s a very big challenge (unclear) to Chinese society. So, in The Promise it is four generations from one family, you can see how much is different already. You know the grandparents’ marriage, they didn’t know dating and everything after their marriage. Then the parents come from (unclear) and come to themselves, when I tried to interview them, they have no idea. At my age, when you ask their children, online dating, or they can marry in morning, and divorce in the afternoon. So, in the whole of China, this kind of change, I think we should have paid attention to understand . . . it is understanding between generations is respect. And another thing we have to understand is what is the best thing for the future, what we should avoid for the future as well. So that is my latest book, The Promise, yes.

Josh Steimle

So this book and your other books, they're really creating a bridge between the generations, between the modern generation and between the generation from a few years ago so that they can understand each other.

Xinran

And then only three months and they sold 24,000 copies. And then was the Communist Conference. So they (unclear) 50 books (unclear) because we talk about the Cultural Revolution. Taiwan a. . . funny laugh after half a year haven't stopped because the . . . bank a paid interview on the front page, talk about fracture. Many Taiwan people mentioned we have a similar situation in that VIP kid 60s when young guy should have come to Taiwan is a hoarder. Why a scare? Yeah, so. So this similar reason you don't want to open that conversation and Taiwan stop as well. No, no other books, not yet. I wish other books would be sold in China, because all of my interviews come from real life . . . being hidden. They are being forgotten, but we shouldn’t.

Josh Steimle

What I'm really getting from a lot of your books . . . and what you're saying Xinran is that it's really about fostering connection, isn't it? It's connection between generations, it's connections between parents and children who have been separated for one reason or another. It's about connecting all these different groups together in a way that leads to peace and understanding and cooperation rather than conflict and misunderstanding and the suffering that comes from that. This has been such an enlightening discussion, I'm so glad that we were able to have this chat. And we're going to include your website for mother's mother bridge of love. We'll include that website link in the show notes that people can go find that charity and learn more about it. And of course, we can find your books on Amazon. And is there anywhere else that people can connect with you or learn more about you?

Xinran

Well, as you just mentioned, thank you very much people can discover from YouTube a lot, because I've been lectured and taught around the world, in different languages. And also Amazon books are very good. And in more than 40 languages. And yeah, the website of the art website at the moment, were in the improvements. So we are working on that. Because after 15 years, we need updates. And we want to know more online events for (unclear) family. So we have to be very careful according the legal protection, privacy, and confidentiality. So how to set up this kind of program with adoptive families with adoptees to have them ask the question, have them search in the future. (Unclear). So I think this new website will be ready by June or July. Yeah. So you definitely can see the contacts.

Josh Steimle

Great. I want to be sensitive to your time. We're just a few minutes past the hour now. Do you have time for one more question, just a few more minutes? Or do you have an appointment you need to get to?

Xinran

Yes.

Josh Steimle

So our final question here is if you were giving advice to aspiring authors out there who have never written a book before, but they have these ideas, they have stories, they have experiences, maybe their own experiences, maybe other people's experiences, what are some of the tips or what's the biggest tip that you might give to an aspiring author who looks at your body of work? and says I want to create something like that I want to write a book like that, how would you advise them to get started?

Xinran

Oh, from my personal experience, most difficult for me is not what I want to write, it is what I want to represent the interviews and personalities and the courage, and language skills, or the stories, emotions, laughter. You know, so I spend a lot of time thinking because when I heard this person (unclear). So, for me, I was spent a lot of time to feel me, what I want to write what is in my head, so that’s the first thing I was to do. And secondly, I believe everybody can be a writer, because a writer is not academic. I write my books not from my brain, it is from my heart and because we all feel something, you want to tell people. I believe everybody you know has this kind of emotion. Sometimes why you have tears, why you hate, why you down, and why so happy, why you are so moody. We all have those kinds of feelings. Use a pen or paper or whatever to record it. Now, you have the mobile phone. Don’t think about the beautiful words, it’s exactly what you are feeling at that moment, talk to your phone and record it. When you record it, you can turn your voice into your texts, and now you can edit that. So that kind of recording is very fresh and that is who you are. No one has the same style as you. I think it is very important to be different, not to be the same as others. Yeah, so must to keep real who you are. You want people to know who you are, what you are, so that for me, I always suggest people even very young children or very elders . . . my mother in law was very wise, she published her first book when she was 70 and she published 11 books. Became bestseller or top writer in the world. When I ask her, you know after 70, how could you write so many books, how? She said, (unclear) people, pictures in my mind. I feel the same things, this is why I believe we can write little things we can write big things. For example, you just had a cup of tea, you keep the tea in your body, in your language, in your fingers, can represent some kind of wonderful stories. I believe so. So that is my second point. My last point I would like to say, I don’t like to use adjectives and adverbs. I like to use verbs, because verbs represent and expanding every single thing, every part, because if you use too many adjectives or adverbs, you may have lost the meaning. For example, this person is very angry. Now you can observe a woman’s anger and man’s anger is different. Men’s angry, what is angry, it’s more in the head, neck, hand like this; where a girl's angry is not. Girls’ anger is more, you know, detailed in body language. Represent (unclear) better writing. Sorry about my Chinglish.

Josh Steimle

That is terrific advice. Well, thank you so much Xinran for being with us here today on the Published Author podcast. We appreciate it so much. Thank you. Don't thank you so much for the advice and for the stories you've told us here today.

Xinran

Thank you for having me. Xie xie da jia (Thank you all).