Overview

"A China Books Review Best China Book of 2023 Leta Hong Fincher's landmark book Leftover Women shone a light on the resurgence of gender inequality in 21st-century China. Ten years on, women in China continue to experience a dramatic rolling back of rights and gains in the increasingly patriarchal political climate of the Xi Jinping era. Leftover Women explores the structural discrimination against women and the broader problems with China’s economy, politics, and development that lie behind it. This updated edition includes a new preface exploring developments in China in the 10 years since the book's original publication, including the new ""three child policy"", the growth in online feminist and LGBTQ activism and the state's increasingly repressive moves against dissent."

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9781350323643

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Makes a powerful - and provocative - argument that China's female shortage, far from empowering women, has actually resulted in a situation where urban women's rights are increasingly imperilled...Leftover Women [will] leave readers coldly angry. * LA Review of Books * A chilling account of the pressures on Chinese strivers... One hopes that Leftover Women will soon be translated into Chinese, as it is likely to resonate deeply with urban educated women. It seems the party has forgotten the Mao-era dictum: Women Hold Up Half the Sky. * The New York Times * Making the most of her experience as a journalist and her training in sociology, Leta Hong Fincher draws on previous breakthrough works in Chinese gender studies and her own interviews, while proving equally at home summarizing statistics and telling poignant tales of individual experience. The result is an engagingly written, thought-provoking work on a crucially important but often overlooked subject. Essential reading. * Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know * Cast aside what you think you know about the empowered women of China today. Modern Chinese women are under pressure in a society that often locks them out of social equality, property rights, and legal protection from domestic abuse. This is the reality that China scholar Leta Hong Fincher puts forward in her study of resurgent gender inequality in China. Her book is a well-researched and riveting read, including a number of gripping personal accounts straight from China's so-called leftover women . For any curious observer of China or women's issues, this is one to read. * Kristie Lu Stout, anchor/correspondent, CNN International * In lively and accessible prose, Hong Fincher demonstrates conclusively that urban professional women have been disproportionately disadvantaged during China's breakneck economic development and largest wealth accumulation in human history. Hong Fincher exhaustively cites media, government statistics, her own interviews, and her Weibo survey results to substantiate the fact that gender inequality in China has reappeared with a vengeance and shows no signs of abating any time soon. * Rebecca E. Karl, New York University * Leta Hong Fincher's subject - researched through statistical analysis, sociological surveys and extensive first-hand interviewing - is the toxic vitality of sexism in China today...[Leftover Women] is scattered with inspiring life-stories of courageous women who have faced down appalling discrimination. * The Guardian *

Makes a powerful — and provocative — argument that China’s female shortage, far from empowering women, has actually resulted in a situation where urban women’s rights are increasingly imperilled…Leftover Women [will] leave readers coldly angry. * LA Review of Books * A chilling account of the pressures on Chinese strivers… One hopes that Leftover Women will soon be translated into Chinese, as it is likely to resonate deeply with urban educated women. It seems the party has forgotten the Mao-era dictum: “Women Hold Up Half the Sky.” * The New York Times * Making the most of her experience as a journalist and her training in sociology, Leta Hong Fincher draws on previous breakthrough works in Chinese gender studies and her own interviews, while proving equally at home summarizing statistics and telling poignant tales of individual experience. The result is an engagingly written, thought-provoking work on a crucially important but often overlooked subject. Essential reading. * Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know * Cast aside what you think you know about the “empowered” women of China today. Modern Chinese women are under pressure in a society that often locks them out of social equality, property rights, and legal protection from domestic abuse. This is the reality that China scholar Leta Hong Fincher puts forward in her study of resurgent gender inequality in China. Her book is a well-researched and riveting read, including a number of gripping personal accounts straight from China’s so-called “leftover women”. For any curious observer of China or women’s issues, this is one to read. * Kristie Lu Stout, anchor/correspondent, CNN International * In lively and accessible prose, Hong Fincher demonstrates conclusively that urban professional women have been disproportionately disadvantaged during China’s breakneck economic development and largest wealth accumulation in human history. Hong Fincher exhaustively cites media, government statistics, her own interviews, and her Weibo survey results to substantiate the fact that gender inequality in China has reappeared with a vengeance and shows no signs of abating any time soon. * Rebecca E. Karl, New York University * Leta Hong Fincher's subject – researched through statistical analysis, sociological surveys and extensive first-hand interviewing – is the toxic vitality of sexism in China today…[Leftover Women] is scattered with inspiring life-stories of courageous women who have faced down appalling discrimination. * The Guardian *

Makes a powerful — and provocative — argument that China’s female shortage, far from empowering women, has actually resulted in a situation where urban women’s rights are increasingly imperilled…Leftover Women [will] leave readers coldly angry. * LA Review of Books * A chilling account of the pressures on Chinese strivers… One hopes that Leftover Women will soon be translated into Chinese, as it is likely to resonate deeply with urban educated women. It seems the party has forgotten the Mao-era dictum: “Women Hold Up Half the Sky.” * The New York Times * Making the most of her experience as a journalist and her training in sociology, Leta Hong Fincher draws on previous breakthrough works in Chinese gender studies and her own interviews, while proving equally at home summarizing statistics and telling poignant tales of individual experience. The result is an engagingly written, thought-provoking work on a crucially important but often overlooked subject. Essential reading. * Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know * Cast aside what you think you know about the “empowered” women of China today. Modern Chinese women are under pressure in a society that often locks them out of social equality, property rights, and legal protection from domestic abuse. This is the reality that China scholar Leta Hong Fincher puts forward in her study of resurgent gender inequality in China. Her book is a well-researched and riveting read, including a number of gripping personal accounts straight from China’s so-called “leftover women”. For any curious observer of China or women’s issues, this is one to read. * Kristie Lu Stout, anchor/correspondent, CNN International * In lively and accessible prose, Hong Fincher demonstrates conclusively that urban professional women have been disproportionately disadvantaged during China’s breakneck economic development and largest wealth accumulation in human history. Hong Fincher exhaustively cites media, government statistics, her own interviews, and her Weibo survey results to substantiate the fact that gender inequality in China has reappeared with a vengeance and shows no signs of abating any time soon. * Rebecca E. Karl, New York University * Leta Hong Fincher's subject – researched through statistical analysis, sociological surveys and extensive first-hand interviewing – is the toxic vitality of sexism in China today…[Leftover Women] is scattered with inspiring life-stories of courageous women who have faced down appalling discrimination. * The Guardian * Leta Hong Fincher’s book was not only an instant classic, it was downright clairvoyant: Seeing what others miss, she foresaw a seismic shift in the public mood, which has intensified in the past decade. The revised edition is urgent reading; it holds essential insights into China’s economic and political future. * Evan Osnos, winner of the National Book Award, author of Age of Ambition * An eye-opening, groundbreaking book that cast light on critical yet overlooked changes in China - and which seems more timely than ever ten years on. * Tania Branigan, author of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution * The past decade has time and again underlined the prescience of Leta Hong Fincher’s Leftover Women. This groundbreaking book made a powerful case for how state propaganda and cultural norms combined to exclude Chinese women from the wealth creation springing from the country’s rapid economic development. In this new version, Hong Fincher illustrates how women are beginning to fight back, and the obstacles lined up against them. This book is more relevant than ever to anyone who wants to understand China - read it and rage. * Louisa Lim, Author of Indelible City, and The People’s Republic of Amnesia *

Author Information

Leta Hong Fincher has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, BBC and others. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. She is the author of Leftover Women (Zed, 2014) and Betraying Big Brother (2018).

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