My Half of the Sky - Softcover

Jana McBurney-Lin

3.62

80 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977208176 ISBN 13: 9780977208173

Publisher: KOMENAR Publishing, 2008

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Chairman Mao said, "Women hold up half the sky." For Li Hui, a recent university graduate, that means following her dream of becoming a teacher, finding love and fulfilling her family obligations. But her father's debts and demands for an arranged marriage will soon pull her away from everything she truly desires . . . and Li Hui is forced to make her own place in the changing cultural landscape of modern China.

Read what reviewers have written about MY HALF OF THE SKY:

"Your heart will tear apart right along with Li Hui's as she struggles to 'hold up her half of the sky' . . . This is a powerful coming of age story." --Keri Holmes, The Kaleidoscope

"You'll be rooting all the way for Li Hui as she struggles, ahead of the curve, to be her own woman in an emerging, modern China. Jana McBurney-Lin's MY HALF OF THE SKY is a beautiful, witty, touching debut novel." --Thomas Sawyer, Head Writer, "Murder She Wrote"

"Jana McBurney-Lin uses words and nuance and simplicity to create rich characters and settings so vivid it feels like you are watching a classic film." --Jackie Houchin, The Foothills Paper

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From the Inside Flap:

Li Hui graduates from university and is assigned a position teaching in another province. Only an assignment in the right city-Beijing-will please Father. Li Hui defers, then loses all chance of working as a teacher in China. So begins Li Hui's real education in life.Li Hui arms herself with Mao's dictum that "women hold up half the sky" and moves forward. Can she care for her parents, choose romantic love over and arranged marriage, and become a teacher? Each person she encounters influences her choices and sucessess: Mother has failed to produce-or adopt-a son. Feng Gu runs a tea shop wher Li Hui is pressed into service. Corrupt Snakehead Chairman Huang smuggles workers to other countries and offers Li Hui alternative avenues to prosperity. Madame Liang's son Guo Qiang lives in Singapore and needs an appropriate Chinese wife.The most important person who enters Li Hui's life is Chan Hai, who would face criticism if only to help an old woman with her shoping bags. He too has dreams to fulfill while personal burdens, local politics, and economic realities intervene.Li Hui finds valuable counsel in folktales and memories of Waipo, her beloved grandmother. And Madame Paper Cutter, the itinerant crafts woman who lives in the local park, has more folk tales with different interpretations. Even Lee Sa, that strange, loud, and crazy American woman whome she meets in Singapore could be helpful.Jana McBurney-Lin has written a novel of people and culture, romance and expectation. She brings into our lives the vivid and powerful culture of China along with the realities and results of that ancient country's history and politics. All these elements come together in Li Hui, a young woman who only want to hold up her half of the sky.

About the Author:

Jana McBurney-Lin lived in Asia for fifteen years, working for media in seven countries and editing for ALC Publications, Tokyo. While in Tokyo, she met her husband, a native of Fujian Province, China. On one trip back to his hometown, she got the idea for My Half of the Sky.

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