This is the book I've been wanting to read for some time: an inside account of normal female lives in today's China as the country oscillates between a managed economy and the new capitalism. Yang tells four stories of different young women who deal with the issues we all do as we mature but with the additional background of a changing China. Dealing with education, work, family, what it might mean to be an activist in a repressive regime, this is enlightening for the way difference is represented, and for the way these female lives are completely relatable.

At times the writing is a little dry but the contents are illuminating and informative.