Yang Erche Namu
Autore di Il paese delle donne
Sull'Autore
Yang Erche Namu divides her time between Beijing, China; Geneva, Switzerland; and San Francisco, California.
Opere di Yang Erche Namu
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- female
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Read These Too (1)
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 3
- Utenti
- 361
- Popolarità
- #66,480
- Voto
- 4.0
- Recensioni
- 13
- ISBN
- 19
- Lingue
- 8
And here we are….with, often, puritanical views of sex that lead to shame and guilt, but have no problem tearing others down with malicious gossip. Maybe there’s something to be learned from the Moso people.
This was an interesting and easy to read memoir guided by Yang Erche Namu’s recollections of her childhood in the Himalayas in a place the Chinese call “The Country of Daughters,” and written by Christine Matthieu. As the author indicates, what we mostly think of matriarchal societies are mostly matriliny, a system in which inheritance is passed through maternal lines, but women are still often controlled by family males instead of husbands. However, the Moso value women and create their families through the women in their families. The matriarch of the family oversees, but does not rigidly rule, the home and work output. Much has changed for them since the Cultural Revolution and the insistence on declaring “marriages” which went against their tradition of “walking marriage” (the man visits the woman’s bedroom. Incidentally…there is a somewhat humorous anecdote as to how a woman tells a man they are through that would be akin to the modern? Impersonal “texting” termination), tourism, education, younger ones leaving and returning, etc.
However, this book is more than just about the Moso. It’s about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters and the concept of “coming home” and “feeling at home.” As a refugee child (I came to the US as the age of 10) there were aspects of this book that felt very relatable. The pull between a mother’s traditions and a new way of living. The not feeling like you belong, yet do belong, to both worlds.
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I liked it (although there were sections that were a bit drawn out and there were times I felt a little disengaged …not sure if me or the writing), but there was an aspect of it that was “interesting” to me and I need to think more about it. What was it about “Namu” that made her walk away and have the nerve to do all that she did afterward, considering she was a product of such a cloistered (geographically) and women-bound cultural group? Was it that her mother paved her way through her own act of rebellion? Her own unique personality? I wouldn’t mind knowing more about Namu.… (altro)