Yuan Yang

‘This is a book of delights.’ John Simpson

In Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China, British-Chinese journalist Yuan Yang tells the fascinating story of modern China through the lives of four ordinary women. Leiya, born in a patriarchal rural village, bluffs her way onto the factory floor; June sets herself a goal to attend university rather than raise pigs; Siyue rebels against her teachers and then remakes the education system for others, and Sam becomes an activist while her peers are disappearing from the streets.

Yuan Yang was born in China and returned there as an adult as a correspondent for the Financial Times. After the mass expulsion of journalists from China in 2020, she was one of the few journalists writing in English left in the country. Yuan is the co-founder of the campaign, Rethinking Economics, that calls for a more relevant curriculum that reflects the real world. She now lives in London and is the Labour MP for Earley and Woodley.

Hosted by Katy Shaw, Professor of 21st Century writing and publishing at Northumbria University and author of Crunch Lit, Hauntology and David Peace.