Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins

 
　　2000年陽光溫暖和煦的9月，一位名為Zanhua的女子在中國湖南省不起眼的小屋裡產下了名為Fangfang和Shuangjie的雙胞胎姊妹，這並非Zanhua的頭一胎。由於當時中國政府正強硬地推行一胎化生育政策，為規避政府的罰則，雙胞胎的父母決定將其中一個超生的女嬰送給親戚撫養，藉此保留日後相聚的機會。沒想到兩年後，年幼的Fangfang卻被強制帶走了，這家人儘管擔心她的下落，卻沒有任何線索足以證明她是否還活在世上，也無法得知她被帶去了哪裡。
 
　　曾任《洛杉磯時報》北京辦公室主任的芭芭拉．德米克（Barbara Demic），在新書《竹林女兒》（Daughters of the Bamboo Grove）中透過這則真實故事，窺探中國推行一胎化政策的時空背景，還原當時一些家庭礙於現實環境，不得不殘酷撕裂親情的憾事。
 
　　前述消失的小女孩，透過國際收養制度被送到美國，被一個虔誠的基督教家庭所收養，來到美國的Fangfang成了Esther，居住在德州。Esther的養父母當年是基於善心而做了義舉，渾然不知這孩子先是被綁架了，才會送來美國……事隔多年，當真相被攤在眼前，這對彼此陌生的雙胞胎姊妹再相聚時，又會是什麼樣複雜的心情？(文/博客來編譯)
 
各界讚譽：
 
　　「這本書無可辯駁地證明，若想真正理解中國，就必須讀芭芭拉·德米克的作品。她以充滿人性和文學之美的筆觸，揭露中國政府試圖掩蓋的過往。這本書讀來宛如一部小說，卻是真實的故事。」——美國國家圖書獎得主，《野心時代》作者歐逸文（Evan Osnos）誠摯推薦
 
　　「德米克報導了中國一胎化政策，以及美國對國際收養的過度需求……她以優雅且充滿同理心的筆調，呈現惡夢般的人倫悲劇，是一部極為出色的書作。」——《出版人週刊》（Publishers Weekly）盛讚

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE - The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China’s one-child policy and the rise of international adoption--from the author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy

＂Remarkable . . . Barbara Demick movingly traces this history of overseas Chinese adoptions and their ripple effects on both sides of the Pacific.＂--The Wall Street Journal

WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER J. WELLES MEMORIAL PRIZE - LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The New Yorker, The Economist

On a warm day in September 2000, a woman named Zanhua gave birth to twin girls in a small hut behind her brother’s home in China’s Hunan province. The twins, Fangfang and Shuangjie, were welcome additions to her family but also not her first children. Living under the shadow of China’s notorious one-child policy, Zanhua and her husband decided to leave one twin in the care of relatives, hoping each toddler on their own might stay under the radar. But, in 2002, Fangfang was violently snatched away. The family worried they would never see her again, but they didn’t imagine she could be sent as far as the United States. She might as well have been sent to another world.

Following stories she wrote as the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick embarks on a journey that encompasses the origins, shocking cruelty, and long-term impact of China’s one-child rule; the rise of international adoption and the religious currents that buoyed it; and the exceedingly rare phenomenon of twin separation. Today, Esther--formerly Fangfang--lives in Texas, and Demick brings to vivid life the Christian family that felt called to adopt her, unaware that she had been kidnapped. Through Demick’s indefatigable reporting, will the long-lost sisters finally reunite--and will they feel whole again?

A remarkable window into the volatile, constantly changing China of the last half century and the long-reaching legacy of the country’s most infamous law, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is also the moving story of two sisters torn apart by the forces of history and brought together again by their families’ determination and one reporter’s dogged work.

＂Excellent . . . entrancing and disturbing . . . [Demick] is one of our finest chroniclers of East Asia. . . . [Her] characters are richly drawn, and her stories, often reported over a span of years, deliver a rare emotional wallop.＂--The New York Times

Barbara Demick is the author of Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town, named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times; Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize in the United Kingdom; and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Demick is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and a contributor to The New Yorker, and was recently a press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.