The Rings of Time on the Loess Plateau: A Silent Rebellion

She was born in 1980 in a rural Henan village by the Yellow River, where sons were valued over daughters. Her mother was fierce but ill-fated, and her father was an alcoholic and a layabout. Her childhood was filled with beatings and hunger. When she was five, her younger sister was sent away, leaving her as the only target for her parents’ anger. The molestation she suffered one night on the rooftop remains a nightmare locked away to this day...

After barely finishing junior high, she fled elsewhere to continue her studies. There, she met a husband who seemed gentle and thought she could escape her fate. Instead, she fell into another kind of violence. Her marriage became a prison ruled by male chauvinism. She silently endured verbal abuse and indifference, and even lost the child she had yet to give birth to.

Looking at her children, she tells herself again and again that she’ll get through it. But the scars left by her childhood and marriage have long been etched into her bones. Can she still believe that she deserves a better life?