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China

In Order to Live

December 10, 2021 by Sue Leave a Comment

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers
Format: Book and Audio Book
Who It’s for: Adults, Young Adults

Life in North Korea was brutal.  People in North Korea under the the country’s dictator Kim Jong Il endured a regime that was repressive and subjects its citizens to rigid controls.

Yeonmi Park was born in Hyesan, North Korea in 1993. Her family was a close-knit family where her father took the risk of trading on the black market in order to have enough to provide for them. Eventually he was imprisoned and branded as a criminal and sent to a prison camp. In order to escape her famine struck childhood with fear that her family would most likely die, she and her mother fled and were smuggled across the border into China where they became victims of human trafficker’s and were sold into slavery. She was thirteen years old.

This is her story about her escape from North Korea and the devastating details and horrors she endured both physically and psychologically before finally making it to South Korea and freedom.

Yeonmi Park’s inspiring memoir is a remarkable and horrific personal account of her journey, while fleeing a country whose inhabitants live in starvation, hardships and suffering. Today she is a human rights activist and author who is determined to bring attention to the oppression in her home country.

Find In Order to Live in the catalog!

 

Filed Under: Recommended for Adults Tagged With: Brave, China, determination, Dignity, Escape, Family, Human Rights, Human Traffickers, North Korea, South Korea

Girls on the Line

January 11, 2019 by Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Girls on the Line by Jennie Liu
Publication Date: November 1, 2018
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens

Violating Family Planning regulations by having a child out of wedlock sounds like something from a dystopian novel. In China, it is the reality for millions.

Luli has aged out of the orphanage at 16 and is forced into the world of adulthood. She connects with her friend Yun who aged out of the system the year before. Yun helps Luli to get a job at the factory where she works and promises to show her the ropes. Yun is energetic and precarious, spending her money on eating out with her friends, going to clubs, and spending time with her older boyfriend. Luli is shy, saves her money, and hopes to one day have a family. Luli soon hears the rumors about Yun’s boyfriend. He sells off young girls and women to men in the countryside, he is a bride trafficker. Yun refuses to believe these rumors and finds herself in a position that seems inescapable. She is pregnant with Yun’s child and doesn’t have the money to abide by the Family Planning regulations; get an abortion, or pay the fines for having a child outside of marriage. Luli wants to help her friend, but can she?

Yun and Luli live in a culture where superstition and appearances are vital to success in life. These beliefs impact personal relationships and employment prospects. Add to that the government’s Family Planning regulations, and life can be incredibly difficult for women in this culture. The harrowing experiences of these two young women leads them on a journey of self-discovery, selflessness, sorrow, and friendship that is worth reading about.

Find it in the catalog

 

 

Filed Under: New for Teens, Recommended for Adults, Recommended for Teens Tagged With: Book, China, Fiction, Foreign Culture, Girls and Women, Realistic Fiction

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