Despite my interest in the subject, I will not be touching this book. Unintentionally or otherwise, it erases the groundbreaking contributions in this field made by Leta Hong Fincher, whose public writing on this subject has been available since 2011 and whose own book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China - which Lake fails to cite in her bibliography, despite exchanging numerous e-mails and soliciting ideas and "thoughts" with Hong Fincher over a period of years, and listing 30 other works unrelated to Shengnu specifically - was released in 2014.

When called out on this, Lake claimed she deliberately chose not to read Hong Fincher's work when it came out in 2014 because she wanted to "remain focused" on her own work. If that's the case, it shows an extremely poor attitude to research - it is the duty of a good researcher to engage critically with work that's come before, and that engagement is ESPECIALLY valuable if works are taking their subject matter to different conclusions. Lake is apparently privileged enough to believe that her audience won't be put off by her openly admitting she has failed to read key texts on the subject she claims to have expertise on... unfortunately, in my case at least, she's wrong.

A deeply unfortunate book which should be a source of embarrassment to both the author and the publisher. Nobody is saying that there can't be multiple books on this subject, but Lake has offered a pitiful excuse for erasing the work of someone whose labour she clearly DID use, and she's now benefiting from it with complete impunity. Yuk.

(Further reading: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/21/scholar-says-new-book-chinas-left... ( )

This is a very interesting and eye-opening read about the amazing women in China who have widely achieved an unprecedented level of ass-kickingly professional success. These brilliant, successful, highly educated women are almost running the country, and are propelling China forward towards a bright future.

However, traditional cultural belief in the importance of marriage and procreation are at war with modern gender roles and expectations. These capable women are expected to find and marry a man, basically just for the sake of salving ancient tradition. There achievements in education and professional capacities are seen as less important than marrying and having a child. And the only sons, 'Little Emperors,' have been so spoiled by their parents, they are apparently unable to function in an equal marriage with a successful woman. And that, many times, is seen as the fault of the woman, instead of the man. Women who postpone marriage, or even delay it, are seen as sheng nu, or Leftover Women.

This book is full of the first hand experiences of many people, so you get a good idea of how various people feel about this situation.

*eARC Netgalley*
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