num_pages: 290
description: Leaving Mother Lake is the extraordinary story of Yang Erche Namu — a girl growing up in the borderlands between Tibet and China, who left her remarkable childhood behind for the bright lights of Shanghai and singing stardom.Namu’s home is an area so primitive that during the Cultural Revolution the Red Guards arrived and left because there was nothing to destroy. It is a place known as the ‘Country of Daughters’ because of its matriarchal society: there is no word for father; property is passed on from mother to daughter; women choose lovers for as long as they like; and men mostly sleep in the stables.When Namu was a small child, her mother tried to give her away three times because she would not stop crying. Each time she was returned. As she grew up, she clashed repeatedly with her equally fierce mother ... until the arrival of a Chinese official looking for talented singers. Namu was selected for a singing competition in the nearest city — eight hours away — which, to her astonishment, she won. She realized she had a taste for the outside world and, despite her mother’s protestations, she decided to run away . . .Full of surprise, drama, and beauty, Leaving Mother Lake is the lyrical story of the girl who grew out of her rural beginnings, battling against the odds to achieve extraordinary success.
language: English
title: Leaving Mother Lake: A Childhood at the Edge of the World
titlecomplete: Leaving Mother Lake: A Childhood at the Edge of the World
genres: Anthropology, Biography, Asia, Memoir, Nonfiction, China, Womens, Asian Literature, Biography Memoir, History
ratings_count: 1774
publisher: Abacus