Chinese teen's diary a hit in France

Paul Michaud, Contributor, Paris

Ma Yan's Diary -- a 14-year-old girl's personal account of day-to-day life in one of China's most barren regions, Ningxia -- has become a runaway bestseller in France. It will soon be published around the world, making its way back to China where its young author hopes it will bring about important changes, most notably with regard to the situation of young Chinese girls.

The book -- Le Journal de Ma Yan, published last week by Editions Ramsay in Paris -- recounts the difficult situation of a young girl, Ma Yan, who decided one day that she had just as much right to an education as any other person in her region. Except that traditionally, girls have no automatic right to an education in her part of the world.

"Her mother had condemned her to a life of misery," notes Pierre Haski, the China correspondent for French daily Liberation -- who discovered the diary and chose to turn it into a full- fledged book after excerpts from the personal diary brought about a storm of protest in France when they were published in his newspaper.

"But," continues Haski, "as Ma Yan notes on a day-to-day basis in her personal diary, she decided that she was going to go against the grain and would get an education at whatever cost, which one day, she hopes, will allow her to have une belle vie (a beautiful life)."

And getting that education remains for Ma Yan quite difficult until now, as she has to walk 20 kilometers to school each day because she does not have the right to get a ride from the tractor that takes the local boys to classes.

"I cannot understand," says Ma Yan, "why there are so many differences on this Earth, and why schools like ours should have more boys than girls."

Although the journal also recounts her separation from her mother, who was initially opposed to Ma Yan's decision to obtain an education, Haski says that today the two have reconciled, largely as a result of the book.

Says the mother, Bai Ju Hua, "it was a sad experience, but she did get to express her revolt, and now I'm beginning to understand her."

But perhaps Ma Yan's real victory is that other young girls in her village have also made the same decision, not only to demand the right to an education but also have begun producing their own personal diaries. She hopes their diaries will have the same success that Ma Yan's is enjoying in France, and -- according to a spokesman for Editions Ramsay -- should soon be getting in much of the rest of the world, but definitely in China.