The Diary of Ma Yan

The Diary of Ma Yan is a diary written by Ma Yan, a young Chinese girl. When I chose to read this book, I had never heard of it and didn’t know the story behind it. It was given to a French journalist, Pierre Haski, by her mother as she begged him to help her and her family. He had the diary published, and Ma Yan became somewhat of a celebrity in France and even China. As a result, a fund was set up to help students in Ningxia obtain an education.

In her diary, Ma Yan documents her daily struggles and thoughts as a thirteen-year old girl living in remote Ningxia, China. She wants an education more than anything else because she has been forced to periodically leave school because of family money issues. This diary is a testament to all of the young people in disadvantaged areas just like Ma Yan.

I really like how the book is set up. The journalist first gives an introduction to the book and how he came upon Ma Yan’s diary. This is helpful because it sets a context and frame for her diary. There is a pattern of a few diary entries and then an explanation of some aspect of her diary entries. This is helpful because it helps the reader to make sense of what she is talking about in her entries. There are also pictures every five or so pages, and I always enjoyed having a glimpse into life in rural China.

So much of what she writes about in her diary makes it hard for me to believe that she’s only thirteen. For example, she constantly mentions her need to please her parents by getting good grades so she will have a bright future full of opportunity. Toward the end of her diary, she becomes very pre-occupied with her mother’s health, and she hopes that in the future she will be able to provide for her parents so they can lead a happy, easy life. This does not seem like something a “normal” thirteen-year old who doesn’t live in poverty would write. I was constantly impressed with her maturity and the hardships she has had to overcome.

A lot of what I read in this book reminds me of other books I have read. It reminds me a lot of The Diary of Anne Frank, but it wasn’t quite as interesting. Her entries often just described what she had done in school that day and how she was feeling about different things. Like Anne Frank’s diary, Ma Yan was facing more hardships than I could ever imagine. Pierre Haski explains that Ma Yan’s paternal grandfather, Ma Shunji, was sold by his father to a man in return for forty-four pounds of rice and some seeds. Ma Shunji had to work for the other man for years. This story reminds me of Miggery Sow in The Tale of Despereaux because her father sold her to a man for a red tablecloth.

This is a great book to read to get a glimpse of what life is like for other people in other situations than I have experienced.