Small Voice Finds Big Audience

Ma Yan, a 16-year-old girl from China’s impoverished northwest, made an appearance at the Paris Book Fair in March with her book entitled Ma Yan’s Diary: The Daily Life of a Chinese Schoolgirl. With her diary, upon which a French journalist accidentally stumbled, the young Ma can now fulfill her dream of receiving a high school education, while giving a voice to tens of thousands of children from her country’s underdeveloped rural regions.

Ma’s diary, along with a letter to her mother, landed in the hands of Pierre Haski, a correspondent for French daily newspaper Libération, when he was passing through the remote village of Zhangjiashu in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in May 2001.

The diary expresses Ma’s desire to lift her parents out of poverty and improve herself. She laments her family’s poverty in the letter to her mother. “I’m back in the house. I till the land in order to pay for my brothers’ schooling…I want to go school, mom. I don’t want to work at home. How wonderful it would be if I could stay in school forever!”

After his article about the girl’s account of struggle against hunger and poverty was run in France, Haski began receiving checks from readers, with which he set up an aid association for the children in Ningxia.

Haski returned to Zhangjiashu in January 2002 with a contract to publish Ma’s journal. The diary, with a foreword by Haski, was published in France in October, prompting the aid association’s membership to grow to 300. More donations poured in. Haski and Ma have donated 25 percent of their royalties to the association as well.

Thanks to the discovery and publication of her diary, Ma became the first girl in her village to afford to go to high school. Now, many Ningxia children, mostly girls, have scholarships to continue their studies.

(Also see Snapshot, p.48)

“I thought my job as a reporter is to denounce injustice, not to correct it, then I found myself in a situation where I could influence reality, …I had to live with that responsibility.”

Pierre Haski

Correspondent for Libération

“In these times even beggars need degrees, …nothing works for you if you don’t study. In big cities even going to the toilet entails being able to read.”

A passage from Ma Yan’s Diary

“Ma Yan’s journal is personal, but sheds light onto the daily life of thousands of girls from the Muslim Hui minority in Ningxia.”

Antoaneta Bezlova

Reporter with Asia Times

“A modern fairytale that moves the world. Is it [Ma’s story] all fate, or a dream that is never given up that comes true? ”

Editor’s words for the Chinese edition of Ma Yan’s Diary

“It is mankind’s never ending pursuit of justice, fairness and equality. Fighting poverty is the lofty duty of all countries and the international community as a whole.”

Wen Jiabao

Chinese Premier

“We sincerely hope that all members of society will lend their strong hands to children who drop out due to poverty and make them feel society’s warmth and care.”

Gu Xiulian

Vice President of the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund