November 2003"--T.p. verso. This ed. originally published: New York : Pantheon Books, c2002. 1st American ed.

Prologue -- My journey towards the stories of Chinese women -- The girl who kept a fly as a pet -- The university student -- The scavenger woman -- The mothers who endured an earthquake -- What Chinese women believe -- The woman who loved women -- The woman whose marriage was arranged by the revolution -- My mother -- The woman who waited forty-five years -- The Guomindang general's daughter -- The childhood I cannot leave behind me -- The woman whose father does not know her -- A fashionable woman -- The women of Shouting Hill -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgements.