One in five of the world's population is Chinese, 300 million Chinese are under 30, and of these, most are only children as a result of the One Child Policy. What do these only children think and do? A generation burdened with high expectation and unprepared for responsibility.

With journalistic acumen and a novelist's flair, Xinran tells the remarkable stories of men and women born and raised under China's single-child policy. Xinran shows how these generations embody the hopes and fears of a great nation at a time of unprecedented change. Buy Me the Sky provides an illuminating glimpse of the face of modern China.

About the Speaker

Xue Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958 and was a successful journalist and radio presenter in China. In 1997 she moved to London, where she began writing her seminal book about Chinese women's lives, The Good Women of China. She has also written the acclaimed Sky Burial, Miss Chopsticks, China Witness, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, and a book of her columns for The Guardian called What the Chinese Don't Eat. From London, where she is a regular television and radio commentator, she travels regularly to China. Xinran's sessions at the Sydney Writers' Festival are already booked out. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signings on the night.