some oppressed girls were starved,

Back cover

Women face many kinds of oppression through the centuries. The author takes you to a journey of modern day oppression.

This story traces the life of Nadine, a girl born to Indian parents. It embodies the issues of a Kiwi girl, Nadine, growing up in conflicting cultures and getting lost in her environment.

Nadine grows up to overcome her problems to help women who suffered from physical and mental violence, domestic violence, rape, pornography, swinging, incest, bullying, sex with minors, sex slavery and human trafficking.

Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.

― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Ann is the writer of Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby, From China to Borneo to Beyond, and Mail Order Bride. Indeed each of these books has a soul. Ann gives a voice for the bereaved and the oppressed

Synopsis

Synopsis

This story traces the life of Nadine, a girl born to Indian parents who grew up living in Pukekohe, the place of the early Indian and Chinese settlers in New Zealand, to Grey Lynn and Arch Hill in Auckland. It embodies the issues of a Kiwi girl growing up in conflicting cultures and getting lost in her environment.

Patel, a New Zealand-born Indian arranges for Chandra, from India, to come and be his wife. After many years, Nadine is born. The Indian culture of male dominance leads Chandra to reject her daughter, Nadine from birth and fall into post- natal depression.  Fortunately for Patel and Nadine, they have two good neighbours, Manchala and Kim, to help during Nadine’s early childhood years.

In an attempt to help Nadine and Chandra, Patel buys a dairy in Grey Lynn. More trouble brews when Nadine mixes with the wrong crowd and is caught shoplifting. Following the traditional way, Patel ships Nadine to India to learn to be a prim and proper Indian girl. This proves a disaster, and Nadine comes home.

Patel makes another mistake by arranging for Nadine to wed Gopal from India. This is one big mistake of tying together a Kiwi Indian girl and an India-born boy who had only come to New Zealand on a marriage of convenience. The marriage breaks down. Gopal leaves with the dowry money and marries a Fijian girl.

Nadine meets Andy, a Maori boy who is known for his footloose lifestyle and moves in with him in Arch Hill. Nadine suffers from physical and emotional abuse. But she refuses to leave him, until she has a baby, then she disappears.

Kim comes back into Nadine’s life and brings her to her senses. Nadine trains to become a social worker and works in a Refuge Centre. In her line of work, she sees many oppressed women.

At the Refuge Centre, Nadine meets Megan from the Rape Crisis Centre. Megan is a rape victim and survivor. Together, they work as a formidable team.

This book is a fiction and shows different plausible scenarios of oppressed women: Women who suffered from physical and mental violence, rape, pornography, swinging, incest, bullying, sex with minors, human trafficking, drug trafficking. And so on.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

To her husband, Dr Chin Chen Onn for his love, patience in the computer work, formatting and in the production of this book.

To her surviving children: Deborah, Gabrielle for careful proof reading, their ideas, and Sam for formatting and computing help.

To her siblings for their ideas, support and encouragement.

To Francis Chen for reading and his encouraging words.

To Chiong Hing Pau for proof reading and suggestions.

To Margaret Ting for proof reading,her encouragement and her belief in me when I started to write.

To my late father, Mr. John Chan Hiu Fei for instilling the love of writing when I was very young.

To my late mother, Mrs Mary Kong-Chan Wah Kiew who made sure I did my school work every afternoon.

To Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh for his faith in me and being my guest of honour at my Book Launch.

To Mr. Kong Tze Ling, Penghulus Ten Kim Loong and Kong Sen Leau and the Guang Ning Association for making my dream come true in October 2013.

To all my friends for their moral support.

Finally, to the memory of my late son, Andrew.

About the author

About the author

Ann Chin was born in Sibu, British Sarawak in Borneo.

Her Chinese name is Kit Suet/Jie Xue means pure snow.

She attended Methodist Primary and Secondary schools in Sibu.

She graduated from the University of Windsor (Canada), Auckland University and Auckland University of Technology.

She teaches ESOL to children and adults.

She is a parent advocate, and a public speaker.

She belongs to Sands, New Zealand Stillbirth and Neo natal deaths, and wears two of their wrist bands for greater awareness.

She knits baby blankets for the Neonatal Trust.

Her favourite charity is the Deaf children in Kenya. She helped raise funds to separate the pair of Nepalese Siamese twins in Singapore.

Ann is the 4th child of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Chan Hiu Fei and Mrs. Mary Kong Wah Kiew.

Ann is the author of “Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby” and “From China to Borneo and Beyond,” and “Mail Order Bride.”

Forward

Forward

I edited my book, From China to Borneo to Beyond and added a chapter on Women Pioneers.

In God’s original law, ‘And they twain shall be one flesh: so that they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.’ `Mark 10:8, 9 KJV

For better or worse, till sickness do us part, this is the basic foundation of a Christian marriage.

It was in 1975 when I was a student in Windsor University in Canada. I joined other students in condemning beauty contests that were a front for the meat market. We chose Helen Reddy’s ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ to be our theme song.

In 1979, I was with a group of Asian women students in Auckland University. We discussed the 三 從 四 德. The three obedience of a woman: ‘obey her father before marriage, her husband when married, and her sons in widowhood’ and the four virtues: morality, proper speech, modest manner and diligent work of women in ancient China; spiritual fetters of wifely submission and virtue imposed on women in feudal society （古 代 中 国 妇 女 应 有 的 品 德。三 从 是 未 嫁 从 父、既 嫁 从 夫、夫 死 从 子, 四 德 是 妇 德、妇 言、妇 容、妇 功 (妇 女 的 品 德、辞 令、仪 态、女 工).

According to Chinese legend, Zi Gu 紫姑 is the God of toilet.  She was an oppressed woman and physically abused and killed by a vengeful Wife in a toilet. The Heavenly God had compassion for her. He made her the God of toilet. She represents all the females who groan under the oppression in the feudal society. So women worship her and regard her as the guardian angel of weak females.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_god

www.facebook.com/HealthworkzSG

A seventy something Chinese woman told me, the day she got married, she became a slave to the family, her mother-in-law, her husband and the rest of her husband’s family.

While pioneered women were oppressed, women today despite, women’s liberations movement, continue to be oppressed.

In my book Mail Order Bride, I went to places where few would go, I wrote about embodiment of many issues of the darker side of today’s society: under-aged sex, prostitution, and paedophilia.

Some readers found the book very awakening and down to earth. They said I was very brave in tackling these topics.

In this book, CRY of Oppressed Women, I write various forms of oppression. I show the true me. I am a radical feminist activist. I am active in environmental issues, in Sands for grieving parents, Charity for Kenya and so on. In writing this book, I give a voice to women belittled, violated, oppressed and battered by men. I conclude with strong words. Pornography degrades women. It is banal, inane and downright disgusting. I HATE pornography!! I hate all degradation of women in any form. I abhor the exploitation of young girls and older women at the hands of manipulative men. I appal sexualisation of little girls, including padded frilly swimwear. I am disgusted at what it does to the girls’ mind making them become anorexic and bulimic.

This is a work of fiction with very real scenarios. It is a figment of imagination of the author. Any resemblance of persons is purely coincidental. While these scenarios are fictitious, the reader will notice that some of them are familiar. This is because I use ideas from the newspapers, television news. I use them as my theme for each story and added on to it.