In the Name of the Child

Name: In the Name of the Child
ISBN: 9787559470997

未夕Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaDec 2023

3.6

Word count: 250K words
Chapters: 62
ISBN: 9787559470997

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Summary

A long novel of urban family life. It follows three mothers who project their own life plans onto their children as they navigate school and grow alongside them.

Young mother Yang Liu has pinned high hopes on her son Su Wang since early childhood, arranging everything from early-learning classes to tutoring, yet Su Wang keeps bringing home middling grades. While taking her son to tutoring, Yang Liu befriends Jiang Danhua, a primary school teacher and another mother who pours her hopes into her child. Jiang's son Fang Zheng is quiet and diligent, yet misses first prize every time. In contrast stands Yang Liu's sister-in-law Xu Yuejuan, whose child needs no worry over grades but exhausts her in other ways.

Every family has its own troubles. The three mothers' attitudes shape their children's growth and also affect their own marriages, families and relationships. In the end, after many ups and downs, they make peace with fate and with themselves.

Editor's review

《以子之名》 takes the familiar phrase "for the child's good" and pulls it apart, showing how three mothers project their own life plans onto their children and are forced to confront the real parent-child relationship amid the friction of schooling and growing up. The novel does not reduce mothers to a single anxious symbol; Yang Liu, Jiang Danhua and Xu Yuejuan each carry different expectations and blind spots, and their children's responses in grades, temperament and daily behavior push them to reexamine marriage, family and themselves. Its strength lies in writing about mutual growth rather than one-way sacrifice: the mothers' changes and the children's changes pull on each other. The narrative stays close to everyday urban family life, making tutoring, school progression and comparisons among relatives concrete and relatable. It suits parents reading in spare moments and works as a starting point for family conversation. It may not resolve educational disagreements immediately, but it can replace some assumptions with a little more understanding of one another's situations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Urban parents currently accompanying children through school and feeling educational anxiety
General readers interested in parent-child relationships and family education
Readers who enjoy urban family novels with a strong sense of real life
School teachers or parent book-club members who want to use the novel as a basis for discussion

Not a good fit for

Readers not yet married and wholly uninterested in parenting topics
People seeking a practical guide with specific school-admission strategies or educational methods
Readers who want light comedy and would rather avoid family conflict

Reading tips

Follow each mother's child as a separate thread, and notice the gap between expectations and the children's actual performance.
When reading scenes of tutoring and comparison, pause and recall similar moments in your own family before judging.
Use the conflicts between mothers and children as discussion material, exchanging perspectives with family or book-club members.
Do not treat the characters as models or cautionary examples; focus on how they adjust rather than on who is right or wrong.

About the publisher

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1958

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House focuses on literary publishing while also covering the humanities, social sciences, and books on art and daily life. Its approximately 1,535 titles in the database span social novels, world history, design, science fiction, classic works, and film and television: they include modern Chinese literary classics by Lu Xun such as A Madman's Diary: The Complete Short Stories of Lu Xun, Call to Arms, Four Generations Under One Roof, and Teahouse, as well as foreign literary memoirs like Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday. In science fiction it offers Asimov's Galactic Empire series, while in architecture and art it publishes Liu Dunzhen's Classical Gardens of Suzhou and design titles from Phoenix Space. Its authors are concentrated among classic writers such as Lu Xun, Zweig, and Asimov, with translators including Liang Xijiang, Zhong Haonan, and Ye Lihua. Its overall character is built on classic works while embracing genre fiction and visual culture. Public information is limited, and this introduction is based on the titles in the database.

版权信息
第一幕
第一章
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第二幕
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第三幕
第一章
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第六章
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第十一章
第十二章
第十三章
第十四章
第十五章
第十六章
第十七章
第四幕
第一章
第二章
第三章
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第五章
第六章
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最终章

FAQ

Is this book criticizing anxious mothers?

Not in any simple way. The author gives each of the three mothers specific circumstances and blind spots, and also shows them adjusting amid friction. The novel is more concerned with how expectations form and how they affect parent-child relationships than with labeling a type of mother. Readers can see the problems and also see the possibility of change; it is worth keeping some understanding when evaluating the characters.

Will readers without children get anything from this book?

Yes. Besides parent-child relationships, the book also deals with marriage, family relationships and self-expectation, issues that do not belong only to parents. Readers without parenting experience can focus on the universal psychology of "projecting one's own plans onto others," which applies equally to partners, relatives and even workplace relationships, so it will not feel remote.

Are the stories of the three families connected?

Yes. Yang Liu and Jiang Danhua meet through their children's tutoring, and Xu Yuejuan, as Yang Liu's sister-in-law, serves as a contrast to them. The three mothers observe, compare with and influence one another as their children grow. While reading, notice how differences in their educational attitudes are magnified through everyday contact; this helps in understanding the book's structure.

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About the author

未夕 Author

Wei Xi is a contemporary Chinese author about whom little verified public information is available; details such as real name, nationality, and dates of birth and death have not been clearly recorded. The library currently holds three works under this name: The Road of the Mortal World, The Remarkable Women, and In the Name of the Child. The Road of the Mortal World is noted as "the latest full-length novel by the author of The Children of the Qiao Family." Judging from their common categories, Wei Xi's works are generally classified as social fiction and modern romance, with themes that appear to stay close to everyday reality, focusing on ordinary people's emotions and circumstances and using long-form narrative to develop relationships and changing fortunes. Because verifiable biographical information is limited, a fuller assessment of this author's body of work and literary standing requires more public sources; the present introduction is based only on library records and attributions.