Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
China's Stolen Children and a Story of Separated Twins
Published on 7. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-78378-725-8 (ISBN)
Description
In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government because she already had two daughters. Two years later, an American couple travelled to Shaoyang to adopt a Chinese toddler they thought had been abandoned.
Their understanding had been that China's brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents. What they didn't know - and what award-winning journalist Barbara Demick uncovered in 2007, while working as a correspondent in Beijing - was that their daughter had been snatched from her beloved family and her identical twin. Under China's one-child policy hundreds of poor Chinese were giving up their children due to soaring fines and threats of violence. More sinister still, international demand for adoptees was sky-rocketing, and local officials were forcibly seizing children and trafficking them to orphanages, who were selling them abroad.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the gripping story of separated twins, their respective fates in China and the USA, and Barbara Demick's role in reuniting them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China's history and culture, it asks questions about the roots, impact and consequences of China's one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and, ultimately, the assumptions and narratives we hold about the quality of lives lived in the East and the West.
Their understanding had been that China's brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents. What they didn't know - and what award-winning journalist Barbara Demick uncovered in 2007, while working as a correspondent in Beijing - was that their daughter had been snatched from her beloved family and her identical twin. Under China's one-child policy hundreds of poor Chinese were giving up their children due to soaring fines and threats of violence. More sinister still, international demand for adoptees was sky-rocketing, and local officials were forcibly seizing children and trafficking them to orphanages, who were selling them abroad.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the gripping story of separated twins, their respective fates in China and the USA, and Barbara Demick's role in reuniting them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China's history and culture, it asks questions about the roots, impact and consequences of China's one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and, ultimately, the assumptions and narratives we hold about the quality of lives lived in the East and the West.
Reviews / Votes
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove places this gripping narrative within its wider context, replete with attendant complications and horrors... It is this unshowy, subtle approach that makes her book the very best kind of nonfiction, and Demick its peerless practitioner * Observer * International adoptions, which China banned in 2024, are a tricky subject to write about... But Demick [...] has written with impeccable empathy for everyone involved * The Times * Demick is an enchanting storyteller, and the book offers a magisterial overview of China's recent history... An exceptional achievement of journalistic reporting... Nuanced and humane... Demick's command of her subject and intense attention to detail yields a rich narrative of China's development * Irish Independent * The Zeng family's efforts to reconnect years later frame Demick's investigation into how China's "one child policy" dovetailed with an "insatiable demand" for international adoptees in America... Demick relays this nightmarish tale in elegant, empathetic prose. It's a tour de force * Publishers Weekly (*starred review*) * Compelling [and] gripping... The book is not just about a family reunited... Demick's achievement is never to turn the story into a melodrama or a simplistic parable of US-Chinese relations. She shows in warm, human terms how grand plans and carelessness about their outcomes can lead to immensely destructive consequences for individuals, and how those same individuals can find ways to bring back what the state seemed to have destroyed forever * Literary Review * Unputdownable * BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour * Solid reportage and a deep knowledge of China inform this welcome study of a state-imposed social experiment gone awry * Kirkus Reviews * Another marvellous blend of reportage and storytelling * Bookseller * Fascinating... [Demick] humanises the subject by focusing on a pair of twins * The Times * Barbara Demick's ability to weave intimate stories into the fabric of historical events is second to none. This is not only a classic, emotional tale of twins separated as babies, but also an investigation into the Chinese political system which allowed local officials to kidnap baby girls in the name of the one-child policy. An unforgettable story about modern China, and our indivisible humanity -- Lindsey Hilsum Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick has created an informative, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes up-lifting story of China's One-Child Policy and transnational adoption... Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is an amazing book. I truly couldn't put it down -- Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan's Circle of Women Powerful and remarkable, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove amplifies the voices of the forgotten. This story of separated twins is not just about two little girls deeply entwined, even across continents - it is about the thousands of families torn apart by policies, greed, and misinformation -- Xinran An unsparing, impeccably-reported yet deeply compassionate account of the devastating consequences when China's "one child" policy led to children being snatched from loving families for profit. A story of heartbreak, shame, separation and irreparable damage - but most of all, of love -- Tania Branigan, author of Red Memory This book is resounding proof that nobody can understand China without reading Barbara Demick, because she unearths stories the government wants buried. She writes with such humanity and literary grace that this envelops you like a novel in which every word is true -- Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition Brilliantly written with passion and forensic detail, the book reads like a fast-paced whodunit, with the crime committed against a nation, a people, and girls everywhere -- Mei Fong, author of One Child Barbara Demick gets into the heads and the hearts of the people she profiles so adeptly that one sometimes forgets it is nonfiction one is reading. In Daughters of the Bamboo Grove, she turns the seemingly-prosaic human dramas of our societies into a cinematic and heart-rending epic tale with consequences that cross continents. In her work, every individual's story gets their due - its beauty, dignity, and wonder made evident through her writing -- Emily Feng, author of Let Only Red Flowers Bloom This powerful book documents the heart-wrenching impact of China's Family Planning policy, particularly the forced separations that fuelled international adoptions. Focusing on the lives of twins cruelly separated in infancy-one remaining in China and the other raised overseas by adoptive parents-this immensely empathetic, moving, and thought-provoking narrative offers readers an extraordinary window into the complex dilemmas of international adoption -- Zhuqing Li, author of Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden A bittersweet but engrossing narrative of how one family was compelled by Beijing's 'one-child policy' to give an 'unauthorized' child up for adoption to American parents -- Orville Schell, co-author of Wealth and PowerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
244 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-725-8 (9781783787258)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Barbara Demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy (Granta, 2010), her seminal book on North Korea, which went on to be shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 'Winner of Winners' Award in 2023. She is also the author of Eat the Buddha (Granta, 2020) which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, and Besieged (Granta, 2012), her account of the war in Sarajevo, which won the George Polk Award, the Robert F Kennedy Award and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in New York.