Wang Haowei (Psychiatrist)
Li Weiwen (Writer)
Xing Jiahui (Children’s Book Author)
Yang Cui (Associate Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, Donghua University)
Luo Yijun (Novelist)
Lu Suwei (Founder of the Century Leaders Cultural and Educational Foundation)
Su Qiaohui (Former Executive Director of the Transcend Creative Culture and Education Foundation)
Jointly Recommended

★ A phenomenal bestseller by Chinese-language author Wu Xiaole, this landmark work has been adapted into a web series produced by Taiwan’s Public Television Service. The series swept the 54th Golden Bell Awards with five major trophies and has been hailed as the “Asian Black Mirror.” The novel has been licensed for publication in Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, and Vietnamese.
★ The eponymous web series premiered simultaneously in 190 countries as Netflix’s first Asian original, debuting on Japan’s Netflix Top 10 chart at No. 1 without any promotional push. On Douban (China’s equivalent of Goodreads), it has garnered over 422,770 followers and maintains an impressive audience rating of 8.5.
★ Upon release, the book sparked intense debate and remained at No. 1 on Books.com.tw’s overall bestseller list for several months. Readers were either enraged or moved to tears. Comprising nine gripping, real-life family narratives, it offers both the precise psychological insight of clinical case studies and a masterfully crafted, immersive storytelling experience.
★ A bizarre, otherworldly portrait of dysfunctional families—a suspenseful exploration of parenting. Who is stifling these children? Is it grades? Parents? Schools? The battle hymns of “tiger moms” and “tiger dads” in Chinese communities have turned into their children’s cries of anguish.
★ Your child does not belong to you; each child is a unique individual. This book speaks directly to both parents and their children, inviting readers to recognize reflections of their own upbringing within its pages.
★ Some people spend their entire lives healing from childhood; others spend their whole lives trying to heal their children. If this book fails to resonate with you, then you are among the fortunate few.

Speak Up for Your Child! Don’t Let Exams Crush Them.
The nine stories I’ve written:
Not a single one fits the popular, feel-good myths about education.
Not a single one will fill you with joy.
Not a single one will leave your heart undisturbed—most likely, they’ll stir up confusion, even irritation. And yet, these things really did happen.
More than that: they’re very likely still happening today…
As the storyteller, I am a witness. Over seven years, I opened door after door and stepped into different homes. Behind those doors, I beheld a kaleidoscope of strange, bewildering scenes: a mother who daily prepared Jijing（Anti-fatigue health supplement） and vitamins for her son to boost his energy, only to slap him without hesitation the moment she received his report card; a son who, in order to appease his parents, hid in the closet, deceiving others while hurting himself; perhaps she saw a kind of familial bond built entirely out of stacks of cash; someone who was convinced their daughter had ADHD until she actually developed the condition; someone who secretly longed for their father to walk over and say, “Good girl, you’ve worked hard too”; someone carrying a deep, unspoken secret, yet finding solace only by retreating into a cupboard; a mother who, despite becoming a parent, would slip into the bathroom late at night to weep silently, biting her hand to stifle her sobs; and another woman who, after her hundredth failed attempt at reconciliation with her mother, finally chose to forgive herself…

I used to think my job as a tutor was simply to impart knowledge to my students. But I soon realized that it was they—and their families—who left an even deeper impression on me. What, then, is the true essence of education? Is love conditional?
Each step I took into their lives filled me with astonishment. Time and again, I was tempted to rewrite these stories—to make them more positive, brighter, warmer—perhaps by softening or downplaying the pain. Yet I knew I couldn’t do that. Any embellishment or glossing over would be a betrayal of those wounds. Instead, I invite you to look together at those faces, to gaze once more at a forgotten beginning—the original intention behind bringing a child into this world.
This book offers no dogmatic advice or prescriptions for parents. It contains only a series of profoundly moving narratives. These stories exist precisely because we need to confront that original impulse: to pause, to reflect deeply, and to remember why we brought our children into this world in the first place.

Wu Xiaole
Born in Taichung in 1989. She graduated from the Department of Law at National Taiwan University. She loves parrots and enjoys observing the everyday things that others take for granted. Her life had been going straight: following the advice of family and friends, she chose a bright-sounding department instead of pursuing studies in literature, believing that this path would lead to happiness. However, the more she studied, the more insecure and unhappy she became. Not long after graduation, she made a decision: she would not take the national civil service exam anytime soon, nor would she work in a law-related field. It was at that moment that she first felt her life had derailed, leaving her without direction.
At the age of eighteen, she met her second student, and the experience was so wonderful that it set her on a journey of teaching in different homes. By twenty-two, fearing she would just sit around thinking aimlessly, she took on a flurry of cases, filling every available hour. As time passed, she accumulated countless stories. While marveling at and savoring these experiences, she began to write—using the act of writing to heal and mend herself as well.
Published works include: Your Child Is Not Your Child (adapted into a TV series of the same name, co-produced by Netflix and broadcast globally, with a Douban rating of 8.2; the simplified Chinese edition has been sold), Upper-Class Kids (film and television rights, as well as translation rights in multiple languages, have been sold), We Have No Secrets (film and television rights, along with simplified Chinese, Korean, and Arabic translations, have been sold), Deadly Login (Korean and Arabic translation rights have been sold), But I Just Don’t Like It, and others.

Foreword: Entering the Storyhouse (Yang Cui)
Preface: Remembering Those Faces (Wu Xiaole)
The First Home: A Human Child, and a Cat’s Child
The Second Home: A Young Beast Lurking Beneath the Surface
The Third Home: The Need to Be Restless
The Fourth Home: The Myth of the Private Sphere
The Fifth Home: No Inherited Lineage
The Sixth Home: Talent
The Seventh Home: Baoyu’s Theater of Anxiety
The Eighth Home: All the Monsters Have Gathered
The Ninth Home: A High-Achiever’s Monologue
Afterword: Neither Lose Nor Forget