"Shocking—I felt as if I were reading a thriller. Professor Liang’s research is meticulous, vividly portraying the stark realities of adolescents struggling with shared psychological issues in vastly different circumstances."
— Reader DSZS

"Reading this book felt like a small knife cutting into my heart, painful and raw—just like the scars those children inflict on their own arms. Anyone who reads it will recognize similar families and children around them. This book is a mirror, reflecting the scars of our era and the children who’ve lost their innocence and hope."
— Reader Feng Ping

★ A new, impactful work of non-fiction by Liang Hong, one of China’s foremost non-fiction writers, five years after her acclaimed "Liuzhuang Trilogy". Liang Hong’s literary works blend intellectual depth, literary artistry, and social documentation, earning high praise in both China and the global non-fiction community. She is recognized as one of the leading voices of "true writing" in contemporary Chinese literature.

★ Based on three years of fieldwork, this book presents an unflinching portrait of the psychological landscape of Chinese youth today—those trapped by emotional distress, forced to drop out or take extended leaves from school, and those teetering on the edge of despair and depression.

★ This book is written for children, for parents, and for every person living on this earth.

Liang Hong turns her lens toward those trapped in silence—the adolescents who have dropped out or taken leave from school due to emotional struggles, and those grappling with depression and the brink of giving up. Over three years, she traveled across megacities, mid-sized cities, county towns, and rural villages, stepping into homes, schools, educational institutions, and psychiatric hospitals. Through immersive interviews with children, parents, teachers, doctors, and therapists, she captures their raw, unfiltered voices, striving to paint a truthful picture of the mental health crisis among Chinese youth today.
Within these deeply personal stories, we meet Minmin, who, despite her pain, fights to rediscover her inner light; Yaya, who hopes her experience can inspire hope in others; and Wu Yong, who reminds us that we must learn to move forward through trauma, understanding one another amid brokenness and dislocation. These are moments of truth and sacredness—glimmers of life illuminated by empathy and attention.
This book is also a question: Do we, in our everyday words, expressions, and actions, inflict invisible wounds? How many unexamined habits, rooted deep in culture and ideology, quietly contradict our love for our children?
This book is written for children, for parents, and for every person living on this earth. We all need the courage and hope to listen to one another, to protect those young souls struggling to climb out of the mud, yearning for spring.

Liang Hong​
Writer, scholar, and professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China. One of the most internationally recognized voices of contemporary Chinese non-fiction literature.
Her notable works include the non-fiction books "Ten Years in Liangzhuang", "Leaving Liangzhuang", "China in Liuzhuang"(China in One Village), the academic essay collection "History and My Moment", the short story collection "The Sacred Family", the novels "The Light of Liang Guangzheng" and "The Four Symbols", and academic works such as "Notes from the Provinces", "The Construction of New Enlightenment Discourse", and "The Disappearance of Aura". Her works have been translated into English, Japanese, French, Korean, Czech, Russian, German, and more. Her novel "The Sacred Family"(English edition) was awarded the PEN Translates Award​ by English PEN.
She has received numerous accolades, including the China Publishing Government Award, China’s Best Books Award, Wenjin Book Award, People’s Literature Prize, Annual Essayist Award at the Chinese Literature Media Awards, October Literature Prize, and being named one of Asia Weekly’s Top 10 Non-Fiction Books.
Her writings on rural transformation, urban-rural relations, and migrant workers are considered essential texts for understanding contemporary Chinese social change by Western Sinology and sociology circles. Her research and writing—focused on Chinese villages, societal transformation, family dynamics, and individual destinies—are interdisciplinary, attracting international scholars from anthropology, sociology, and literary studies. Liang Hong and her works have been featured or cited by major international media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, BBC, and NPR.
Liang Hong is a frequent presence in international academic forums, having delivered lectures, taught courses, or participated in seminars at prestigious universities worldwide, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Duke University, UC Berkeley, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. She actively engages in public discourse, bringing issues such as rural China, education, women’s rights, and family ethics into broader public conversation through lectures, media interviews, and opinion pieces.
Liang Hong’s works break free from traditional reportage, blending sociological investigation, anthropological observation, and literary narrative into a distinctive "Liang Hong-style" of writing. She excels at using detailed descriptions, character portrayals, and emotional resonance to amplify the voices of marginalized groups—farmers, migrant workers, rural teachers—bringing them into the mainstream cultural consciousness. Her writing is profoundly literary and intellectually compelling.

Preface​
Part I: Binhai City​
— Chapter 1 —
He Guang High School
Performing “Normal”
Expulsion 1
What Is Love?
— Chapter 2 —
Domestic Violence
Taking a Leave from School
Rising Against the Odds
You Have No Idea What I’m Saying
— Chapter 3 —
ICU, Bed 21
Lightness and Heaviness
Isolation
Expulsion 2
— Chapter 4 —
Screw You, I’ll Succeed
A Single Sofa Bed
Everyone Survives by Their Strengths
— Chapter 5 —
Two Girls
Breaking Down the Door
Closing the Door
The Sick Are Suffering for Us
— Chapter 6 —
Don’t Blow Out That Light
Part II: The Capital​
— Chapter 7 —
Collapse
Signs
Crumbling
— Chapter 8 —
Seeking Medical Help
Anything Will Do
Cram Schools
Waking from a Dream
— Chapter 9 —
We Look Down on Him
Looking for a Sword in the Boat
Trauma
Part III: Dan County​
— Chapter 10 —
Conflict
I Don’t Want to Be Hospitalized
I Don’t Know
Game Skins
— Chapter 11 —
What’s the Point of School?
A Day in Quanzhong’s Life
Enclave
She Doesn’t Believe Me
— Chapter 12 —
No One Likes Him
It Makes Me Want to Cry
Argument
Poverty
— Chapter 13 —
School Refusal
Fracture
Missed Chances
Part IV: Time…​
— Chapter 14 —
Dan County
The Capital
Binhai City
Afterword​
Acknowledgments