text:  Yang is in her mid-30s, and that is part of the story because she wrote her book about four Chinese women who were around the same age. All four were born around 1990. All four grew up as China opened economically. All tried to seize whatever opportunities they could in an unfree society. One woman, called June in the book, was born in a village so remote it was a three-hour walk to the nearest paved road.