Chinese whispers  Xinran's accounts of brutality and emotional
repression are harrowing - but The Good Women of China is not
the new Wild Swans  The Good Women of China by Xinran Chatto and
Windus £14.99, pp244  Any Journalist who writes about suffering
knows that the copy will be read partly in a spirit of
prurience. The story may cry out to be told, but part of what
makes it publishable is its shock value. Exploitation, cruelty
and violence make compelling reading, and although the writer's
- and indeed the reader's - chief motive may be to expose or
understand wrongs, you can't get away from the fact that torment
is titillating. Good journalists can minimise the voyeurism - by
putting the story into context and (a related point) by the
quality of their writing.  The Good Women of China passes
neither of these tests with flying colours. The book contains
stories of rape and child abuse, forced marriages and sexual
humiliations. Its author, a former radio journalist called
Xinran, contextualises where she ca