The Diary of Ma Yan

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The Diary of Ma Yan: The Struggles and Hopes of a Chinese School Girl (马燕日记) is the diary of a Chinese schoolgirl Ma Yan (马燕) from a small village in Ningxia autonomous region, China.

In March 2001, French journalist Pierre Haski was filming a documentary on Chinese Muslims. Haski visited the remote rural village of Zhangjiashu in the northwestern region of Ningxia, an autonomous region. He stayed for a few days in the village imam's modest hut. Despite the villagers' impoverished conditions and limited access to facilities such as drinking water and education, Haski and his team were well-treated by the community.^[1]

As they were leaving, the mother of thirteen-year-old Ma Yan handed her daughter's handwritten diaries to Haski and his team,^[1] asking for their help. In Shanghai, the team was moved by the contents of the diaries, in which Ma Yan expressed her strong desire to continue attending school and support her family. Due to their extreme poverty, the Ma family had withdrawn Ma Yan from school because they could not afford the fees.

Ma Yan's diaries were edited and initially published in France by Haski.

In the summer of 2002, a fund called the Children of Ningxia^[2] was established to support Ma Yan and other children in attending school. Since then, the diary has been published in seventeen languages and has sold over 200,000^[1] copies worldwide.

Ma Yan later expressed her desire to study journalism at university, citing her motivation as the work of Pierre Haski and others who traveled across the country to help poor children. She stated, "I'd like to be a journalist so I, too, can help poor children."

Through the efforts of Children of Ningxia, approximately 250 Chinese schoolchildren have gained access to or continued their education. Ma Yan's village has also experienced improvements, including better access to freshwater and agricultural fertilizers.

• Ma, Yan, and Pierre Haski (2005). The Diary of Ma Yan: The Struggles and Hopes of a Chinese Schoolgirl. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-076496-1. ISBN 978-0-06-076496-8.
• Riding, Alan (March 24, 2004). "A Chinese Girl's Diary Builds A Bridge Out of Rural Poverty". The New York Times.
• "The Diary of Ma Yan". South China Morning Post. 2004-08-15. Retrieved 2022-12-11.

• Children of Ningxia (English version)
• Enfants du Ningxia (French version)