One Sunday morning, I planned to write home to tell my folks I would not go home during the Spring Festival. Because I hadn't written by hand for a long time, my handwriting was awful, so I went to the company, intending to use the computer. The office was very close to where I lived, only about 15 minutes' walk, and I had a key.

When I got there I found the door open. I went in, on the alert, and a woman appeared in the lobby with a teenaged girl. I knew he had a wife, but he always said he had no children, so I thought this couldn't be his wife and asked, "Who are you?"

She asked the same of me, "Who are you?" While I hesitated, the girl suddenly called into the office, "Daddy, someone's looking for you."

I immediately understood and made a pretense of having gone to the wrong floor and wrong office looking for someone else.

Before he came out, I had slipped away home.

I guessed that he'd lied about being childless simply so I would provide a son for him, because this would give me my only hope of marriage. Did he think of me simply as a baby machine?

This remarkable book originated as a blog and online advice column in China that drew millions of visitors. Here are twenty true stories of single, urban women living in contemporary China. They have all agreed to have their interviews published and their stories told. They run the gamut from the hopeless romantic to the gold digger; the divorced single mother to the new college graduate. Their open, honest, utterly revealing personal stories offer an unprecedented look at the issues, concerns, and life choices faced by today's Chinese women.

Shuping Wu is a well-known writer and media personality in China.