This paper is based on our oral testimonial projects in Guizhou province in Southwest China. Since 1999 to 2004, we have employed oral testimony as one of the community development strategies and methods to study the life histories of Miao ethnic minority women in Chinas rural impoverished regions. By employing this method, we aim at empowering the marginalised Miao women, and help them explore their hidden voices and learn about their life experiences, their views on their relationship with their husbands, families, communities, and other social forces that shape their livelihoods. In local womens narratives, especially those of middleaged women, they were eager to talk about their lives as well as their suffering from family burdens, family discord, domestic violence, alcoholism, and other issues which were beyond our agenda. We finally found that suffering is the collective experience of middleaged women, and domestic violence is a major source of womens suffering. This paper seeks to examine how the patriarchal system, rural poverty, and traditional cultural practices intertwine in shaping womens lives and contribute to womens suffering in everyday life.