The premise for this novel was a romance set in Song Dynasty between two lovers in different social classes. A girl from a well to do family and a barbarian orphan fall head over heels for each other. I loved the premise for this novel, but the author focused too much on historical details such a...
A Memoir of China's past through it's Proverbs.This book was written by Adeline Yen Mah. I have written a review on her first book Falling Leave.When she was young, her Ye Ye (grand father) taught her and told her stories of China's history through proverbs. This book i think is her dedication to...
In Chinese Cinderella: the True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter, Adeline Yen Mah told the story of her life growing up in Shanghai, China during the 1940s as the daughter of a prosperous father and a cruel stepmother. In Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, she has taken the sa...
In English we say "An apple falls close to the tree" meaning you are like your family. In Shanghai they say "The leaves fall close to the roots" meaning you always go back to family, to your roots--like it or not.Covering a sweeping range of China's immediate past, from the 1930s to today, this b...
Every country and every people that resides have different culture and have different story to tell. From the most depressing experience of their lives from most unforgettable moments they felt in their childhood. But how can they manage to express and treasure those experiences forever? Some peo...
My three brothers were five, four and three. They blamed me for causing Mama’s () death and never forgave me. A year later, Father () remarried. Our stepmother, whom we called Niang (), was a seventeen‐year‐old Eurasian beauty fourteen years his junior. Father always introduced her to his friends...
Like Prime Minister Li Si 2200 years earlier, my father also left his home and traveled to a distant place in search of better opportunities and a fresh start. My siblings and I did not realize it then, but my father’s move destined us to become part of the 55 million Chinese living and working o...
She spoke of my foot-binding as a momentous and special occasion; a sort of combined feast day/name day/celebration holiday when I would shed the cocoon of my infancy and turn into Mei Lan (Beautiful Orchid). I would become as lovely as my Niang.‘She told Baba and me that all her wealthy friends ...
I tell Ah Zhao, “I’d heard Niang speaking to Baba about choosing an auspicious day to bind my feet. She spoke of my foot-binding as a momentous and special occasion; a sort of combined feast day/name day/celebration holiday when I would shed the cocoon of my infancy and turn into Mei Lan (Beautif...