Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
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- ISBN13: 9780440228653
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A riveting memoir of a girl’s painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family tree during the 1940s.
A Chinese proverb says, “Falling leaves return to their roots.” In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the tale of her painful childhood and her essential triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline’s affluent, powerful family tree considers her terrible luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any simpler when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for — the like and understanding of her family tree.
Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella tale, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.Amazon.com Review
Chinese Cinderella is the perfect title for Adeline Yen Mah’s compelling autobiography in which, like the fairy-tale maiden, her childhood was ruled by a cruel stepmother. “Fifth Younger Sister” or “Wu Mei,” as Yen Mah was called, is only an infant when her father remarries after her mother’s death. As the youngest of her five siblings, Wu Mei suffers the worst at the hands of her stepmother Niang. She is denied carfare, frequently forgotten at school at the end of the day, and whipped for daring to attend a classmate’s birthday party against Niang’s wishes. Her father even forgets the spelling of her name when filling out her school enrollment record. In her loneliness, Wu Mei turns to books for company: “I was alone with my beloved books. What bliss! To be left in peace with Cordelia, Regan, Gonoril, and Lear himself–characters more real than my family tree… What happiness! What comfort!” Even though Wu Mei is repeatedly stirred up to grades above persons of her peers, it is only when she wins an international play-writing contest in high school that her father finally takes notice and grants her wish to attend college in England. Despite her parent’s heartbreaking neglect, she eventually becomes a doctor and realizes her dream of being a writer.
Teens, with their passionate convictions and strong sense of honest play, will be immediately enveloped in the yucky injustice of Adeline Yen Mah’s tale. A perfect glossary, past notes on the state of Chinese society and politics during Yen Mah’s childhood, and the legend of the original Chinese Cinderella round out this stirring testimony to the might of human character and the power of education. (Ages 10 to 15) –Jennifer Hubert
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This book, ‘Chinese Cinderalla’, is aimed at the occidental reader, who yearns to learn about the mystic of the oriental world. There have been books of this ilk before. There was ‘The World of Suzie World’, some years ago. Then, ‘the Joy Luck Club’.
There is no doubt that China has had its share of misery of sadness and tragedies, but then so has the West – the economic woes, the natural and man-made disasters.
But books about China which sell tend to dwell on the negative aspects. The Chinese have a trend to judge that their sufferings are unique, whilst the Westerners tend to take them in their stride.
I want to know the causes of this. Is the cause attributable to the fact that the West has Christianity as one of its main religions, and Christianity tends to encourage people to look upwards (factually as well)?
The main religions in China are Buddhism and Taoism. The latter, in particular, instils beliefs in sufferings in the afterworld.
I prasie the success of this book, ‘Chinese Cinderalla’. But its popularity shows, at once, both the depressive aspects of the Chinese soul and psyche, and the nearly obssessive fascination of the occidental to things oriental.
But China is not all sadness. It has its share of jokes and humour. It has its times of long prosperity and joy over its long history.
For example, this book, ‘Chinese Cinderalla’ overlooks the fact that although she was left behind in school one day, which in itself ought not to be a major incident, her father did fetch her back when he realized that she was not at home.
Then again, the authoress had lots of food on her table. She even had stout food, and she could afford to spit it out.
And she was sent to the west no doubt at her father’s expense for her education!
These were, and are, rare privileges, and she should, with respect, appreciate these facts, and balance them against the incidents which are perhaps not too pleased incidents. (But then, do we all have perfect childhood?)
Perhaps it is time that the positive aspects of China, and ‘Chineseness’, have their share of popularity.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Read it in school, lots of questions, but it is an simple read. “The problem then, Mdizzio?” Well, depression. I dislike reading books that depress you so much to the point of being depressed and miserable. Why write such tragic books if they only make you feel sad. These books do not make me feel pleased for my life, they just make me feel sad for a different one.
Her family tree torchers her. Pee drinking, her pet, everything seems to come crashing down at one point or another. Seriously though, everything she likes is place down and it is nearly painful reading the next page because you know something terrible will take place.
I would not reccomend this book for people who like depressing reads. It is simple though, and many people probably like reading depressing novels or whatever, and the class seemed to like it. I mean I didn’t, but they did. We all know though they were just telling the teacher what she wanted to hear.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I had a fantastic deal of difficulty getting through this book. On the one hand, it was magnificently depressing. In many ways, so singularly depressing that it got to the point where I could predict exactly what was going to take place based on the first few sentences of the chapter. The fact that the protagonist receives (I could hardly judge it) a cute small yellow duckling nearly crossed the book over into absolute ridiculousness. On the additional hand, Mah assures us that this all happened. This is no “Child Called It” with its unreliable narrator AND leader. This book is, for all intents and purposes (or so we can only judge) the truth. And as such, it stands as a fantastic inspiration to all children who have horrible home lives and can only escape such lives through literature such as this. So I respect the book, even as I have my qualms. For example, the book ends with the leader getting her father’s blessing to go to college. Such an ending feels abrupt, and I can only assume that Yah’s previous book, “Falling Leaves”, must pick up at that point. Yah is an brilliant writer, and here is the proof. Though I had to physically force myself to continue reading this depressing tale, at its end I couldn’t help but marvel if my library had “Falling Leaves” and, if so, if I could flip through it. This book would be an brilliant recommendation for persons young adults obsessed with the aforementioned “Child Called It” (and, depressingly, there are reasonably a number of them). It would not, I reflect, read well to kids. This book contains acts of violence and cruelty. I would pair it with persons additional right to life, or at least realistic, books that children at a certain age become fascinated with.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Excellent tale, misleading political implication. If Yan does paint an “authentic” picture of China, I am not Chinese!!! While she was wallowing in her personal pain, millions were suffering from the atrocity of WWII, of civil war! Remember, her family tree was the “bourgeois”. How many Chinese people could afford a 7-carat diamond ring? She had a excellent life. Her suffering pales in comparison to “Night”, to Nanjing… Persons millions of peasants and workers — who could only own land and afford housing because of socialism — not the warlords and landlords who of course supported the Nationalists — why aren’t their tale heard?? People, read Marx yourselves before you trash PLA and CPC! Don’t be blinded by the dread constructed by biased media! Go to China and interview the people who chose to stay, not to emigrate! Gosh, “Want a excellent life? Run to HK! Taiwan! England! Japan! Australia! America! — All persons greatest countries in the world! ” — Wake up, people, you are already in one!
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I loved this book.It made me realize how lucky I really am.The drama and events made it hard to stop reading.Even after the book was over I wanted to know what{if anything}she did to get back at her family tree.I liked it so much that I am now trying to buy Falling Leaves which is another type of autobiography about her.I am still getting over how this really happened.I recommend this book to anyone.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5