Chinese Cinderella
1999
- social life and customs
- chinese americans
- fiction
- women physicians
- nonfiction
- biography & autobiography
- biography
- childhood and youth
- stepdaughters
- social conditions
The story
A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family 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 story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier 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 love and understanding of her family.Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.From the Hardcover edition.
What it’s like
Spare, plainspoken prose that reads like a clear-eyed look back through a childhood window: short declarative sentences, precise domestic detail, and the occasional proverb set down like a stone on the page. The world it conjures is a large, shuttered household in 1940s China and then Hong Kong, with heavy furniture, rain on tiled roofs, and the quiet pressure of rooms where a child learns to stay small. Its mood is wistful and tender with an undertow of sorrow, the feel of a cold winter afternoon spent alone with a library book and a cup of tea gone lukewarm. Pacing is steady and unhurried, moving through years in chapters that circle back to the same ache. The emotional register stays restrained rather than melodramatic; the arc follows a lonely, overlooked girl who keeps working for approval and slowly discovers her own worth. The cruelty is psychological and sustained, with harsh words, neglect, and favoritism, but no violence or sexual content, and no gore. It suits a rainy Sunday, a quiet evening with a comfort-but-sad read, or anyone drawn to resilient coming-of-age stories about family wounds. It is for readers who want an earnest, emotionally honest memoir with a gentle, hopeful close.
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