Chinese Cinderella (A Puffin Book)

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Published in 2001, her third book, Watching the Tree, is about Chinese philosophy and traditional beliefs (including Traditional Chinese Medicine). A Thousand Pieces of Gold was published in 2002, and looks at events under the Qin and Han dynasties through Chinese proverbs and their origins in Sima Qian's history, Shiji. Beauchamp, Fay. "Asian Origins of Cinderella: The Zhuang Storyteller of Guangxi" (PDF). Oral Tradition. 25 (2): 447–496. Anyone who is an avid reader of fairy tales, or who has seen the 1950 Disney version of "Cinderella" has a hint as to what happens next. Though her meeting with her royal suiter does not occur here, Ye Xian is the star of the party, praised for her outstanding beauty and grace. But the presence of her stepfamily threatens her identity. When she fears they might have recognized her, she flees and leaves behind one of her valuable golden shoes. Adeline is the narrator and protagonist of the memoir, which describes her coming-of-age in an abusive home. Born the fifth child of a wealthy businessman in Tianjin, China, Adeline is blamed for the death of… Ye Ye is Adeline's grandfather on her father's side and the head of the household at the beginning of the novel. A devout Buddhist, Ye Ye maintains a moral compass unseen in the rest of the family. Working at the same company as his son, Ye Ye has a tight bond with him. Ye Ye is traditionally seen as the patriarch of the family, but his role is undermined by Niang's introduction to the family. While Ye Ye remains an influence within the household, it's primarily ceremonial, if that.

It is interesting how we do not meet the family until part way through the extract. The focus suddenly becomes on her father. The conversation is clearly remembered. It impacted upon her greatly. She wants to see him but it is unusual for her to enter into his room. She then goes through a range of emotions when meeting her father. It is him who controls her actions, as represented by the ending: This book is not as good as any biography book I read, but this book is very inspiring and consider that she implement education as a tool to succeed in life and trying to emphasize that expectation is not only give negative results but also positive. One thing that I observe from the book is that, she needed more attention to her parents and siblings. I'm not a psychologist but I think a child must grow needed high attention of the parents. At least, she succeeds in the end. Mah's. Itwas like... Yelling synonymous to speaking and beating synonymous to teaching. I hope that made sense. I am not good at writing. Yen Mah left for the United Kingdom in August 1952, and studied medicine at the London Hospital Medical School, eventually establishing a medical practice in California. Before the start of her career in the United States, she had a brief relationship with a man named Karl, and practised medicine in a Hong Kong hospital at the behest of her father, who refused to give her air fare when she expressed plans to move to America. She has stated in an interview with the South China Morning Post that her father wanted her to become an obstetrician in the belief that women wanted treatment only from a female doctor, [18] but as she hated obstetrics she became an anaesthesiologist instead. [9] Yen Mah's Later life [ edit ] Carney, Michelle; Nolas, Elizabeth (2014). "FOLKTALES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE". The Journal of Education. 194 (3): 65–70. JSTOR 43823665. Accessed May 9, 2020.Aidong, Zhang (2018). "Cinderella in Different Dresses: From A Narrative Perspective". International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics. 4 (3): 174–178. To me, writing was pure pleasure. It thrilled me to be able to escape the horrors of my daily life in such a simple way. When I wrote, I forgot that I was an unwanted daughter who had caused her mother's death. Instead, I could be anybody I wished to be. In my narratives, I poured out everything that I dared not say out loud. I was friends with the beautiful princesses and dashing knights who lived in my imagination. I was no longer the lonely little girl bullied by her siblings. Unfortunately, Ye Xian's father dies from a local plague, and a new chieftain is appointed to take his place, as Wu had no sons. With her family reduced to poverty, Ye Xian is forced to become a lowly servant and work for her unloving and cruel stepmother, Jin, and spoiled and lazy younger half-sister Jun-Li. Despite living a life burdened with chores and housework, and suffering endless abuse at her stepmother's hands, she finds solace when she ends up befriending a beautiful, 10 foot (3.0m) fish in the lake near her home, with golden eyes and scales. The fish was really a guardian spirit sent to her by her own mother, who never forgot her daughter even beyond the grave.

Ye Ye is the father of Adeline’s Father and Aunt Baba, husband of Grandmother Nai Nai, and thus the grandfather of all of the children. He lives with the family and is dependent… The cause for the disparity between the living conditions of the two sets of Yen children is again brought into question by these chapters. The embarrassment that the three eldest brothers suffer at the hands of their classmates is very public, as is their exposure to the various guests at the wedding. Since Father's prioritization of public image has been of the driving factors behind the developments thus far in the novel, his tolerance for the public shaming of his children seems oddly out of character. How can a man who cares so much of what others think of him allow his children to wear antiquated clothing? The facade of a happy and modern family that Father has worked so hard to create would seem irreparable by the events of the wedding. Claudine is the younger sister of Victor, daughter of Aunt Reine, and younger cousin of Adeline. Like her brother, Claudine helps to demonstrate what a healthy family can look like and shares…

I don’t like, read autobiographies/biographies and the only reason I read this is that I didn’t realise it was one until I actually started the book. Because who actually reads the synopsis am I right? (just as a note, I normally do read synopses of books, this is just quarantine me continuing to be, I suppose, mega dumb). I suppose the reason as to why I have like read maybe one autobiography about 4 years ago, is that I generally read as a way of escapism because the real world is pretty damn miserable, which naturally means I need to read about world’s where things are even worse. Either way though, I didn’t mind this book and despite it being pretty short and almost sort of choppy, with the prose being pretty basic, I had a decent time. The next morning, the king goes into Ye Xian's house and asks her to come with him into his kingdom. Ye Xian then wears both her shoes, and appears in her beautiful sea-green gown. The stepmother and Jun-Li, however, insist that Ye Xian could not have clothes of that kind, for she is only their slave. The stepmother says that the finery is Jun-Li's, and that Ye Xian stole them. The king dismisses her lies, and invites Ye Xian to marry him and live in his palace. She accepts, but her cruel step-family is left with the worst possible fate: each other. The stepmother forces Jun-Li, who has lost all hope of marrying rich, into the same state of servitude that Ye Xian suffered for so many years. When Jun-Li promptly and bitterly rebels against her lot, it starts a violent quarrel, the result of which is a cave-in that buries both women and destroys their home. Meanwhile, the king takes Ye Xian's hand in marriage and makes her his queen. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story From China, retold by Ai-Ling Louie and illustrated by Ed Young, is well-known children's picture book adaptation of the fairy tale. This retelling was later adapted into an episode of animated anthology series, CBS Storybreak. a b Mah, Adeline Yen (2015). Chinese Cinderella. London: Puffin Books. p.104. ISBN 978-0-14-135941-0. OCLC 914452896. Chinese Cinderella essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah.

Amy Lai (2007). "Two Translations of the Chinese Cinderella Story". In: Perspectives 15:1, pp. 49-56. DOI: 10.2167/pst004.0 Leung, Chantel. "Book review on Chinese Cinderella" (PDF). shipbookclub.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2009 . Retrieved 17 September 2020. My heart gave a giant lurch as it dawned on me that he was agreeing to let me go. How marvellous it was simply to be alive! Study? I thought. Going to England is like entering heaven. Does it matter what you do after you get to heaven?’ Victor is the only person to see the injustices heaped on Adeline for what they are and then take an active role in protesting them. By refusing to get in the car with Niang and the others, Victor vocalized his opposition, something that Ye Ye and Aunt Baba never did. The gift offered by young Adeline can be seen as a means to highlight this distinction; while Aunt Baba and Ye Ye earned a level of loyalty, Victor deserved a higher distinction. The book was the only possession of any value that Adeline had, yet she understood the actions of Victor to be worthy of such high praise. In this exchange, Yen Mah relays the message that, while empathy is valuable, embodying the change is deserving of greater praise. Mah, Adeline Yen (2015). Chinese Cinderella. London: Puffin Books. p.265. ISBN 978-0-14-135941-0. OCLC 914452896.

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 people write them on their journals or diaries, some record it through tapes and CDs, some tell their past lives from their grandsons and few write and compile their stories into a book. It hurt so badly I couldn’t sleep. I screamed in pain and begged my mother to free my feet, but she wouldn’t. In fact, the pain has never gone away. My feet have hurt every day since they were bound and continue to hurt today. I had a pair of perfectly normal feet when I was born, but they maimed me on purpose and gave me lifelong arthritis so I would be attractive.” Chinese Cinderella, p.8 One of Ye Xian’s few acquaintances was a golden-eyed fish in a nearby river. She fed the fish every day since it came up to the bank from the water. Even though Ye Xian was starving, she continued to share her food with the fish. When her stepmother learned about the fish, she put on Ye Xian’s coat and headed to the pond. She stabbed the fish with a knife, and then fried the fish for dinner. Adeline excels in her academics once again and has a few close friends, but she never manages to confide in them about her abusive family life. She also feels rather pathetic, since Father and Niang refuse to buy her properly fitting clothes or anything that is not worn out. Despite her impressive intelligence, Adeline most often feels shabby and inadequate. During this time, she begs her parents to send her to study in England, where two of her brothers are already in college, but Father and Niang ignore her. Yan Shuzhen and Huang Qiong-Xian founded the now-defunct Shanghai Women's Commercial and Savings Bank in 1924.