Tag: China setting

Jane Yang—The lotus shoes

In 1800s China Little Flower’s father dies and her destitute mother takes to Canton and sells her into slavery to the Fong family while keeping her son. She is to be the maidservant to the spoilt Linjing. Despite the practice of foot binding, Linjing has been spared because she is destined to marry a man who does not want his wife to have bound feet. Still, she is jealous of Little Flower whose mother bound her feet at four. Little Flower is an accomplished embroider and Linjing is jealous of the attention her mother pays to the muizai’s skills. At each turn, Linjing destroys Little Flower’s hope of ever being free. Can she ever break free from the confinement and humiliation of being a slave with Linjing quelling goals?

This is an engrossing story encompassing the hardships and narrow lives of all women in a China dominated by privileged men, but a deeper concern, is other woman.

Krys Lee’s — How I became a North Korean *****

This is the haunting story of Danny (Daehan), Yongju and Jangmi. Desperate to avoid his U.S. school where he is an outcast because he is Chinese, Danny leaves his father and flies to China to stay with his mother. But when he discovers her living with another man, he wanders aimlessly close to the border with North Korea.

Yongju and Jangmi have both escaped separately from North Korea to China, and meet up with Danny and a band of other North Koreans hiding in a cave. They are rescued by a Christian pastor who holds them captive. He indoctrinates them into the Christian faith, promising he’ll help them leave China for a safe third country. But will he?

This novel is a powerful insight into life in North Korea and the dangers that lurk across the boarder into China from those who profit from runaway North Koreans.

Lisa See’s — Dreams of Joy *****

When Joy’s father commits suicide and she learns a secret Aunt May and her mother, Pearl have hidden from her all her life, she leaves Los Angeles and enters China. She hopes to forget her life back in America and find her birth father. Joy is elated by her father’s status and by village life under Mao. After Pearl reaches China in search of her daughter, she finds Joy dazzled by a poor country peasant and nothing she says can convince Joy of her ill fated match.

May and Pearl are characters from Shanghai Girls. Now the tale continues a generation later and is just as riveting.