Without reading Adeline Yen Mah’s novel, Chinese Cinderella, I can infer that it is basically the Chinese Cinderella story. The cover depicts a little girl that looks very lonely and the passage next to the photo says “the true story of on unwanted daughter”, it also has, what I am assuming, is the title in Chinese. There is no photo of the author, although I am thinking that the little on the front cover is Mah. As for the biography, there is an Author’s note and Postscript. These tell about the language, customs and what it was like in china at the time of her own living there. The Preface is very interesting, as it teaches you why and what the names in the book are. For example, big sister, second sister, ect. It also teaches you how to count in Chinese, which is included in the Table of Contents.
The novel starts with the narrator asking about her dead mother, and her grandmother blowing her off and avoiding the subject. It then explains the family tree and who she lives with, it also tells of how her siblings blame the narrator for their mother’s death, because mama died giving birth to Mah. The story also implies that women were still treated badly because Mai Nai has bounded feet, when a woman has bounded feet it is a sign of ownership and sometimes a sign of “beauty”
The novel starts with the narrator asking about her dead mother, and her grandmother blowing her off and avoiding the subject. It then explains the family tree and who she lives with, it also tells of how her siblings blame the narrator for their mother’s death, because mama died giving birth to Mah. The story also implies that women were still treated badly because Mai Nai has bounded feet, when a woman has bounded feet it is a sign of ownership and sometimes a sign of “beauty”