Chinese Cinderella #1

The nonfiction book that I chose to read for the second quarter is called Chinese Cinderella, written by Adeline Yen Mah. This book contains 205 pages and I read 21/205 pages (all together) this week. 

         Have you ever read Cinderella? If you did , this book is the Chinese version of it (no, it is not the original Cinderella translated into Chinese). This book is basically about a Chinese girl, Adeline Yen Mah and about her life. This book is similar like Cinderella so I knew right away that there was going to be a stepmother and mean siblings. 

        In the first couple of chapters, Adeline introduces her and her family. It also explains about her real mother and how she died. The book stars of her as a four year old who goes to kindergarten and earns a silver medal that came along with a certificate. It was an award for the best student. She lives with her Aunt Baba, Nei Nei (grandmother), Ye Ye (grandfather), her father, her stepmother, her older sister, her younger stepsister, three brothers, and one younger stepbrother. So all together, Adeline has six siblings, seven, including her. It was very exciting at first, until I found out that Adeline's father, her stepmother, and her younger stepbrother disappeared for one year. Another bad news is that Adeline's Nei Nei died from a massive stroke when she was soaking her feet in water. Nei Nei soaks her feet in water because when she was young, there is a custom in China called "Foot Binding". Chinese women bounded their feet because they believed that it was pretty having small feet. It is really painful to have feet like that. 

Here are some pictures on foot binding:

Unknown Word:

Kowtow: To kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in expression of deep respect, worship, or submission, as formerly done in China.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kowtow 

"The hearse stopped six times so Big Brother could fall to his knees, kowtow and bewail Nai Nai's loss in a loud voice." (Mah 20)