Good Reads | Chinese Cinderella

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah 馬嚴君玲, is a short autobiographical novel about an unwanted daughter. It is a revised version of her first book, Falling Leaves. I think it is a typical story of Chinese daughters in a male driven Chinese society/family, what made it worse for Adeline was her mother's death because of her birth. It gives you a complete picture of Chinese culture in that period of time (you can compare what changed from then to now) and narrates triumphs of being the best daughter and accepting yourself.

"You may be right in believing that if you study hard, one day you might become fluent in English; but you will still look Chinese and when people meet you, they'll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English. You'll always be expected to know Chinese, and if you don't, I'm afraid they will not respect you as much." -Grandfather Ye Ye