Chinese Cinderella
Adeline Yen Mah
197 Pages
8 out of 10
Chinese Cinderella was a true story about Adeline Yen Mah’s childhood. Ever since her mother died during her childbirth, Adeline has been unwanted by her family and blamed for the death of her mother. Her Aunt Baba was her only family member who actually loved her after her grandparents died. Adeline’s father chose his new family with her young cruel stepmother over Adeline and her siblings. He left them one night, not telling them where he was going and took only his new wife and children. Over two years later Adeline, her siblings and her Aunt Baba were shipped away to live in a new place in their father’s huge home. Adeline was treated very differently from her step siblings. She was not given any money, she had to walk over 10 miles home from school every day and had to live in a traditional Chinese lifestyle while her stepsiblings were allowed to live a more modern western lifestyle. Her stepmother beat her when she was only in kindergarten. Her father had separated Adeline so drastically from his life that he even forgot her real name and her birthday.
This book taught me an important lesson about family. I never realized how much I took my family for granted until I read about this awful relationship Adeline had with her family. Her father disowned her completely. Her stepmother tried to rid of her existence entirely by sending her to a boarding school that was in a dangerous war zone. Her siblings shunned her because she is considered “bad luck” to her family. I now know how much it means to have at least one loving and caring family member. When Adeline no longer had her Aunt Baba to motivate her to do well she still worked as hard as she could in school, which eventually reconnected her with her father and gave her the future she had always dreamed about. I think that this took incredible strength by Adeline. It would have been so much easier to get lost in her pain rather than translating this frustration into her school work and writing. I could relate to Adeline because I transfer my frustration into playing piano the way she let her problems go by writing stories of a better life. When playing piano I can feel my tension releasing from my fingers as I hit the keys. I wonder if that’s how Adeline Yen Mah feels every time her pen touches paper.
I enjoyed this book greatly but I would not suggest it to someone who likes high action and adventure books. This book was more about the deeper message and how Adeline Yen Mah was able to overcome all the obstacles in her life to follow her dreams. I believe I liked this book so much because it was a true story and knowing that this woman was able to make it through so many struggles, left a deep impact on me. In the end, what I took away from this book the most, was that there’s always a way to make your dreams come true and more than likely you’ll have to work hard to make that happen.
Hey girl, good job :) slightly long, but everything you said was necessary in fully explaining the book. I was impressed by how you were able to pull a personal lesson out of the book about yourself and your family. The book I read definitely made me feel guilty when it talked about Ronnie and her dad, and how they had drifted because she held a grudge. Whenever I get mad at my mom I often just get mad and hold onto it for a long time. I take all that she does for me for granted all the time. We're not as close as we used to be but I definitely see that changing. Man, books that teach you stuff are great. :)
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