Chinese Cinderella By Adeline Yen Mah

She overcame this “terror” with different methods. In the beginning of Adeline’s schooldays, Dai Dai (Father) made a joke about Adeline. “Is this medal for leading your class?” (11) he questioned. Adeline nodded in pride. Being little, she remembered this moment and treasured it next to her heart. When Adeline was turned on by Dai Dai and Niang, she tried to remember the one time Father was proud of her excellence in school. This proves Dai Dai was actually following the evil intentions of Niang, not turning on adeline out of the supposed coldness of his heart. When Adeline receives new friends at Sacred Heart boarding school and orphanage, they motivate Adeline with an inspirational pep talk. “We must get away, stand on our own feet and create our own destiny.” (176). Although similar to what Ye Ye said, Adeline takes this advice from the few friends she had and used it against the emotional pain of Niang’s taunts and torture. This proves Adeline has used all of her advice and information to “defeat” Niang and go to college in England. She has broken free from the bonds of torment and restriction, free to go and roam the

In the story chinese cinderella the main character Adeline faces a lot of adversity throughout the book. She faces the most her adversity at home with her parents and siblings being unfairly cruel toward her. She has a lot of courage for going through with all this pain and still staying optimistic about everything.

In Cinderella Ate My Daughter Peggy Orenstein examines the triumphs and pitfalls navigating raising a daughter, in today’s mixed message world. From peer pressure and the need to fit in today’s society, young females have commercialism forced at them at every turn and in very clever ways. Doll creators have been pushing the boundaries of good taste with each new season launch. When the more “mature” actresses at the age of 17 feel the need to do something drastic to remove them from the wholesome image created for by company executives, mothers and consumers feel betrayed, and yet then we need to have a dialog with our kids as to why just last month Miley Cyrus was wonderful but now she is not okay for the viewing household.

The autobiographical novel Chinese Cinderella, is about protagonist Adeline Yen Mah’s 1940 childhood in China. Our main antagonist in the story is Adeline’s stepmother, Niang, who is portrayed throughout the story as the ‘evil-stepmother’ figure. But is there the possibility that Adeline has unfairly depicted Niang? The time period in Naing’s life which this book takes place in, would have been an extremely difficult and stressful for her. She was forced into a marriage with man twice her age and expected to become maternal towards his five children from his previous marriage. Under Niang’s circumstances she also had to take measures to protect, manage and discipline 7 children, which we only see as cruel and violent because of the modern viewpoints.

“Chinese Cinderella is the true story of my childhood up to the age of fourteen. It was difficult and painful to write, but I felt compelled to do so,” (Yen Mah, xii). In this autobiography a young girl named Adeline gets abused and shoved down to become a stronger, more mature lady. She is considered to be bad luck by her whole family for causing her mother’s death. From being whipped by a dog leash, and forgotten at a boarding school during war, Adeline went through a harsh life.

A reoccurring theme in Chinese Cinderella is confidence and resilient. Adeline’s family is always making her feel lost, unwanted and unloved. Because of her mother’s sudden death shortly after Adeline was born, even her siblings didn’t give Adeline the kindness that should be given to a sister. An example in the book ’’But then Mama died giving birth to you. If you had not been born, Mama would still be alive. She died because of you. You are bad luck.“ This is said of her older sister, Lydia, to her. This indicates her siblings blamed Adeline for the cause of their mother’s death and considered her ’bad luck’. ”They blamed me for causing Mama’s death and never forgave me.“ This is said by Adeline herself. This suggests that they were always singling her out

1. Quotation: “I watched her open her closet door and take out her safe-deposit box. She took the key from a gold chain around her neck and placed my certificate underneath her jade bracelet, pearl necklace and diamond watch, as if my award were also some precious jewel impossible to replace.” Chapter 1: page 2 Explanation: Adeline watched closely as her aunt treasured her report card. Adeline calls herself an “unwanted child”, she explains throughout the book how unwanted she feels.

As Adeline suffers at the hands of her parents, it causes Adeline’s life to be very lonely and hopeless.

In the autobiography Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, the narrator was influenced in many ways by the people around her. One character which influences the narrator’s life to a vast amount was her step-mother Niang. Her Aunt Baba also played a very big part on how Yen Mah turned out in her later and earlier years as well as everywhere in between. Her grandfather Ye-Ye was a constant support to Adeline Yen Mah.

‘Why doesn't she get to go anywhere with us?’ ‘That's just the way it is!’ Niang exclaimed sharply.” This is important because when Victor, Adeline's cousin, tried to stand up to Niang she yelled at him and refused to let Adeline come with them to do something fun. I would summarize this by saying Adeline is always left behind in her family.

Adeline immerses herself in striving for academic achievement in the hope of winning favor over her family. By covering the reality of her life she is able to forget that she an unwanted daughter despised by her Family. When Adeline first began school she received a medal for topping her class. She was acknowledged and praised by her father who told her "continue studying hard and bringing honor to our family, so we can be proud of you." Adeline was motivated to continue working hard, in order to be noticed by her ruthless and

In the book, Adeline wrote "I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased by siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way to make father take notice and be proud of me. (Mah)" Adeline was through her performance and the personality from her strong effort. Adeline's flaunting of the medal can be seen as another show of excessive pride within the novel but it is instead the means through which a young girl looks to gain acceptance within an uncaring family.

Later on in the book, Adeline is told that despite all of her hard work and sweat that she puts into her goals, there are inescapable truths. ( “They’ll see a Chinese girl

She was the leader of her class because she got really good grades and she was kind to everyone. A sad part that took place in this book was Adeline got whipped by a dog whip just for going to her friends birthday party (104). Adeline's dad whipped her after talking to Niang about the phone call they she received about Adeline going back to the party to receive cake. Sadly, Adeline wasn't able to return to the birthday party.

The plot and structure in this autobiography makes the story of Adeline’s childhood flow better. The orientation started by Niang marrying Adeline’s father. At Adeline’s birth her mother died so Adeline was treated badly and unfairly. In the complication, Adeline was unwanted from the start. She was sent away to an orphanage because she was wanted by no one. In the resolution Adeline decided after winning the playwriting competition that she wanted to be a writer. She studied medicine at Oxford University with Third Brother. The reflection is that no matter what your conditions are you can achieve anything like Adeline did. In the story Adeline read a newspaper article that said “It was announced