Asian Cultures
The magnificent recommended autobiography ‘Chinese Cinderella’, written by Adeline Yen Mah describes her childhood and younger teenage years as an unwanted daughter. Like children nowadays, Adeline had a difficult time growing up. All throughout her life she was bullied and looked down upon by most of her family. However ‘Chinese Cinderella’ has taught me a massively amount of knowledge towards Asian cultures and their perspectives. Namely language, culture/history, and the position of girls.
The key aspect discussed in this text, is the Chinese challenging language. That is ‘names’. In Chinese families, a child is called by many names; therefore siblings inherited their father’s surname. In the Chinese language the surname also comes at the beginning of the person’s name. At birth, a baby is given a name by his or her parents. For instance Adeline’s real name is Jun-ling: which would become Yen Jun-ling. In addition at home, a child is called by a name dependant on the order of their birth. The oldest daughter is called Big Sister; the second daughter is Second Sister and so on. Adeline can be seen as one perfect example; her home name is ‘Wu Mei, this means fifth younger sister. Culture is a central statement that is written throughout ‘Chinese Cinderella’. To exemplify, Foot Binding is explored in Mrs Mah’s wondrous novel. Before enjoying reading ‘Chinese Cinderella’ I had little understanding of foot binding and how it works. As Nai Nai explained to Adeline in chapter three ‘bound feet’ “…a tight bandage was wound around my feet, bending the toes under the sole and crushing the arch so that my feet would remain small all my life. This has been the custom in China for over a thousand years, ever since the Tang dynasty.” Foot binding was horrible and an “excruciating experience” to deal through from a dreadfully young age. On the other hand in Nai Nai’s day it was considered “feminine and beautiful. If you had large unbound feet, no man would marry you. This was the custom” confessed Nai Nai. |
In China, I discovered that parents weren’t allowed more than one child. This was a policy that was introduced in 1979, for reasons because of the over growth of China's population. In late 2013, the Chinese government announced that it would relax the policy by allowing families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Baby boys are more favoured by many Chinese families because they are more useful in rural areas where heavy lifting and hard work is required. This is most responsible for millions of “lost girls” and an unbalanced sex ration, as well as this will leave an estimated 30 million adult Chinese men unmarried by 2020.
FOOT BINDING!
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