NiangA seventeen year old married Eurasian beauty. Parisian chic looks, without a thick wavy black curl out of place. Her large, brown, beady eyes are fringed with long, thick lashes. Expensive perfume, cake-faced makeup and drowning in many diamonds and pearls. A mother of two disobedient children. We know her as Niang.
Niang (Jeanne Prospeni Mah) is an evil manipulative stepmother in Adeline Yen Mah’s autobiography ‘Chinese Cinderella’. Niang is one of the main offenders into Adeline’s unwanted and unloved childhood. Being a typical cruel stepmother (hence the novel title ‘ Chinese Cinderella’), Niang always treated the stepchildren, particularly Adeline, like they were nothing but pieces of dirt. “What gets me is the blatant inequality between her children and us” consequently this quote conveys by Big sister that relationships between Niang and the stepchildren are at a breaking point. For instance Niang had received the children’s gowns for the New Year but in fact only Little Sister and Fourth Brother gifted a “new, hand stitched gowns and stylish western outfits ” whilst the other stepchildren collected “hammy-downed and left over material gowns”. |
Colour- I used black inside and around of my matchbox to highlight the meaning of cruel and manipulative, towards Niang’s personality. Niang physically abused Adeline by hitting her, kicking her, and slapping her. Adeline is left miserable and lonely “You don’t deserve to be housed and fed here.” Girls like you should be sent away”.
Symbol- Pearls symbolise Niang being a wealthy young lady and as well as when her daughter ripped and broke her thriving pure pearl necklace. A mood broken heart pendant displays Niang’s moods, she is always angry and selfish yet other times towards her own children and father, Niang is loving and caring. Gold glitter and gold rope also suggests wealth but also enforces that Niang was number one in the household and everyone was expected to cherish her with ‘loyalty’. Salience- The viewer’s attention is captured by the Chinese and French flags on the top and bottom of the matchbox. I decided to create this image because it shows that Niang is both Chinese and French, just as Adeline described in her autobiographical novel. Text- Text reading paths are included on my matchbox. As the viewer examines the box their eyes are drawn and follows the separation of my chosen words, to represent Niang’s personality; ‘stylish, evil, cruel, and manipulative’, around the outside of the matchbox. Contrast- The contrast of my matchbox is the black distinguished border around the sides of the rectangular shape. Black borders emphasise meaning into Niang’s abusive traits towards young Adeline. Moreover I also wrote my verbs in white over the black borders to convey a feeling of Niang’s treatment towards Adeline that it is becoming more noticeable to Adeline’s family members and friends that she isn’t from a loving and caring family. Yet from a family that despises Adeline in any way possible. Justapositioning- On my matchbox, the two flags, Chinese and French, come together and represent Niang’s Eurasian heritage. In contrast, this demonstrates the equal value of both heritages of Niang. Niang never addresses one heritage less value to the other; the ratio between them is always equal. Even in the way she dresses and speaks. |