Chinese Cinderella is a true story about a young girl born into a rich Chinese family. Since her mother’s death after her birth, the rest of her family considers her unlucky, and therefore mistreats her. As the youngest child of the first marriage, and as the cause of her mother’s death, she is outranked by everyone in the family.
One of the most important themes in this novel is family/love (or lack thereof). An example of this is seen through the relationship between Adeline and her father, and stepmother, Niang. When Adeline starts school, she refuses to let herself from enabling anyone else around her notice her non-existence in her family. She is always miserably attempting to hide herself in society. She states, “They didn't know that, in front of them, I was desperate to keep up the pretence that I came from a normal, loving family." as she didn’t want anyone to know about the troubles she was having with her family at home. Although Adeline suffers with family at home, she can be …show more content…
In the first chapter, we observe ‘put downs’ from her family that lead to such a low self-esteem level. Adeline is constantly reminded that their mother died because of HER. Her siblings say, “If you had not been born, mama would still be alive. She died because of you. You are bad luck.” Because of these comments, Adeline is suffering through pain while constantly being looked down on. She is questioning her own abilities and believes that it IS her fault, although Aunt Baba tells her otherwise. Adeline only feels confident in her school surroundings when she accomplishes great things through her mathematics, English, and namely her writing, which she is later praised upon by her father when her writing wins ‘The International Play-writing Competition.’ The readers are told through Yen Mah’s writing what it feels like to be the rejected and unloved
One of the most important themes in this novel is family/love (or lack thereof). An example of this is seen through the relationship between Adeline and her father, and stepmother, Niang. When Adeline starts school, she refuses to let herself from enabling anyone else around her notice her non-existence in her family. She is always miserably attempting to hide herself in society. She states, “They didn't know that, in front of them, I was desperate to keep up the pretence that I came from a normal, loving family." as she didn’t want anyone to know about the troubles she was having with her family at home. Although Adeline suffers with family at home, she can be …show more content…
In the first chapter, we observe ‘put downs’ from her family that lead to such a low self-esteem level. Adeline is constantly reminded that their mother died because of HER. Her siblings say, “If you had not been born, mama would still be alive. She died because of you. You are bad luck.” Because of these comments, Adeline is suffering through pain while constantly being looked down on. She is questioning her own abilities and believes that it IS her fault, although Aunt Baba tells her otherwise. Adeline only feels confident in her school surroundings when she accomplishes great things through her mathematics, English, and namely her writing, which she is later praised upon by her father when her writing wins ‘The International Play-writing Competition.’ The readers are told through Yen Mah’s writing what it feels like to be the rejected and unloved