By using her great observation and imagination, Ho Xuan Huong had described the similarities between the normal floating cakes and the life of a woman in the feudal era. According to the dictionary, the floating cake is a little sugary ball of sticky rice which is often shaped like bird’s egg. Most of people love this dessert. Comparing to the women at that time, they are both beautiful on the outside (white and round) and the inside (the heart – figuratively). Since Vietnam was affected heavily by the Confucianism of the Chinese, the man and woman discrimination made a big impact on marriages, from which the women became a victim. Their fate were also “rising and sinking” just like the floating cake. Some of them were lucky; they lived in
