Chinese Cinderella (185-205)

Summary:

When Adeline sent her play, she kept coming back to the teacher wondering if she had any news about the competition. The teacher would always respond to her by saying not to lose hope and to have patience. Adeline was very anxious to be able to get the news because she would be very proud to tell her grandfather this accomplishment she made all because of him. While she was outside playing with her friends, one of the teachers came to get her and told her to come with her. She didn’t want to go because she wanted to be able to finish the game, but the teacher said that the chauffeur was waiting for her. Since she was never picked up from school, she wondered what was wrong and the teacher told her to go comb hair and wash her hand because she was going to be going home, her grandfather Ye Ye died.

            At the funeral, Adeline was the only one crying. Aside from her Aunt Baba, her grandfather was the only person she had left and was one of the only people that ever cared for her. She was sad, because her grandfather would never be able to see how much influence her had on her. Before, she left her mother Niang told her that she needed to get a job when school ended because her father had too many children and would not be able to support all of them so he would not continue to pay for her school expenses. She became very depressed with the combination of her grandfather’s death and worrying about her future.

Once again, the teacher came looking for Adeline telling her that the chauffeur was here again to take her home. She went to her parent’s new house, and went to go to her father who wanted to talk to her. He showed her the newspaper which had her name written on it stating that she had won the competition. She received a medal and a cash prize and was also congratulated for bringing honor to Hong Kong. Her father told her about how one of his colleagues was telling him about it and how proud she was to tell him that she was his daughter. Her father informed her that she would be going to England with her brother this summer to study in medical school. She agreed and thanked her father for the wonderful opportunity. In the end her Aunt Baba sent her a letter. She told her about how happy she was of Adeline being able to go to England. Her aunt reminded her that she would always be there for her, even if they are not together and to read this letter over whenever she was discouraged because it would give her hope. In the letter was a story about a little girl named Ye Xian who lived during the Tang dynasty. Her mother also died, and was mistreated by her mean step mother. She was talented and even with all of the obstacles she faced, she was able to be successful. Aunt Baba said that Adeline and Ye Xian are similar because even with all the hard times, they defied all odds and triumphed.

Quote: “He looked radiant. For once, he was proud of me”(Mah 192).

Reaction: One of the things that Adeline wanted other than to go to England to study was for her father to be proud of her. She always tried so hard just to be able to stand out from the rest of her brothers and sister so her father would acknowledge her. On that day, two of her lifetime dreams came true. I don’t think she could have been any happier.

Chinese Cinderella (171-185)

Summary:

School was very horrible for Wu Mei, who is also known as Adeline. She felt very alone, since all the other students were visited by their mothers, and no one even thought about coming to see her. It was the last day of the term and the girls were all sitting together talking while they waited for their parents to come. They were having a lot of fun and when Adeline developed a headache her and her two friends Mary and Rachel went to the harbor and Adeline told them about all her aspirations. They made a pact together, promising that they would always be there for each other, wherever they are. After school was over and all the students left, Adeline was the only one that was left in school since her parents never even bothered to pick her up. She was very sick and had a high fever and even coughed up some blood. She was hospitalized and her friend Mary visited her all the time, and was basically her only visitor. When she a little better her father’s chauffeur came to get her and drove her home. Her “mother” Niang allowed Adeline to say at home with them until she recovered.

When she came home she immediately ran to her grandfather, Ye Ye. They caught up on the things. She found out that her older sister had a baby and her brothers were going to be able to go to England to study. After being told that, she became sad because it was always part of her dream to go study in another country. That dream of hers was always interfering with the fact that she is a girl and her parents would never allowed that. Her grandfather told her to have faith and to always have hope that she would have a better future. He reminded her that if she has hope and worked hard, she would be able to accomplish anything she wanted to and because of the belief that Ye Ye had in his granddaughter, she promised herself that she would work even harder.

            She went back to school after a week and all she did was sit in the library and just read. Adeline heard about this playwriting competition that was going to take place and she wondered whether or not she should enter. She went to Mother Louisa who was her teacher and asked her about what she should do and was given very wise advice and she took it very gratefully. She dedicated it to her grandfather, because she was the one who always believed in her.

Quote: “Genius is ten percent inspiration, ninety percent perspiration” (Mah 184)

Reaction:

When I read this quote, I immediately was taken aback by how true it was. This was an old saying that was said to her by Mother Louisa. What I believe it means is that you can be the smartest person ever, but if you do not work hard you will not be able to achieve the success that you have always wanted to, which is why you should always work hard.

Chinese Cinderella ( 117-171)

This time it all began with Wu Mei questioning her future. Her parents felt as though they couldn’t keep her any longer and were wondering where they were going to send her next. She went to school the next day feeling ashamed and scared. She was afraid of what the people would think of her and her new position and was wonderfully surprised when she noticed how friendly and kind they were being toward her. But everything didn’t always turn out good for Wu Mei. When she came home she saw the maid packing up all of her clothes. Her Aunt Baba came home early that day to say goodbye to Wu Mei and to remind her that with excellent grades she could become anything that she wanted to and promised each other many things before they set out into their own directions.

            Wu Mei was send to an orphanage in Tianjin. When she was on her way there she noticed that the airport was unusually crowded and all the people were flooding into one direction. Since there is a war with the communists, all the people are leaving Tianjin and are heading to Shanghai which is where they just came from. When the nuns heard this they thought that she must have done something very bad for her parents to punish her like this, but they didn’t know the truth. Week after week the people in the school were getting smaller and smaller until it was only Wu Mei left alone by her with the teachers in the now abandoned school. One day one of Wu Mei’s Aunts Reine came and took her out of the school and told her that they were taking her along with them to Hong Kong because Tianjin was no longer safe. During the Journey with Aunt Reine and her family Wu Mei felt very welcome. She described it as being as their third child. Since she was always used to being put down and not being treated equally, she was very appreciative of the family giving her the love and care that she always wanted.

            When she came back home, she was ignored by everyone except for her grandfather, Ye Ye. She put her stuff away in his room before Niang changed her mind again and sat with her grandpa and started reading the newspaper to him. She forgot some of the Chinese words and her grandfather became surprised. She replied by telling him about how she didn’t want to learn Chinese and thought that the only thing she needs to succeed was English. He then gave her a lecture about never forgetting her culture and where she came from, because however much English she knew wouldn’t change the fact that she was always going to be a Chinese girl. Afterward, she was sent again to another boarding school. She hated the fact that everyday people got eggs and their families came to visit them and no one ever came to see her. She hated being the only one who was alone reading a book in the library while everyone else was having a good time with their mothers, but she always remembered that she was the daughter that nobody wanted.

“You may be right in believing that if you study hard one day you might be fluent in English. But you will still look Chinese, and when people meet you, they’ll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English” (Mah 151).

This quote by Grandfather Ye Ye demonstrates to us that no matter how hard or how bad your life may be you can change it to become a better one for yourself, but you cannot erase who and what you are to begin with. You can try to become someone that you aren’t, but when people look at you their going to see the real you not what you pretend to be.

Chinese Cinderella (55-116)

Summary: Currently in the book, Wu Mei see’s many changes that are taking place in her life at the moment. She had made a new friend named Wu Chun-mei and has since became good friends with her. Since Wu Mei is not allowed to get rides to school or get money to take the public transportation, she has to walk to and from school every day. When Wu Chun-mei sees this she offers to give her a ride but Wu Mei quickly denies because she knows the punishment that she would face in the future if she were to do that. Since Wu Chun-mei’s parents are educated, she is fluent in English and reads a lot of books that her parents buy her. One of the books allowed Wu Mei to borrow was called A Little Princess. This book became a large impact of Wu Mei because it essentially described her story and the things she faced. The book gave her hope for a better future because it talks about how the young girl in the story changed her life around through her own will power. Wu Mei took this to heart and wished that one day that would be her.

While Wu Mei’s father, Niang and some of her brothers and sisters left for Tianjin, the house seemed to have changed into a whole other environment. Everyone was happy and had a lot of fun. No one had to worry about being their best or having to fear something wrong was going to happen.

When everyone returned the whole house went back to normal. One of Niangs friends came to visit and brought along some gifts. When the children opened the boxes they realized that they were ducks. Each of the children were allowed to pick a duck and of course Wu Mei had to get the smallest one. She named it PLT which stands for Precious Little Treasure. PLT became Wu Mei’s best friend. She confided in it and told it everything since she felt that it was the only thing that she had that would actually listen to her. One of the most tragic things that happens in the story is when Wu Mei’s father is testing his dog Jackie’s obedience and uses PLT as the victim. Wu Mei had to watch as her precious little duckling was grabbed by Jackie who tore one of the duck’s legs out. It showed how no one in her family had respect for her, not even her own father. The only real person that cared for her was her Aunt Baba.

Quote : “Unwanted and unloved by my own parents! How long did it take for a person to die of shame?”(Mah 116).

Reflection: When Wu Mei won the elections for class president, all of the children in her class were proud and happy for her. Since she wasn’t allowed to go to people’s her friends thought that it might have been a good idea to just show up and Wu Mei’s house which was exactly what they did. When they showed up and Niang found out she called Wu Mei into her room and started to slap her numerously until she had blood coming down from her nose. Wu Mei was humiliated in front of her friends, especially because they all thought that she came from a loving family which is obviously the opposite from the truth. This quote shows the feelings that Wu Mei felt while this was happening to her and demonstrates the problems that she has to face on a daily basis.

Chinese Cinderella 1-55

In the book Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, a young girl known as Wu Mei which means fifth younger sister in Chinese faces many difficulties in her life so far. The problem roots from one place, which is her mother’s death. A couple of days after Wu Mei was born her mom developed a high fever and after a few weeks she died. Now most of the people in her family blame her for what happened.

After Wu Mei’s mother dies her father marries another woman and has two kids. They live in a large home accompanied by all her siblings from her mom’s side and also her stepmothers. Also living with them is the grandmother and grandfather and most importantly Aunt Baba. Aunt Baba is Wu Mei’s father’s older sister and is the only one that Wu Mei can trust in the whole house. Her Aunt is just like a mother to her and she loves her very dearly. All of her siblings tease and bully her nonstop. There was a part in the book where she received a medal from the teacher because she was doing so well in class. It was a very happy moment for her and even her father noticed which meant everything in the world to her. Her brothers and sisters ruined all of that for her by scolding her and putting her down even at such a happy moment in her life.

When Wu Mei’s grandmother died, it became very obvious that things in the household changed. The change that was demonstrated in the book was that the grandfather was not the head anymore, but was instead replaced by his son Wu Mei’s father and his wife, Niang. Niang was the evil stepmother like in all the Cinderella stories. She hated all the children that weren’t hers and she definitely proved it. When it was New Year’s she got all of them clothing that were out of date and very unfashionable while her children wore the newest western styles. When they decided to write an anonymous letter to their father, they found out that she was eavesdropping and threw away all the evidence. As a result Niang separated the oldest sister from the rest of the children by befriending her and turned her against her own siblings causing all the children to be hopeless.

“When I wrote, I forgot that I was an unwanted daughter who caused her mother’s death. Instead, I could be anybody I wished to be” (Mah 53).

Wu Mei had a very difficult life that she had to deal with every single day. The only time she was able to escape from that was through her writing. She talked about how she could become anything that she wanted to be in her writing, whether it was a hero or a female warrior that would rescue her loved ones from all harm. She didn’t have to be that little girl whose brothers and sisters bullied and felt unwanted.