Status Updates From Second Chinese Daughter

Feng loved watching Ying parade her beautiful new outfits for her family. Feng was aware that their financial situation could keep just one daughter perpetually in sartorial elegance, but that didn't stop her from dreaming. Perhaps one day, I too will be as fortunate.

"She has Buddha ears," observed Chang Ying to Lee. "This is good. Big ear lobes to hold big diamond earrings - a sign of future prosperity."

"Every time the wind swept them to one side, they bounced back and briefly resumed their erect, elegant pose. Gracefully fragile, yet resilient and strong - they reminded Feng of her mother and grandmother. Though they lived through very hard times, they always bounced back, each time stronger than before."

"Feng couldn't explain the warm, yet peculiar feeling she had that day when her entire family centred their attention on her for the first time in her life."

Nothing super dramatic but bits and pieces of life slicing and slicing into each new chapter. The portray of how women influence one another from one generation to another is prominent.

Reads like an Anchee Min's book...

So far so good... the first part of the first generation of woman is grandly written.

"Feng's relationship with her father was a close and special one - something she endeavoured persistently to duplicate with her mother, but in vain. It took Feng half her lifetime to accept the fact that the chemistry between a parent and child is usually forged at their first encounter. If not established then, later efforts to strengthen the bond can, at best, result in tolerance and mutual respect for each other."

"[Miss H] presented opportunities for her students to break out of their shells and imagine other lives in other places and times. She helped them forget their shyness and the girls began to express their views more boldly."

Sigh. I just want to strangle Li Li.

"Still she persevered, knowing there was an upside to helping out. She would be showered with encouraging words and kindly attention from her mother for the rest of the day. It was the one day of the week that her mother appreciated her, the one day that Feng, labouring by her side, could have her mother's attention all to herself."

When you're having lunch and the book describes boiling herbs with cockroaches, complete with detailed instructions... 🤢

"Feng thought that her mother's education would give her confidence to speak up for what is right, but no amount of learning could unshackle her from society's attitude towards women, and she chose to remain an apathetic bystander."

"I can't single-handedly change what has been happening to women for generations."

"He owns his daughter, to do what he will with her, and nothing I do can change that. Besides, I have seen worse."

"If you think there is some place else where the status of women in society is much improved, you will be sorely disappointed."