5 comments about The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.

1. I am pleased to say this item arrived as the seller said it would and it was in better condition than what the seller described. This is needed for my high school student (as well as 2 other books) for a summer reading project due the first day of school and we are pleased with the condition and with the story itself. Thanks so much!



2. It is a miracle that Kingston survived her Ghost ridden life. The book was hard to follow at times because author's life is hard to follow. She was brought up with mystery, myth and ghosts. Myth, fiction and stony reality are all blended so intricately in this woman's life that the lines become blurred. Written with clarity, the fiction that her mother and family paraded as truth becomes intertwined into the psyche of a strong, impressionable young woman who is blessed with the intelligence and presence to wade through and survive.
   I can not help but believe that the ghosts that were so real to her and real to us in the reading, are still alive in the life of the author and all those who read her.



3. So I liked this book, but I'm definitely a bit confused as to whether or not it was truly a nonfiction book. I will count it simply because it's billed as a memoir. Definitely, it shows aspects of the author's childhood, including various important events in her life. It even describes events in her parents' life.
   
   Kingston describes the travails of her parents starting over in a new land. Though they have similarities with the stories of many immigrants of that time, Kingston coats hers in a layer of fantasy, sometimes shrouding the true story behind them.
   
   I did enjoy reading the book, especially the part about Fa Mulan. That story was probably my favorite, the girl who trained so hard in order to save her village. I would recommend this book, but probably not for someone really looking for a strict nonfiction book.



4. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't like reading novels that anger me. I had to read this for a class and absolutely hated it. Avoid it if you want to sleep after reading.



5. I never received this item. I will not use this person again. After waiting to the point that I had to go out and buy the book, I'm not happy at all. I don't know if my money was refunded or not. (Probably not). I wrote to the buyer and didn't get a reply.

5 comments about The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun.

1. If you want to be radically changed read this book! I am a Pentecostal Christian Minister who has seen God do many miracles. I have read hundreds of Christian books,my personal favorite in the past was ALWAYS anything about Smith Wigglesworth,or his teachings. Then I read this book recently. I cried,and cried,and cried as I read this book. I thought...... wow...... this is what it really means to die to the self,to surrender all,and to be a TRUE christian like the early apostles!!!! So many preachers today talk about prosperity,and make God their servant!!! It makes me want to puke! This book really inspired my life. I already believed like Brother Yun,but it just put another coal in my fire to go all the way for Jesus! I give this book a 11 out of 10!!! It really impacted my life,and made me realize how easy we have it in america preaching the gospel!!! May God help us to go all the way with Jesus,and love our enemies like brother Yun did. This book really greatly influenced my life,and I prayed to God I will never forget this book. There was so much deep meat in this book about laying down your life for Christ. I'm so impressed with this man and his life before the LORD. Yes,God get's all the glory,but doesn't mean we don't respect those who are GREAT servants of the LORD,and to me brother Yun is another Apostle Paul. But in all honesty,brother Yun suffered far more than the Apostle Paul. God bless!



2. This story of Brother Yun is humbling beyond belief. We in Western Christendom do not come close to realizing how blessed we are by God. His story is a must read for any Christian who is seriously dedicated to following Jesus.



3. This is a true story of a man that is doing the Lords work to this day! I promise you that you will be inspired to do whatever God is calling you to do... it will encourage you and give you the courage to step out in faith, to be obedient to what God is calling you to do. My husband and I have a ministry in Africa and I read this book on my last trip there. Remarkable! Well worth the price!



4. This book is an amazing read for anyone, Christian or non. The first day I picked it up, I read the first five chapters in one sitting.



5. This story provides incredible insight into the life of a man wholly living according to God's will. Remarkable beyond words, it has challenged me to appreciate the freedom we have to worship Christ & have an open relationship with Him without persecution or torture from our government. The miracles Brother Yun experienced are truly due to His unwavering faith & it is so very humbling & touching to experience it through this book. I've purchased additional copies to share with others because mine is all highlighted up for future reference & meditation.

5 comments about Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter.

1. A truely amazing book Touching Compelling Moving Amazing are the only way to describe this book and even they do not do it justice. Adeline does a great job writing this book. Could not put it down. Brings tears to your eyes. Tears of sadness for Adeline and what she goes through. But tears of joy from the way she writes this book. I am at a loss for words writing this review this book is the best book I have read in a long long time. Everyone should read this book. It truely makes you appriciate everything you have. This book should be on every library's shelf. I am 13 but a very advanced reader I believe this book would be great for anyones reading level. Not to advanced for children about ten but not to easy or dull for advanced readers. A great story wrapped up inside this book that sends a very powerful message to everyone who opens it up. A must read for anyone who is looking for a powerful story with an impowering message!



2. I read this book and couldn't really understand the pain Adeline Yen Mah went through because of the slightly cold, matter of fact tone that is used. On the other hand, I am extremely glad that I couldn't because she went through so much. I was surprised that the author was as skilful as she was as from the blurb I suspected the book might be just one long whinge. Which, I suppose, would have been fair enough but Adeline managed to really supress the temptation that there must have been to just write a book complaining about Niang, her Father and the rest of the family. It is very excellent and a book that I will never forget.



3. Adeline Yen Mah's story is engulfing, it's engaging, and it's enlightening. Out of a sad, often cruel existence, Adeline moved me, dosing her existence with spots of humor... like the American Officer visiting her class. At the end of his talk, which he gave smoking nonstop, he asked if there were any questions. Her good friend Wu Chun-mei at last raised her hand and asked her 'onliest' innocent question, "But can you make smoke come out of your ears too?" - too tickled here.
   
   There was the part about the book, "A Little Princess," her friend, again Wu Chun-mei, loaned her. Very touching to read how Adeline tried to savor that book. Gosh, this part among many others moved me tears watching this child seeing inspiration, and doing what she could to hang on to it. I'm thinking here, "hang on Yen Jun-ling!" I certainly appreciated learning a little about Chinese characters, and the meaning behind names... and, too, the exchange between Ye-Ye and Adeline near the end when she announced her displeasure with reading Chinese... that exchange was absolutely priceless.
   
   "Though life has to be lived forward, you can only understand it backward." - Outstanding Golden Gem!



4. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is an extremely depressing book... but as the title states, it is satisfying. I saw everyone reading it and thought,AM I GOING TO LIKE THIS BOOK? i went to the library, found the book and sat down. I read the first few pages of the book and then and there, i knew this was going to be my favorite book... and so it is =). This book is about a chinese unwanted daughter who has to struggle to deal with life. It may not sound interesting, and i felt the same way too, but the way the author wrote this book is so inspiring that you would think it's made up. The book is also full of life lessons that everyone should live by... the main one: Be thankful for what God has given you. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about a story that has ups and downs, uplifting, and adventurous. =)



5. This is a wonderful recollection of a young girl's struggles in China. The author does not sugar coat her condition in the slightest, and deeply conveys her misery and sorrow in this compelling memoir. Though many of the issues and situations she deals with are jarring and upsetting to the reader, her story is completely deserving of the reader's attention!

5 comments about On Gold Mountain.

1. The beginning of the book is very interesting. It starts really drag and become boring. It is very hard to keep up with the various family members.



2. Ms. See has written lovingly, and descriptively of her family's early life in this country having immigrated from China in the early 1900's. The tales of this country's prejudices and racial discriminations place the the triumphs of her family in the early success stories of our times. Their place in the history of Los Angeles and the entrepreneurial family endeavors are both unique and salient in the unfolding Chinese culture during harsh immigration laws and downright racism. The See family influences in Chinatown and status in that community set new perspectives with the intermarriage of Fong See and Ticie, a Caucasian woman who mothered the four sons and one daughter of this family history. I most highly recommend this book to all, and have read more slowly as i do not want the story to end....the book is fascinating and its revelations life affirming. Kate Lipsky aka George Sand



3. I have read all of Lisa See's books, either on my wonderful Kindle or listening on Audiobooks. All of her books mirror a lifesyle and history that is enriching to me. Her insights are wonderful but not heavy-handed, and once finished it gives me much to think about. On Gold Mountain is very personal to the author, but reflects the history of the Chinese migration to the US that is best told through these very personal anecdotes. So many times throughout the reading of it, I would ask my husband: "Did you know this...?" Or, "did you ever hear about..." Excellent book and very enjoyable reading. I certainly hope that she is hard at work on her next novel!



4. I like Lisa See's books, especially the ones that talk about the Chinese culture. "On Gold Mountain" is very interesting and also sad because of the way the Chinese were treated when they came to the U.S. I would recommend this book.



5. On Gold Mountain is the history of the See family and like most histories it is most interesting to the one telling it. For me, this book club choice was boring with a capital B. Approximately 400 pages of family history from Lisa See's great great grandfathers immigration to work on the transcontinetal railroad to her latest sojourn to the small Chinese town of Dimato to meet her great grandfathers and great uncles third and fourth family relatives from their concubines left in China. Make your head spin? Keeping the memebers of the original See family straight was tough but trying to keep up with the second wives, third wives and fourth wives and their children was frustrating and boring. It seemed to me that this was in essence the American story. It told about the lives of immigrants who came to a new place to find wealth and happiness and instead found discrimination, back breaking work and in the Fong See's case success. Lisa See interjects throughout the book facts regarding Chinese discrimination and hardship through the years as this group of immigrants struggle to become citizens with equal rights in this country. In all the most amazing part of the book for me was the marriage between Fong See and Letticie Pruitt. This was an unheard of union at the time and must have required a bravery on both their parts. The fact that this couple produced four sons and one daugther and two successful import companies is no small feat. As the book went on it was heartbreaking to read about the distance, petty differences, and shortcomings between the five original See children. I suppose that their story is also the story of every family. As children grow up they often grow apart. What original immigrant parents value their children often turn against. In the end, Lisa See provided a very detailed account of her families joys, hardships, success and failures. For me, it was about 200 pages too long and in the end bittersweet.

5 comments about China Men.

1. After having finished the book, I found that the middle part was really hard to get through for me. The multitude of characters involved made it difficult to be emotionally attached to any one character. It was interesting, however, to see Kingston's father transform from the "Father from China" to the "Father from America". I thought that was probably the most interesting journey of all the characters in the novel. There have been many criticisms on whether it is right for Kingston to interpret traditional Chinese stories in her own way and almost make whole new stories out of them. I don't agree with those criticism because I think she has the right to modernize those stories in order to help readers be able to understand the stories more. I actually like her personal tellings of the traditional stories. They definitely enhanced the reading experience of the book and made me think more about the longer stories of the novel.



2. 
   THE FIRST PART OF THE BOOK IS A LITTLE DRY...BUT AS HE STARTS
   HIS STORY FROM ANGEL ISLAND IS OUTSTANDING. I WAS JUST AT
   ANGEL ISLAND..CAN REALLY FEEL HOW IT WOULD BE. I AM AN
   AMERICAN CHINESE..STARTED LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO CHINATOWN..
   KNOWS WHAT LIFE HAVE BEEN LIKE...79 YEARS AGO. A VERY GOOD
   STORY.



3. China Men, written as a male companion piece to her female-centered The Woman Warrior, focuses on the Chinese men of Maxine Hong Kingston's family. This book takes what critics said about Kingston being a man-hating nut in The Woman Warrior and sublimates it; now she can simply be accused of being a white-hating nut.
   
   The immigration process was very tough for the men in Kingston's family. Because they were foreigners that spoke little to no English, they were forced into low-paying, labor-intensive field work. The Chinese immigrants would often be called "chinamen." What Kingston has very subtly done with the word is turned it into a positive. The title of the book is "China Men," not "Chinamen." When whites in the book use the word, it's derogatory; Kingston uses it differently - with respect. With what her relatives have been through, it's easy to understand why Kingston tends to hate white Californians.
   
   China Men is heavily mixed with amazing fantasy and heart-breaking reality. Kingston has grown as a writer since The Woman Warrior and anyone interested in a fascinating read on Chinese immigration should pick this one up.



4. I loved this book, and I love how the author writes. She tells her stories not in a typical narrative, factual, journalistic way, but in a stylized, "storylike" way (does that make sense?!). All of the stories focused on the different men in her family, especially her father. They all center on the Chinese man's experience in America, from the railroad days onward, and tells of their struggles, triumphs and failures. As a whole the book is about how these experiences shaped the men in her family. She intersperses a few legends here and there, just like she does in Woman Warrior. I enjoy how she takes her family history and literally turns it into a work of art. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.



5. In China Men, Kingston took me on a ride all over the literary landscape. In general, I thought her book was an interesting tossed salad of memoir, fable, reporting, and poetry. As a reader, it reminded me of a scrapbook of family stories, newspaper articles, heritage legends -- all assembled in one place.

   Interestingly, Kingston begins the book with two distinctive chapters. Unlike the rest of the book, these two chapters are relatively homogenous, sticking with one form, voice, structure and tone throughout. The first chapter is the fable of the Land of Women. I didn?t understand this chapter until the last sentences, when it seemed as though Kingston was saying that coming to North America emasculated the Chinese men who made the journey to the Gold Mountain.

   If Kingston?s main theme is that the journey to North America emasculated the Chinese Men, then from a reader?s perspective I?m not sure if the book delivers on this promise. To put a fable with a very obvious moral at the beginning of the book seems to me to set up a contract with the reader about the subject or theme of the book. Although, Kingston explores many different aspects of the Chinese experience in North America, and even starts to explore the ways that China Men were oppressed, I?m not sure she completely proves her case in my mind. I could be wrong, however.

   Interestingly, the second chapter of the book is another short one, this time a nearly pure piece of memoir. Alone, this chapter seems to set up the author?s own relationship with Chinese men. By mistaking another man for her father, she seems to be saying from the beginning of the book that from her perspective Chinese men are nearly interchangeable. But interestingly, she isn?t the only one who makes the mistake. All the children in that scene mistake the strange man for their father. I like this chapter placed here because it contrasts nicely with the fable/story in the first chapter. The first chapter is told at a distance by a storyteller/narrator. The second chapter is told first person from our main narrator?s voice.

   Kingston returns to this theme several more times in the book. On page 217, she remarks that one of her Uncles looks just like her father. Interestingly, Uncle Bun is also completely forgotten, erased from her sister?s memory only a few years after he leaves. Kingston often hints at how distant and interchangeable the China Men were to her and to the women of her family. At other times she explores her narrator?s perceptions that China Men have no heart, no emotions.

   One of Kingston?s greatest strengths, in my opinion, is her ability to weave in all sorts of other stories into the narrative of her story -- presenting a mosaic of memoirs, possibilities, facts, essays, fables, legends, ghost stories, scenes and reporting -- that all add up to a complete picture of the lives of the China Men who came to the United States. On page 49, she starts one version of a trip to the US with, ?I think this is the journey you don?t tell me:? She then recounts the tale of the father?s arrival in the US as a stowaway. But like The French Lieutenant?s Woman, she (Kingston) also gives us another, more ordinary version of the father?s emigration. I don?t know which one is ?real? and which one is imagined and, frankly, I don?t care. The fact that some Chinese used each of these methods is credible enough to keep my disbelief suspended and keep me in the story.

5 comments about Six Records of a Floating Life (Penguin Classics).

1. I decided to read "Six Records of a Floating Life" after spending a summer in Suzhou, the city of Shen Fu's birth and his home for many years. When describing this work, my Chinese friends were quick to use words like "romantic" and "touching". However I was skeptical since I had also heard that this book detailed Shen Fu's relationship not only with his wife, Yun, but also concubines and courtesans - thus setting it far outside the scope of what is traditionally considered "romantic" by modern, Western standards. Yet, if one is willing to keep an open mind and look at Shen Fu's extra-marital relations (which are, in fact, treated very briefly) within the context of the time and culture during which he wrote, one can see that that author and his wife were very much in love and cared passionately for each other for more than twenty years. Fu's description of the airy joys and carefree pleasures they experienced together as husband and wife are sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone who's every been in love.
   
   Yet, with great happiness Shen Fu also experienced great pain and numerous hardships. Considered a failure in both business and scholarship, he was never wealthy and he struggled to provide even a modest living for himself and his family. Indeed, Fu drifted from place to place, job to job, often relying on friends and relatives to provide him with money and shelter. Adding to the pressures of poverty was his wife's chronic illness, which eventually took her life. Shen Fu's description of his wife's death is truely heart-breaking, as he writes:
   
   "Her spirit vanished in the mist and she began her long journey... When it happened there was a solitary lamp burning in the room. I looked up but saw nothing, there was nothing for my two hands to hold, and my heart felt as if it would shatter" (p. 89)
   
   Part romance, part tragedy, part travelogue and part memoir this book indeed lives up to it's reputation as a classic. Shen Fu articulates the joys and sorrows of ordinary human life with the skill of an artist, and he is always someone with whom we can identify. Like we all do, he struggled to find peace and comfort while trying to bear the weight of sadness. Whether you're interested in Chinese history and culture or not, this book deserves to be read and appreciated.



2. If one reads the introduction, this book is not meant to be read as a sequential narrative, instead it is a collection of memoirs and hence the word "records" in the title. Through this collection of records and memoirs, readers are welcomed to peer into segments of the author's bumpy life.
   
   The records follow Shen Fu on his numerous failed attempts to find contentment in life: As an educated man, Shen Fu tried to gain a position through civil examinations but got nowhere, he tried his hand at being a painter but found that he had no talent, he made friends with people who eventually betrayed him, he got into debt and was disowned by his father, and the final blow came when he lost his child and beloved wife, Yun. In the end Shen Fu's decided to live a "floating Life" by giving up worldly matters to wander China.
   
   Shen Fu is also a groundbreaking author. He is very descriptive of his environment, which is uncharacteristic of Chinese writers of his time. Through Shen Fu's accounts the reader can experience the long lost customs of ancient China, for example, lonely men with a bit of pocket money can visit brothel boats sitting "like aimless floating leaves" on the river.
   
   Moreover, Shen Fu's accounts of his wife, Yun, were against conventions because he does not cease in describing her only as a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law according to Confucian ideology, but he portrays her as an intelligent and adventurous woman who was willing to dress up as a man to visit a temple (which forbids women) with him. To Shen Fu, Yun was his soul mate and she transcends his memoirs into a love story. She is present from his first record, "The Joys of the Wedding Chamber" where they first met as an arranged marriage to his last record, "The Delights of Roaming Afar" where Shen Fu is constantly reminded of Yun, long after her death, when he travelled to places he wished he had brought her to.
   
   Lastly, Shen Fu's tone is full of indignant passion making him an amusing storyteller. The translators (Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui) translate Shen Fu's work without losing his ease and personality, making the book a delightful read.
   
   Keeping in mind that not many authors in feudal China reveal an honest account of their times and even less-so the intimate accounts of their domestic life, this autobiography is wonderfully rare.



3. There are so many contradictions within this quirky memoir that it could only possibly be true.
   
   This is a memoir of life right around the start of the 19th century. It recounts the adult life of Shen Fu, a man who appears to have been ordinary in the extreme. Although educated, he did not pass the literary tests of the civil service. At best, his career could have been a secretary under one of the successful examinees, but his times weren't always the best. His positions never lasted, and his business attempts failed. Often, he sold his possessions and his wife's down to the clothes on their backs (or less). He fell out with his family, in a time when filial duty was enforced by law, and became outcast in almost every sense.
   
   But his life never wholly failed, either. Perhaps it was the glow of nostalgia, but his twenty-three years of marriage were always a joy to him, even when his wife's health failed, and even when she may have been the source of some of his problems. They had their times of poverty, but never to the point of starvation. He was honorable enough to quit a corrupt position when it offended his honor too deeply. He was devoted enough to heal the familial rifts. His joys and Yun's were simple - travel, each other, the beauty of the full moon, and maybe a little too much wine shared with happy company. Shen Fu and his devoted Yun never demanded much from their lives, and usually got enough to enjoy.
   
   The text wanders. The first three chapters chart the ups and downs of the marriage to his beloved wife. She died early, from some frightening disease. Still, she and he accepted it stoically, or mostly did. The fourth chapter collects a few decades of moments together, the sights and sounds of travel. With his wife and after her, Shun Fu visited temples, sacred caves, and pleasure districts, reported in some drifting collage of personal history. Despite the "six" promised in the title, we have only four. It's probably better that way, according to the appendices.
   
   I really think I would have liked Shun Fu. He was honest enough, loving enough, and devoted enough to his children. Even when his own situation deteriorated badly, he fostered his son as best he could and sheltered his daughter with people who could marry her well. He never wholly succeeded or failed, but muddled through the chances that appeared to him. He was no grand hero, nor villain, nor idle dreamer, nor driven workaholic. He was just a guy, living some guy's life pretty well. Maybe he dressed up his memories just a bit, but don't we all?
   
   //wiredweird



4. "Six Records" (also known as "Six Chapters of a Floating Life"), c. 1805, is an extraordinarily frank autobiography that is totally unprecedented and unparalleled in the history of Chinese literature. It describes the life of the author Shen Fu and his beloved wife, Ch'en Yun (1763-1803), in extremely revealing detail. The intimacy and joy shared by the couple are as unusual by normal standards of Chinese married life as is the author's daringness in revealing them to others. Their close, playful relationship stands in defiant opposition to the staid decorum of married life expected by Confucian ideology.

   A thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring read. Ch'en Yun is a woman ahead of her time who admirably balances her love of learning and passion for life with her duties and obligations as a traditional Chinese wife.




5. a very, very good book to get to know the everyday life of late imperial Chinese!

5 comments about Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter.

1. As I was perusing titles at my local bookstore, the words "Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter" caught my eye. Already a fan of literature depicting the pre-Cultural Revolution heyday of Shanghai, this title immediately appealed to me. True to Amy Tan's cover dedication, Yen Mah's rendering of her childhood in China was "riveting." A true page turner, I often found it hard to put "Falling Leaves" down.
   
   That said, the book was not without flaw. Yen Mah seemed to linger on some issues and skim over others. For instance, a fight taking place in her childhood might be spread over a chapter, while the birth of her first child occupies but a paragraph. While Yen Mah may feel that giving such precedence is imperative to the overall focus of her memoir, she does indeed leave readers longing for more.
   
   I also found it difficult to keep track of the timetable. Rather than moving progressively forward, Yen Mah often jumps around in time: she may follow a character ten years into the future, then abruptly return to a period in her childhood. This leaves the reader feeling scattered and uncertain of the sequence of events.
   
   All complaints aside, I would like to reiterate that Yen Mah's memoir was absolutely enthralling and well-written; a brilliant blending of emotion, history, and culture (the chapters are sprinkled with Chinese proverbs.) Definitely Deserving of 5 Stars!



2. I have two young male friends, both of whom have lived and worked in China, both of whom are married to Chinese girls. They told me once that Chinese parents encourage their children to fight and compete with each other, particularly over who will inherit. I don't know if that's true, but if it's a stereotype it was certainly reinforced by this book.
   
   Yen Mah's prose is spare and lacking in melodrama. She reports the facts, straight up. Sometimes that makes the story feel distant, sometimes it's the only thing that makes the cruelty bearable.
   
   I'm familiar with the dynamics of abusive families; often one child is at the bottom of the pecking order and the rest heap their abuse on her. All the same, it seems so pointless and destructive. The whole time I read this, I kept wondering, Why? What's the gain in picking on the weakest bird in the flock? Since we get very little backstory, and no psychological analysis of the Stepmother, we are left with the implication that she is a product of her culture.
   
   Speaking of birds, the bit with the pet duck especially made me wince. Bad enough that they stole what young Adeline loved; worse that they would be so cruel to a poor dumb animal. And I am not, as a rule, sentimental about animals. I just hate waste and destructiveness.
   
   The back cover blurb would have you believe this book is about the uplifting nature of the human spirit, finding one's own place in the world, etc. There is that, in this book, but to me the historical perspective was more interesting and valuable. About a third of the text is an encapsulation of 20th century Chinese history, as applied to the lives of Yen Mah's peripheral female relatives. Her Grand Aunt and her Aunt Baba are strong, successful women in their own right, yet all too often are abused, repressed, and neglected--if not by their own family, then by their government and countrymen.
   
   My knowledge of the Cultural Revolution is sketchy at best. Yen Mah's summation of it, and her description of the indignities suffered by her aunts, brings it into intimate focus. If what Adeline's family did to her was untenable, then imagine the same cruelty and pointless, jealous, destructiveness visited on millions of innocent Chinese.
   
   Adeline's story doesn't wrap up quite to my satisfaction, because she never really shakes free of the emotional bondage. I much preferred the backbone of her sister Susan. When her horrible mother starts in with the verbal abuse, calling her ungrateful for all the money that was lavished on her as a child, Susan whips out her check book and says, "How much? Tell me what I owe you and I'll settle this right now." Susan walks away into her own life and never looks back.
   
   My readerly expectations aside, this book works on both the personal and the historical level. Indeed, the personal gives the historical a sense of inevitability. I can't help thinking that if Adeline's family is exemplary--and several places she implies that her treatment was not that unusual--then no wonder the sons and daughters of those families grew up to burn their culture to the ground. They never were taught any better.



3. Overall the historical backdrop of the story is interesting and set at a time in Chinese history that is quite fascinating to read about. One thing to keep in mind with this memoir is that every story has two sides. I have no doubt that Adeline's parents and siblings were greedy and deceptive but in the end the book contains so many "poor me" passages that I began to ask myself what type of person she is. I would love to hear from 'James or Lydia or Gregory' to hear how Adeline behaved to them. According to the memoir, she is perfect and did everything to help her family out with no malice at all while they all turned their backs on her. Similarly, she is courted by many interested men in England and America, is more hardworking than other interns/residents in Medical school, is always honest and endearing, and always accepts her fate like a saint. It is hard not to ask yourself if Adeline has a bit of an ego? She also does not get into the pschyological backdrop of why Niang is the way she is. Niang's paranoia, greed, jealousy and controling attitude are all attributed to her foreign genes and french concessions that gave her a sense of superiority over others. One can't help but wonder if Niang had a tough upbringing herself. As a previous reviewer noted, this is a time in China when girls were often abandoned, enslaved, or homeless. Adeline had the best education, three solid meals a day and great connections. Her home life, however, was loveless and dysfunctional, and if that story interests you, this is a good one to borrow from a friend or the library.



4. "FALLING LEAVES: THE MEMOIR OF AN UNWANTED CHINESE DAUGHTER" -- AN AMAZON-VERIFIED PURCHASE -- IS A HEARTFELT ACCOUNT OF A HORRIFIC CHILDHOOD DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION OF CHINA. THE AUTHOR, ADELINE YEN MAH, IS A BRILLIANT, DEEPLY COMPASSIONATE, AND SOULFUL WRITER. THIS GRIPPING BOOK IS HARD TO PUT DOWN. THE READER IS HELPLESSLY DRAWN INTO ADELINE'S WORLD OF ENDLESS EMOTIONAL TORMENT AS SHE TRIES DESPERATELY TO COPE WITH BOTH THE PAIN OF BEING REJECTED BY HER FAMILY, AS WELL AS THE TURBULENT AND UNCERTAIN POLITICAL TIMES.
   
   THIS MEMOIR IS RICH IN DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS OF ADELINE'S PERSONAL LIFE AND THE IMPACT ON HER AND HER FAMILY BY THE INIMICAL SOCIO-POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE AUTHOR, A NATURAL PSYCHOLOGIST, WITHHOLDS NOTHING; SHE GENEROUSLY SHARES WITH THE READER THE MOST INTIMATE DETAILS OF HER LIFE.
   
   I CANNOT HELP LOVING AND ADMIRING THE WRITER. READING THIS BOOK HAS BEEN AN ENLIGHTENING AND RICHLY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS VERY IMPORTANT AND ENJOYABLE BOOK! REGINA CLARK



5. To preface, let me say that I have read "Chinese Cinderella" by the same author which is essentially the same book, just written for a younger audience. Another difference in the two is that "Chinese Cinderella" ends when Adeline (the author) goes off to college. "Falling Leaves" however, ends in the late 1990's when she has grown up and is a middle aged woman.
   
   This is an autobiographical book and details teh life of Adeline Yen Mah, an unwanted Chinese daughter. The early part of the book describes her birth and subsequent death of her mother. The youngest of five when her father remarries, their family is soon joined by a bitter cruel stepmother they call Niang and eventually two more siblings.
   
   Her early years are detailed as being more emotionally abused than ever physically abused although there are a couple instances where she is slapped or whipped. For the most part, while her basic needs are cared for, her emotional ones are not. Even those that try to provide for her emotional needs, her grandfather Ye-ye and her Aunt Baba, are prevented from doing so by Niang. While she excels in school to impress her father and subsequently attract his love, she is often ignored and left behind. They even went so far as to, during the course of her young life, enroll her in two different boarding schools/orphanages just to get rid of her. One of these was in a war-torn area that was unsafe at the time.
   
   Her way out came as a winning of a writing contest which finally made her father see her potential. However, instead of supporting her dreams of becoming a writer, he sends her to medical school where eventually she specializes in anesthesia.
   
   The second part of the book shows her progressing through medical school and then her relationships. It also shows her struggle to still gain approval from her father and Niang. It also shows the grown up rivalries of all the siblings. While she does find happiness, it is tarnished by these familial relationships.
   
   I thought it was an excellent book. While many might not feel sadness at her plight as she was well cared for and supplied an education, I think it really delves into what it means to be human. Most people want acceptance and want to be loved. As it is said "Money can't buy happiness." Why then should we feel less for Adeline as she was unwanted even in her own family, regardless of how well they helped her survive?
   
   She is able to express her emotions readily and in a way I think all would be able to understand. I enjoyed her writing style and found unique the difference Chinese characters and phrases she incorporated to express her meaning.
   
   The book is also a good study on the culture and political movements at the time in China and the surrounding areas. All of the events had an impact on her family's life and probably contributed to the turmoil.
   
   Overall I think this book is a very informative read and would recommend it to anyone.
   
   Falling Leaves
   Copyright 1997
   274 pages

5 comments about Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir.

1. This book was wonderful read. It truly provides you a look into a different time and place. If you are a westerner that thinks foot binding was evil and kept women captive & subserviant that this book will be an inspirational look into the true power of women and all that we can accomplish with focus, dedication and hard work, regardless of your heritage, or birth rite.



2. This book was so interesting, I think I read it in less than two days. It shows the changes Asian women went through as history marched on. I had no other way of knowing any of this information, and it's so different from my own culture.



3. I found this book to be a compelling read. It does reveal, while the author is relating the life of her great aunt from China, a lot of interesting information related to the customs, traditions and mores of the old Chinese culture in the early twentieth century. Her great aunt was the first in old china to get divorced from her husband, after being abandoned by him .She was young, poorly educated, with two children, one of whom tragically died shortly after her divorce. She morphs from a poorly educated, dependent woman into a self-reliant,educated, successful woman, who eventually becomes a VP of the Shanghi Woman's Savings Bank and helps ensure it's survival, while Japan was invading Shanghi. Luckily, she leaves Shanghi a day before the Japanese take over and moves to Hong Kong. Eventually, she remarries in 1952 and then, after her second husband dies in 1972, she emigrates to the USA. When her great niece finds her name in books while she is studying Far East Culture while studying at Harvard University, she is amazed to find her great aunt's name listed and then decides to interview her, and thus the idea of the book emerges and is completed over many years. A truely unusual and compelling book to read for anyone interested in the Chinese culture, people and history. Quite a different read, inspiring and moving in many ways.



4. In the late 1990s, the Chinese-American Pang-Mei Natasha Chang wrote her first book entitled "Bound Feet and Western Dress," which accounts the life story of the author's great aunt, Chang Yu-i. The author was the first generation of the Chang family to be born in the United States. She wrote the book about her own search of Chinese identity in the American world and the tale of her great aunt's hard and interesting life.
   
   The book is broken into fifteen chapters, which describe the early life of Yu-i, the history of the Chang family, the life of the author herself, the lifestyle of women in China, the marriage and the divorce of Yu-i and Hsu Chih-mo, and the last years of Yu-i's life.
   
   One can understand the influence of modernity on the Chinese society and the Chinese women as one look at the author's great aunt as a traditional girl and her strength as a woman, why Chih-mo marry her, and the significance of their divorce in this book. "Bound Feet and Western Dress" is intriguing work and an enjoyable read.



5. Change can be a frightening affair, and looking back at change can be something that seems almost alien when beheld in the light of certain convictions. That seems to encapsulate the whole of the experience that Chang Yu-I talks about as she tries to explain something of who she is to her granddaughter, Pang-Mei, and it is one of the things that seemed to haunt me as a reader as I listened to Yu-I's tale. The chapters switch from Yu-I to Pang-Mei to give you and idea of how things have changed and to try to identify one person with the other, and I have to say that I found myself glued to the pages and not able to stop reading this book. At first I simply thought it was a story about a granddaughter wanting to explore her grandmother's life because she was the first person to have a Western-style divorce in China, and maybe that was her reason beginning the book. Still, the book goes well beyond that and touches on the dynamics of change and strength and how strong a person can be even when they think they are at their weakest.
   
   Honestly, I thought I could vicariously feel my heart cracking under the weight of some of Yu-I's confessions, amazed by some of the things she was able to tell her granddaughter.
   
   One of the best things about this tale is the detail that Yu-I goes into about China, and about the way things were seen in the past versus the way things became seen as war loomed on the horizon. Yu-I gives a great amount of detail about what it was like to be a child in a country like China, and she vividly recollects what its like to have one's feet bound and the reasons why this practice took place. All that breaking and rebreaking, the tying of the big toe over and over again; when I read this I cringed because it seemed so debilitating just to have a crescent-shape added to the foot. Furthering this are pictures in the book, showing what the feet actually look like when this happens - you can see the shriveled remains of feet that look almost mummified, and you can tell some of the extremes that went into making a foot look like that. Yu-I talks about the pain that's she, herself, experienced because of this practice, too; she tells her granddaughter about being three and having her mother try to bind her feet, and then talks about the torment of those moments and how it was her brother that made her stop this because he couldn't deal with her suffering. Yu-I goes on to tell of the pain that this caused her, too, with her always feeling as if she were ugly because she had "big feet" and "big feet" made a person almost untouchable when it comes to marriage. Still, she does marry the poet Hsu Chi-Mo and, for a time, she thinks this is perfect and learns the rites of being a wife. She cares for the mother-in-law, she takes care of the husband's family; basically she becomes a slave and thinks that this dedication is seem by her husband as love. It is only when she moves to a foreign country with her husband that she finds out what he is like and how she is alone, and when she understands that she is utterly abandoned she explains how it feels to want to die.
   
   There are other painful things in the book, too, things I can't disclose without messing up part of the tale, but I can say that when she is in Germany and loses something more dear to her than anything that this was devastating to read, making the book almost too heavy to pick up because its honesty was like a barb in the soul. I appreciated that, to be honest, and can say that I have read a lot of pieces of literature but that I have rarely encountered a person like Yu-I that both loves the world she lives in, understands the things that she has experienced, and even knows what forgiveness is like.
   While this normally would not be something I would recommend, it has my highest recommendation and the most humble form of respect I can give, thinking it an enduring read that really has something to say.
   I cannot give the book or the voice behind it enough praise.

5 comments about The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West.

1. Christopher Corbett's "The Poker Bride" is an appealing combination of yarn with serious history. The poker bride was a young Chinese immigrant who became known as Polly Bemis. During a famine in China, Polly's family sold her to avoid starvation. Polly was sold several times upon immigration to San Francisco where a fate as either a concubine (to a wealthy Chinese man) or a prostitute awaited her. In 1872, Polly was the stakes in a poker game. A white man from Connecticut and proprietor of a bar and gambling den in a remote mining town in Idaho, Charlie Bemis, won the hand and won Polly. Polly nursed Charlie back to health after he was shot in the face by an unhappy gambler. The couple married in 1894 and lived on a remote farm in the wilds of north central Idaho on the upper reaches of the Salmon River near a small community called Warren. In 1923, following Charlie's death, an aged Polly visited the small Idaho town of Grangeville, her first departure from the family farm in over thirty years. The following year Polly visited Boise, Idaho. She then returned and lived quietly on her farm until her death in 1933.
   
   A mix of history and legend, Polly's story occupies only about one-third of Corbett's book. Most of the rest of the book offers a brief history of the Chinese in the early West as they were involved with mining. The history sets Polly Bemis's story in context but is of course highly important in its own right.
   
   The story moves from early California to Idaho with stops in Oregon. It essentially begins with the California Gold Rush of 1848 and the influx of Chinese immigrants which followed in its wake. The overwhelming number of immigrants were men. They were willing to work long and hard for little pay at jobs few others would want to do. The Chinese immigrants soon became perceived as a threat and were subject to severe discrimination and ill-treatment which Corbett documents poignantly. Unhappily, Congress took a rare and drastic step of banning Chinese immigration in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1882. Polly and Charlie may have married in an attempt to avoid Polly's deportation under this law.
   
   The relatively few Chinese women immigrants were, in the early days, much like Polly Bemis. They had been sold and came to the United States to work as sex slaves. Most of them lived in dreadful conditions in cribs and cheap bars under the eye of Chinese gangs or "tongs". Polly Bemis was a rarity in that she managed to escape the fate of many other Chinese women and make a life for herself.
   
   Corbett's book offers a good portrait of the wildness and lawlesness of the early West in San Francisco, Idaho, and the mining camps. Before describing Polly's story, the book discusses the history of Chinese immigration, including the long ocean passage which reminded me of the earlier conditions pertaining on the slave ships several centuries earlier, the development of "Chinatowns", and the spread of prospecting from California to Oregon. Several chapters are devoted to the condition of Chinese women and to the spread of prostitution and sex slavery. Polly Bemis's story is told from the sparse and conflicting contemporaneous records and from accounts prepared by Sister Alfreda Elsenshohn, a nun who lived in the area and who devoted her retirement years in the 1940s-50s to writing about the early history of Idaho County.
   
   The book recounts an unhappy part of the American experience in the mistreatment meted out to the Chinese. The character of this experience comes through in Corbett's account even though Polly Bemis's story is treated with eclat. The book lacks an index or notes. Instead it has a detailed bibliography which Corbett draws upon extensively in his text. He makes good use of well-known authors such as Bret Harte and Mark Twain but more importantly he draws upon many contemporaneous, obscure accounts of life in the early West. As does any historian, Corbett tries to sift through and assess his sources to arrive at a reasoned interpretation.
   
   I was glad to have the opportunity to read this book and to learn something of Polly Bemis and about the wildness of the old American West. The book is enriched by several photographs, but a map of the Salmon River and its environs in Idaho would have been useful.
   
   Robin Friedman



2. I had some doubts when I began to read The Poker Bride. Lately it has seemed to me many popular history books were little more than magazine articles expanded to include a bibliography. The story of Polly Bemis-- a sex worker who got luckier than most-- seemed an excellent candidate for the "not long enough for a book" prize.
   
   To my surprise, Corbett seems to have a book here. And an interesting book at that. We know precious little about Polly Bemis today, and Corbett shares as much of the story as can be told. He also tells us the folklore and the myth that grew up around this unlikely western wife. Best of all (at least for me) Corbett gives us a lot of the context of the early Chinese experience in the US West. It's fascinating stuff. Some of it I knew vaguely from other reading, but I've never had such a clear image of the Chinese migration.
   
   I'd recommend the book for the material alone. Corbett, however, is worth mentioning for his writing. I found it exceptionally good history writing. Books like this are so often obtuse. The prose here is crisp, economical, and always clear. I enjoyed the book itself and not just the subject matter.
   
   Recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of the US West, prostitution, or the Chinese experience in the US.



3. Have you ever heard of a more romantic plot than the one offered up here by Christopher Corbett in his new book `The Poker Bride?' I mean come on, a tale set in the chaotic era of the Wild West Gold Rush involving a helpless Chinese girl sold into slavery and prostitution who's eventually rescued by her future husband who wins her freedom in the proverbial poker game! Even more fascinating, it's a true story! It just doesn't get any better than that does it?
   
   However before you get too excited and inform the local women's book club about this heartrending period piece be aware that this is not a romance ala Jane Austin, nor is it the latest release from the Harlequin romance series. The woman known as Polly Bemis (aka: Poker Bride) is utilized by the author as a vehicle through which a greater story is told. In seeing through the eyes of Polly the reader is given the opportunity to experience what life in the American Gold Rush era must have been like for "the first Chinese in the West." In other words this is first and foremost a history book while Polly and her life provide the personal, literal and symbolic face of the immigrants. She's something the reader can identify and sympathize with. In the end one comes to realize her story and the history of the Chinese in the American Wild West were one in the same.
   
   While the prospective romance novel reader will probably not find this book to be what they're looking for, the lover of history certainly will. Christopher Corbett provides us with an expansive portrait of the times that I found absolutely fascinating; early San Francisco history, cultural influences, societal make-up and how these influences where lived out in the everyday life of the rural, shabby townships and mining camps.
   
   Even more impressive is Corbett's treatment of the plight and experiences of the Chinese immigrants; the harsh trans-Pacific sailing conditions, the hatred for the migrant workers and the subjugation of women from both the predominately white society as well as the prevailing cultural traditions practiced by the Chinese themselves. I found the mention of P.T. Barnum and his Asian/Chinese "freaks" exhibit, which included the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng, to be not only unexpected but to be quite revealing concerning the white American opinion of the Asian culture.
   
   Again, if you're looking for a hot, titillating romance look elsewhere, but if you appreciate a comprehensive, well researched, read offering the reader not only a rare glimpse into an exciting moment in American history but a tale of individual endurance and triumph try `The Poker Bride'.



4. Everyone knows about the horrors of slavery experienced by 19th century African Americans who lived in the southern U.S. While their story should never be downplayed, there is a forgotten chapter of another ethnic group that was enslaved in the western U.S.: the Chinese. More specifically, an ethnic gender (Chinese women) faced situations every bit as harrowing and hopeless as the African Americans who were southeast of them. Nor were Chinese males treated fairly, either. While they were not enslaved, their treatment by white men was egregiously unfair.
   
   Professor Christopher Corbett has done an exemplary job of disinterring the lost stories of the Chinese in the west. In particular, Corbett focuses on the human trafficking of Chinese women from the Chinese mainland to their arrival in San Francisco.
   
   One of the outcomes of the law-of-unintended-consequences of the California Gold Rush was the demand for courtesans / concubines / female slaves by the influx of miners who entered the western states. One such slave was Polly Bemis, and this is her story.
   
   While it is outrageous to think of any woman being "won" in a poker game, the irony of this book is that Polly was far luckier than most Chinese prostitutes whose lives were cut short by their involuntary involvement in the sex trade. Polly actually ended up with people who showed her kindness, which made her far more fortunate than most women in her dire situation.
   
   What I was expecting from this book was a sort of historical novel about Polly's life. On that point I was wrong. Roughly 75% of the book lays out the milieu created by the California Gold Rush rather than a biography of a lone Chinese courtesan. This approach worked very well as it laid the backdrop for what Polly experienced.
   
   This book was a real eye-opener and leaves one with a great familiarity of the Gold Rush days as well as a Chinese courtesan. The work is well researched and the author's erudition of the topic is obvious. In some ways, this book is to the 19th century Chinese who lived in the west what Roots (Four-Disc 30th Anniversary Edition) and Amistad are for African Americans who were in the south during the turbulent 19th century. If Chinese American or Chinese and American history is something that intrigues you, then the present book belongs on your bookshelf. Either way, it's a story you'll never forget.



5. One of the saddest scenes in the TV series Deadwood is when Mr. Wu imports a load of slave Chinese girls to be prostitutes in the frontier town. In those days, where a white prostitute was afforded a certain level of respect and even celebrity, and where a common French streetwalker could pass her self off as an educated and expensive courtesan, the Chinese girls were just so much meat to be pounded into at pennies a turn, until their used-up bodies were tossed into the trash heap and space made for the next load of slaves to take their place.
   
   This was the world that Polly Bemis arrived to in 1872, sold by her father for two bags of seed and smuggled in as a slave to San Francisco. Polly, born Lalu Nathoy, was luckier or prettier than most of her shipmates as instead of winding up in one of San Francisco's infamous "cribs" she was most likely the private concubine of a wealthy merchant until she was lost as property in a game of Poker to prospector Charlie Bemis. What happened next is the most extraordinary turn in her life, because in a time of anti-Chinese sentiment when lone Chinese wanders might find themselves hung and when anti-racial relationships were not just considered immoral but also illegal, Charlie Bemis married the girl he won in a card game.
   
   Christopher Corbett (Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express), uses the unlikely tale of Charlie and Polly Bemis as the framework for his exploration of the Chinese under-culture of the Old West in his book "The Poker Bride." A non-fiction history book, Corbett does not attempt to provide a narrative for Polly's life, but merely to lay out the facts as they are known, and delve into the background of the world in which she arrived.
   
   Indeed, "The Poker Bride" cannot truly be said to be about Polly Bemis; she only shows up in page 121 of the 197 page book. Truly, this is the story of the many Chinese people who came to America seeking their fortune, sold on a false dream, only to find themselves slaves in a country where racial prejudice and economic greed led people to use other human beings in despicable ways. Although the American Civil War was over and California was always a Free State, there was no Uncle Tom's Cabin for the Chinese and a blind eye was turned to the slave labor that built, fed and serviced the Western frontier. It didn't help that the worst slavers were the Chinese themselves, who imported village girls for the use of Chinese men, naïve girls who were lied to with promises of good husbands and wealth in a far off land.
   
   Corbett's book covers the lives of some of these "Celestials and Sojourners" and the attitudes at the time towards them. Although at first the Chinese were seen as a valuable resource, especially as they did not want to integrate or immigrate into the US but just make their fortune and go home, fear and yellow journalists fanned the flames of hate until the anti-Chinese sentiments of the late 1800s led to scenes such as the Seattle riot of 1886. Although some reporters, such as Mark Twain, tried to show sympathy for the poor creatures, by far the louder voices were singing songs of "The Heathen Chinee."
   
   As for Polly's story herself, Corbett does not romanticize or glamorize it as was done with the book and film Thousand Pieces of Gold. Polly most likely worked as a prostitute, Corbett says, although well-meaning folks who knew her have tried to cover up this part of her past. And Bemis most-likely married her to prevent a valuable work-mate from being deported rather than out of some custom-defying and fiery love. Corbett just gives us real life, not fancy or neat but still extraordinary.

5 comments about The Travels of Marco Polo - Complete.

1. This book is not good on the Kindle. First it took about 10 minutes of hitting Next Page in order to get through all the introductions. Second this edition has 2 pages of footnotes for every page of the actual book. The text and notes are the same font so it is hard to distinguish between them. Maybe it is of interest to an academic but to a casual reader it is a bit annoying. It was only 99 cents so I guess it is worth the inconvenience.



2. The Travels of Marco Polo was an extremely educational novel. I chose to read this book because my AP World History class was to read a book and then write a review over it, and I needed all the help in reviewing the course as I could get before the AP exam. Reading this book helped to teach me how life along the silk road was by connecting with because I could relate to the actual feelings of the author. This book was written by Marco Polo himself, which allowed him to contribute the real thoughts of the traveler, instead of having a hitory book format where the content in emotionless and simply rambles details. With text books, the information goes in one ear and right out the other for me, however by reading this book I was actually able to comprehend the information provided.
   The Travels of Marco Polo contained bits of info on things such as Africa and India and their culture, China in all its wealth, along with the Mongol empire. When reading this book, you may want to watch exactly what you believe because although it may be true, there are many facts Polo provides that may very well be untrue. This book is great for reading if you want to learn a lot without the dullness of text book like writing, however I don't think it's very good for a pleasure read unless you're really into history.



3. This is perhaps the worst edition of any book that I have ever encountered. It is a scan of an older edition, but the mis-scanned bits have not been touched up or corrected in any way. The headers and notes are indecipherable from the body of the text, there are incomplete sentences, and at one point the text bleeds off the page. The one benefit of this text is that it allows students to see what a truly bad edition looks like, making them realize, in real time, the importance of using a good edition of something.
   
   I was hoping to get an inexpensive version of Polo's Travels for my great books class, and ended up with the Modern Library Classics version.
   
   Negative five stars!



4. The book arrived in good condition and in time to give on Christmas. The recipiant was very happy to receive it.



5. I was very pleased with my purchase. It arrived on time and in the overall condition as described.