Adeline Yen Mah frames her memoir of growing up in 1940s China as a "Chinese Cinderella" story by mapping her experiences of neglect and abuse by her stepmother onto the classic Cinderella fairy tale. As a young girl, Adeline is emotionally and physically mistreated by her stepmother and faces constant upheaval as her family flees the intensifying Chinese Civil War and Japanese occupation. By understanding her life through allusions to fictional characters like Cinderella, Sarah Crewe, and King Lear, Adeline finds meaning in her suffering and a framework to process her traumatic childhood.

1. LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2CYPdYwcY&t=3s&ab_channel=IT
%27SHISTORY As we discussed in the previous lesson, some
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2CYPdYwcY&t=3s&ab_channel=IT%27SHISTORYA
s we discussed in the previous lesson, some of the oldest variants of the Cinderella story
originate in China.One of these is the legend surrounding the life of a Chinese woman named
Ye Xian, who is believed to have lived in the third century CE. The folktale that recounts her
story was first published in 850 CE, but it may have existed as oral tradition long before
that.That story not only likely travelled thousands of miles and influenced the European
tradition, it also influenced a contemporary Chinese author, Adeline Yen Mah. In 1999, Yen
Mah published a memoir of her childhood entitled Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an
Unwanted Daughter. So this reading does double duty. Yen Mah tells her own story, self-
consciously mapping it onto the pre-existing Cinderella plot. But in the course of her
narrative, she also retells the story of Ye Xian – so we get two Cinderella stories in one.Story
and HistoryFairy tales tend to be deliberately vague as to their setting. Refusing to specify
when and where a story takes place allows for greater ease in suspending disbelief when
magical or supernatural happenings occur; after all, if the story isn’t really set in our own
world, the rules of our world need not apply, and we can allow the story to create its own
world and its own rules. (It’s also quite handy if you’re hiding satire or political critique in
the subtext of your story, and want to be able to wiggle out of accusations of libel; it’s like a
version of the modern disclaimer that any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely
coincidental.)One twist that Yen Mah’s story offers to the tale of Cinderella is that not only is
it set in a concrete time and place, but the reference to that society and its history is an
important part of the story. So let’s take a moment to refresh our memory of Chinese
history. The mid-nineteenth century saw a dramatic change in the relationship between
China and Europe, due to European imperialist incursions dubbed the Opium Wars. The clip
below sums up what happened:Having gained control of Hong Kong, as well as numerous
other territories within China’s major cities (concessions), European powers were able to
exert an almost colonial influence in China politically, economically, and socially. The two
successive defeats in the Opium Wars were followed quickly by another in 1895, when
China surrendered in the First Sino-Japanese War, losing control of Taiwan and Korea in the
process. The ravages of war and the loss of confidence in the rulership of the emperor led to

2. political instability and then rebellion; the Qing dynasty was overthrown and a Republic
was established in 1912.The new government’s power was tenuous, however, and political
unrest soon erupted again. The left wing of the ruling political party (the KMT) split off to
form the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921, and eventually challenged the sitting
government for control. China was plunged into civil war for the next 20 years.Recognizing
China’s weakened state, the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, sparking the Second Sino-
Japanese War. To fight the Japanese, the KMT and CPC were briefly allied, but the
Communist forces ended up getting much of the credit for China’s eventual victory in 1945
and the reclamation of the territories ceded to Japan. This strengthened the support of the
CPC’s campaign for control of China.By now we know how this part of the story ends: the
CPC would gradually gain control over more and more territory, until it controlled all of
mainland China and established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. But Yen Mah’s
narrative spans a period of constant upheaval and uncertainty. The memoir begins in 1941,
when Japanese troops were still occupying China, and follows the young Adeline through
the intensification of the Civil War that looms over her development into a young adult. By
the end of the memoir in 1952, she has had to leave her home three times to avoid the worst
of the conflict, starting in Tianjin, before moving to Shanghai, and finally to Hong
Kong.???? Read the excerpts from Adeline Yen Mah’s Chinese Cinderella (1999), attached
below.Note: The excerpts total about 50 pages, but the book is written for a young audience,
so the language is straightforward, and it should be a quick read.Consider the following
questions to help you read carefully and critically:The book is titled Chinese Cinderella: The
True Story of an Unwanted Daughter. Is it a contradiction to claim that the main character is
Cinderella, but it is also a true story? Does the fairy tale frame make you doubt the truth of
the story? Or do you think the Cinderella story actually reflects reality and has an element of
truth about it? Linda Holmes also described the tendency for American culture to refer to
real-life situations as “Cinderella stories”; do you think these comparisons are
appropriate? How does the character of Niang compare to the other versions of the “evil
stepmother we have encountered in the different stories we have read thus far? Does she
seem to share the same motivations for her attitude and treatment of the heroine? What
about the family’s motivations? Why do they all accept Niang’s attitude and treatment —
what is the source of her power? (Hint: Think about what we’ve learned re: the historical
background of the story.”How does the story establish Adeline as a Cinderella figure? How
do her treatment and her experiences parallel those of other Cinderellas? What qualities
does she represent — do they match up to other versions of Cinderella?Not only does
Adeline Yen Mah frame her memoir by labeling it a Cinderella story, young Adeline also
identifies with other fictional characters she encounters in literature (Sarah Crewe and King
Lear). Why do you think Adeline seems to want to understand her own life through the
framework of these fictional lives? What does she get out of viewing herself as an
incarnation of the fictional character?How does Aunt Baba’s folktale Cinderella (the story of
Ye Xian) compare with the other versions we have read? Does it share the same lesson or
moral????? Write a paragraph (100-300 words) responding to one or more of the questions
above. As always, be sure to support your points by referencing specific details from the
story.