Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
10 July 2007, 1:05 am. View comments. Filed under Literature, Rants.
I feel like I'm hosting a book blog at the moment, continuously blogging about books I just finished reading. Well, it's just in the holidays and during this holiday I decided to get back into reading English novels because it gives me more thought into different issues rather than the "lovey-dovey" Chinese online romance novels I was obsessed with over the past five years or so.
Anyhow, I finished reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See last night at 2 am. It was a great book. I cried at certain points and throughout the entire final chapter. Call me a water-tap if you wish but it was that touching. However, the details of foot-binding made me cringe as I placed myself as the character in the story.
This past tradition of foot-binding disgusts me. According to the novel and what I heard before, girls of families of reasonable social status bound their feet when they were around six or seven. The aim was to have a set size of no longer than the length of a thumb (7 cm) and this was how feminine beauty was judged by in the past China. Toes were bound to the heel and they balanced and walked on just their two big toes. All the bones were meant to be broken eventually and through this process one in ten girls died. Since the flesh was bound together for the rest of their lives, it stank. To overcome that, they used artificial scents, of course.
Now to me, that's something seriously wrong with the men. They got turned on by terribly mutated 7 cm feet because well... Women swayed "beautifully" on their "lily feet" and with such feet it was impossible for them to run fast or run away from their husbands' homes.
In terms of gender inequalities, I know it exists throughout the world and to a greater extent in the past times. But to look at it from a more modern point of view, this masculine superiority idea that most Chinese men (being a "zodiacist", I say Sagittarius in particular) still holds is crazy. Foot-binding is an example, but that's outdated. There's this thing about how the guys may or may not have sex before marriage but, they would expect their future wife to be a virgin. 
Along with that, how pale white skin normally connotates physical weakness and obviously, that's one part to the definition of Asian feminine beauty. I don't think I'm ugly, but I get annoyed when the Asian guys back in high school used to refer to me (mockingly) as "black girl" just because I'm darker than most other Chinese girls. (It didn't kill my self-esteem so much though because they weren't the best looking males either. 
) But seriously, they need to grow up. Move along with the global trend towards gender equality and with that... Tanned girls are not ugly! 
13 Comments »
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I haven't read the book, which is going on my list of things to read right now, but I've never liked the idea of foot-binding. It inhibits movement and will hurt the girl's ability to be a dutiful wife, if that thought will appeal to them. Growing up in the US among whites with very few Chinese except for my family makes me feel disgusted that our grand culture ever did such things.
I'm tanned, but not tanned for the moment. And here, guys are more likely to fall for girls with tans. But personally, I think that Asians look better without them because their facial features are less defined. If you ever do come up here like you plan to, you'll find out that guys tend to respect the women they're around, at least the ones I work and go to school with do. -
Foot-binding sounds terrible. Won't it make the feet deformed? And how is deformation beautiful?
I actually know a lot of Chinese people that have darker skin. Not all Asians have pale skin -____-
The book sounds interesting. Maybe I'll pick it up one day. -
You know I am American but I have read a lot of Chinese traditions and the worse one I have found is the foot binding. As for the darker skin tone, what do men think is going to happen? Women spend more time in the sun then they use to. Women used to shade their skin and stay home all the time. But times have changed. If they can not accept that then do you really want anything to do with them? I am not necessarily meaning you, Rilla. I am just putting it out there for all of the paler complexion people.
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It's strange how Asian people [or, at least some of the Chinese people I've met] seem to have this obsession with becoming whiter. We had this little dance performance/recital thing back when I was a supervisor at camp, and these tiny little 6-8 year old girls were having make up almost *poured* onto their faces until they were so white... and they weren't even cute anymore. :/
I've read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan... It's a pretty amazing book. -
I studied foot binding in World History last semester. The subject makes me gag every time I hear about it. I guess the Chinese ladies really like small feet, and it is an honor to have small feet - so those that didn't have them had to... make them, lol. Not a laugh out loud though, because when they take the binding off, it would hurt too much, so they'd have to keep the binding on for the rest of their lives.
I hope you liked the novel though. -
And along came the Communists in 1950s and they did away with all those outdated practises. Followed by a decade of chaotic revolution... I had to study the rise of modern China for GCSE though most people in Hong Kong know about it anyway.
I'm damn tanned. I hate being tanned, you look bad in black clothes. -
I know how you feel about foot binding. My grandmother's feet were bound as well and they were so tiny. I used to cry when I saw her feet, since I pitied her so. I still remember the smell that came with it too.
I'm so freaking tanned and now I don't even look Chinese
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@Chien Yee: It's not exactly a bad thing to look unlike a Chinese. And that's what I've been complaining about: Chinese girls being defined as pale white-skinned.
I guess it's my darker skin and facial features that explain the numerous queries I received asking if I was Filipino/Malaysian/Thai/Cambodian/etc.
Ah. And to boost my self-confidence a little, look at this year's Miss Universe beauty pageant. The make-up on most of the girls including Asians were deliberately tanned.
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I really liked that book
The sequel, Peony in Love, just came out. Haven't gotten to it yet but I hope it is just as good. -
Ew, sounds like a terrible book and an even more terrible tradition. It's really ridiculous what some people did and do for beauty... I'm glad most of the more cruel stuff is not being done anymore...
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I have not read that book but yes I have known about foot binding for a long time, and it disgusts me so MUCH. I mean, it hurts BEYOND hell, and the parents dont even CARE, and they think it's for the greater good or whatever. It is GROSS and STUPID and PAINFUL and WRONG. Thankfully, a lot of people have abandoned that tradition. And thank god I wasnt born THERE and THEN. THat would be so horrible.
And as for the words on my last entry shaking up and down, I dont know how that happened. I dont see it shaking, but I THINK it has something to do with the fact that between my songs [since I got tagged, and I listed ten songs] theres this slash that divides them, and I linked those slashes so they turn pink and not colorless and dull. Lol sorry about it. I'm not sure but that's what I think causes the shaking, cause sometimes on my browser when I hover over a link it moves or whatever. Lol sorry about it =]
And good luck with revamping, btw, I'm looking forward to more content -
Testing.
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Oh, I remember that book. Foot-binding is terrible >< I actually cried during that book too, so you aren't alone. They called you black girl just because your skin is tanned? OMG!
My skin is tanned too! Tanned girls aren't ugly!
Those guys ... so immature