A review by shonaningyo
Bound by Donna Jo Napoli
4.0
This was a great revisit to the classic Cinderella story. It has the poorly mistreated Cinderella as Xing Xing, the stepmother and the spoiled stepdaughter, but what I really enjoyed about this story was that while the stepmother and her daughter were awful to Xing Xing, there were moments where they were actually civil and nice to Xing Xing. The stepmother was selfish but in reality she had her own reasons for acting that way (hint: Girls are considered shit in this society and therefore need to be wed off to a rich man because that's how you bring honor and respect to the family).
The stepsister was initially a bit of a brat but being expected to endure foot binding at the age of, I don't know, 12 or 13 when the expected age was 6 [b]and[/b] land a husband with what that society perceived as big feet AND be forced to lay around all day in a cave with nothing to do and cope with the fact that , yeah, I'd be a bit of a snot to your well-meaning stepsister (Xing Xing in this case) too.
This book gives a delightful narrative of the mindset of this patriarchal society (I hate using that word because of how overused and nasty it's become when used by feminists but bear with me) that values boys over girls and forces the latter to go through painful and humiliating hoops in order to appear desirable to prospective men. It's a quick read and I think a good casual introduction to historical Chinese culture.
The stepsister was initially a bit of a brat but being expected to endure foot binding at the age of, I don't know, 12 or 13 when the expected age was 6 [b]and[/b] land a husband with what that society perceived as big feet AND be forced to lay around all day in a cave with nothing to do and cope with the fact that
Spoiler
a raccoon bit off your toes and your mother decided to chop off the partner toes of the other foot to matchThis book gives a delightful narrative of the mindset of this patriarchal society (I hate using that word because of how overused and nasty it's become when used by feminists but bear with me) that values boys over girls and forces the latter to go through painful and humiliating hoops in order to appear desirable to prospective men. It's a quick read and I think a good casual introduction to historical Chinese culture.