Snow Flower and The Secret Fan
Snow Flower and The Secret Fan is a novel set in the nineteenth century in China , written in 2005 by Lisa Sea. Lisa’s webpage:
http://www.lisasee.com/snowflowerreviews.htm
It is the story of Lily, an 80 year old telling the story of her life during all stages. She tells how girls and women of her society were forced to the tradition of “foot binding” in order to achieve “golden lilies”, dumpling-sized feet considered highly desirable and highly erotic, even though most of them died during the process, let along difficulties of movement and agony .
I vividly remember reading her description of how the bones would of the foot would break during the process and how painful it is.
Lily was matched in a “laotong” relationship with Snow Flower, which Chinese families then believed was as important as a good marriage. The pair write on a secret fan in Nu Shu, a 1,000-year-old language thought to be the only one ever invented and sustained for the exclusive use of women.
The novel was later filmed in 2011. What makes it inspiring is that around 49.6 percent of the world's population, which are females, can directly relate to it, let alone a number of males too.
I relate to this story because I live in a male dominant society that, to this day, forces useless and unfair traditions upon women. I heard the TV show host "Opra" talk about how great this book is and how she included it in her list. I have grown into a much stronger, more accomplished woman since then.
Feminism. Culture . China. Women . Men. Male-domination. Traditions. Friendship. Language. Secret. Foot-binding. Empowerment.
