In these 41 pages of Chinese Cinderella, Adeline is flown from Shanghai, China, back to Tianjin, where she would attend a boarding school, the same school she attended in kindergarten. During this, Communists, who dislike believers of God, are engaged in war. This is the reason that girls in the boarding school are leaving Tianjin to Hong Kong or Shanghai. In December, Adeline is the only pupil left, until her Aunt Reine came to her rescue to bring her to Hong Kong to reunite with her family and malevolent step mother Niang. As she was reunited, no one really cared for her return but for her Aunt Reine and her family of Victor and Claudine, a French family. During her return, the entire family, hers and her aunts, went out for site-seeing, though she was never invited, and when she was, Niang says that its too full in the car. Later on, Adeline attends a new school and is again, not visited by any of her family.
Quote
"Theirs was the gaze that glances but does not see." (Yen Mah 148)
"Father was at the office, and Little Sister was attending a birthday party." (Yen Mah 157)
Reaction
As I read throughout this novel, I feel like i am losing hope that Adeline will not have a happy ending because, one after another, she lives a dismal life when she is basically with her real family. From page 148 in Chinese Cinderella, when Adeline is finally united with her family, Niang AND her father do not look at her. Even when Aunt Reine includes Adeline in, when telling about how they brought their daughter with them to Hong Kong, neither Niang nor the father look at Adeline. I find this really depressing. In the quote on page 157, where Little Sister is attending a birthday party and Adeline is home, it reminded me of how Adeline attended a birthday party of friends, earlier in the novel. I think that it's obvious that Niang is bias, favoring her own flesh and blood more that her step children.
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