Today's review will be about:
THE SUMMARY
YOUNG XING XING IS BOUND.
Bound to her late father's second wife and daughter. Bound to a life of servitude as a young girl in ancient China, where a woman is valued less than livestock. Bound to be alone, with no parents to arrange for a suitable husband. Xing Xing spends her days taking care of her half sister, Wei Ping, who cannot walk because of her foot bindings, the painful tradition for girls who are fit to be married. Even so, Xing Xing is content to practice her gift for poetry and calligraphy, and to dream of a life unbound by the laws of family and society.But all of this is about to change as Stepmother, who has spent nearly all of the family's money, grows desperate to find a husband for Wei Ping. Xing Xing soon realizes that this greed and desperation may threaten not only her memories of the past, but also her dreams of the future.
MY REVIEW
I found this book years ago while I was doing a little bit of book shopping. I was looking though all of the shiny new books when I found this one, and started reading a little bit to decide whether or not I was going to buy it. Before I knew it I was a couple of chapters in and loving the world that the book brought me to. I think that part of me was enchanted by the fact that it was about a part of the world that I don't know much about, and therefore was a door into something that I might find interesting, and another part of me was interested in the subject of foot binding, something that I had never even heard about.
It was only after I had finished the book for the first time years ago that I realized that it was a re-telling of one of the most popular fairy tales around; Cinderella. All of the clues slipped past my notice; the absence of her father and mother, the presence of a mean stepmother who made her do all of the daily chores, etc. That being said, with or without your notice of what it is, this book is wonderful and well worth your time.
Xing Xing (pronounced Shing Shing) is a wonderful heroine who shows you the inside story of a woman in her time, and the spiritual responsibilities of someone like her. She's just like how you would expect a Cinderella to be; willing to follow orders, gentle, with some animal friends. Through all of her daily troubles she tries to be humble and keep a very close connection with her parent's spirits, which was a little twist in the normal Cinderella character that we see. She even goes out of her way to help keep her stepsister Wei Ping entertained who is stuck in the house until she learns to properly walk with her bound feet, a fact that Xing Xing could not be jealous over.
While Xing Xing's stepmother's name is never mentioned in the book, her character is as interesting as the main character's. She reminds me a bit of Hatsumomo (from Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden) in the way that she does anything that she can to get what she wants; a husband for Wei Ping, and therefore more money for her materialistic lifestyle. She doesn't treat Xing Xing too terribly, but she does make her do all of the chores and chastises her for taking too long doing something. If Xing Xing is doing something for Wei Ping that she wasn't ordered to do, she seems to get more approval from her stepmother, but only until she does something wrong.
Wei Ping herself doesn't do much in the story due to her bound feet, but at one part she does become a pretty good friend to Xing Xing, and even shares in the love of Xing Xing's animal friends, who do a lot more. One of them, a koi with red fins and golden eyes, appears throughout the book as a source of Xing Xing's comfort. She makes better friends with the fish, and even feeds it, hoping that the legend where a fish once turned into a dragon would happen to her fishy companion. At one point, she even moves the fish inside as entertainment for Wei Ping.
All in all, if you're looking for a book isn't too long (only 184 pages, folks!), that gives you a new way to look at the Cinderella story, and a heroine that you can cheer for, then look no further!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donna Jo Napoli is the acclaimed and award-winning author of many novels - both fantasies and contemporary stories. She won the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water in 1997. Her novel Zel was named an American Bookseller Association Pick of the List, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a BCCB Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book, and a number of her other novels have been selected as ALA Best Books. She is head of the linguistics department at Swathmore College in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and their children.
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| The above picture is of a woman with normally sized feet (left) next to the "trendy" bound feet (right).For those of you who don't know, foot binding is the tradition where women's feet were bound between the ages of four and six. This binding would make the feet smaller, preventing the foot's growth. The bindings would bend the girls' toes underneath her sole, and would wrap around their feet to their ankles. The purpose behind this would be to keep breaking the bones in the foot whenever it got too big, and would be finished in two or three years, after which the feet would be kept in bindings to retain the hoof-like shape. As the legend goes, it first became popular in the tenth century after a dancer had her feet bound like this and danced in front of the emperor on a stage shaped like a lotus flower. The size of the bound foot even gave it different labels. A three-inch foot (or a "Golden Lotus") was the most desirable for a bride, a four-inch foot (or a "Silver Lotus") was okay too, but having a foot that was five inches or longer (or a "Iron Lotus") was undesirable and hard to find a husband with. Foot binding was made unpopular in 1923. This trend of finding smaller feet more attractive is not that different from the trend towards small waists in Victorian England. |
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| This is a picture of a "lotus shoe", one that women with bound feet would wear from the 1930s, balanced on top of a normally sized foot. |
Xing Xing (pronounced Shing Shing) is a wonderful heroine who shows you the inside story of a woman in her time, and the spiritual responsibilities of someone like her. She's just like how you would expect a Cinderella to be; willing to follow orders, gentle, with some animal friends. Through all of her daily troubles she tries to be humble and keep a very close connection with her parent's spirits, which was a little twist in the normal Cinderella character that we see. She even goes out of her way to help keep her stepsister Wei Ping entertained who is stuck in the house until she learns to properly walk with her bound feet, a fact that Xing Xing could not be jealous over.
While Xing Xing's stepmother's name is never mentioned in the book, her character is as interesting as the main character's. She reminds me a bit of Hatsumomo (from Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden) in the way that she does anything that she can to get what she wants; a husband for Wei Ping, and therefore more money for her materialistic lifestyle. She doesn't treat Xing Xing too terribly, but she does make her do all of the chores and chastises her for taking too long doing something. If Xing Xing is doing something for Wei Ping that she wasn't ordered to do, she seems to get more approval from her stepmother, but only until she does something wrong.
Wei Ping herself doesn't do much in the story due to her bound feet, but at one part she does become a pretty good friend to Xing Xing, and even shares in the love of Xing Xing's animal friends, who do a lot more. One of them, a koi with red fins and golden eyes, appears throughout the book as a source of Xing Xing's comfort. She makes better friends with the fish, and even feeds it, hoping that the legend where a fish once turned into a dragon would happen to her fishy companion. At one point, she even moves the fish inside as entertainment for Wei Ping.
All in all, if you're looking for a book isn't too long (only 184 pages, folks!), that gives you a new way to look at the Cinderella story, and a heroine that you can cheer for, then look no further!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A LITTLE EXCERPT
"Xing Xing squatted by the water, silent and unmoving. Her stillness was a prayer.
It was answered: The sun glinted red. Only an instant and it was over, but there could be no doubt; her eyes had not played tricks: A white fish with red fins and golden eyes zipped past and under a lotus leaf. She laughed in delight.
"Lazy One, bring the firewood," came the distant call.
In the past year, "Lazy One" had practically become Xing Xing's household name. She imagined her father's wife holding one hand above her eyes against the sun that was too bright today, it had already burned off the morning fog. She imagined her frowning in impatience, then ducking back into the shadows of the cave. The girl picked up the armful of wood she'd gathered and rushed back along the path. Her hair was tied in two hanging knots that thumped on her shoulders as she ran. Hurry, they drummed, hurry hurry. The cold dirt licked at her feet. Hurry hurry.
But she was wrong. Stepmother had not gone inside. The woman shivered in the chill of spring, arms crossed over her chest. "Get inside, Lazy One." She yanked one of Xing Xing's hair knots as the girl raced past through the open door."
It was answered: The sun glinted red. Only an instant and it was over, but there could be no doubt; her eyes had not played tricks: A white fish with red fins and golden eyes zipped past and under a lotus leaf. She laughed in delight.
"Lazy One, bring the firewood," came the distant call.
In the past year, "Lazy One" had practically become Xing Xing's household name. She imagined her father's wife holding one hand above her eyes against the sun that was too bright today, it had already burned off the morning fog. She imagined her frowning in impatience, then ducking back into the shadows of the cave. The girl picked up the armful of wood she'd gathered and rushed back along the path. Her hair was tied in two hanging knots that thumped on her shoulders as she ran. Hurry, they drummed, hurry hurry. The cold dirt licked at her feet. Hurry hurry.
But she was wrong. Stepmother had not gone inside. The woman shivered in the chill of spring, arms crossed over her chest. "Get inside, Lazy One." She yanked one of Xing Xing's hair knots as the girl raced past through the open door."
pages 1-2
Well, that's all for now!
See you next time!
~Sea-Solo
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