The other night as I was leaving the theater with my friend we were discussing the suffering of women in the 1970's. In a pale effort to cheer ourselves up I remarked, "Well, at least there is no foot binding anymore." My friend remarked that she had just finished reading Lisa See's book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. "Shut up!" I said to her, "I am almost done with the very same book right now!" How odd we both read the same book. She read it because she is going to join her mother in a book club reading next week and this is the book of the month for that group. The story is about two women who live in China. Both Snow Flower and Lily were born in 1824. Both of them had their feet bound on the same day. The agony of having your feet destroyed by your own mother is hard to read. The word filial comes up often in the book. Parents make decisions and the children are expected to obey and be quiet about it. Nevertheless, woman like Lily and Snow Flower find ways to cope with the hard life they live. I enjoyed this book very much and I am ever so glad the crazy tradition of foot binding is a thing of the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment