Did you learn anything new about China’s culture or history from the novel? What surprised you?
I was reminded about the Chinese tradition of belittling women and how much cruelty there was during the Communist Revolution.
Germans in China? Here is a whole new train of exploration that I Never did know.
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I knew how the daughters were treated and the sons were so important for carrying on the family name. I did not know about the history of the civil war, and the rich escaping to survive.
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I knew next to nothing about Chinese history, at least not in any detail. What was etched in my mind forever was the effect on ordinary people, just trying to make a living, of Mao’s army sweeping like some giant destructive tornado through the land. And that “landowners” were searched out, brutally killed, and their lands taken away from them. Power to Mao.
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I wasn’t aware of needing travel authorization to flee . How frightening!
How undervalued women were yet they were the ones who endured starvation, cruelty, starvation, and then forgave the father when they reunited. It was as if the father was totally absolved from his responsibilities just because they were women. How did the women let it go? Is that a cultural acceptance. Seem so harsh to me.
I had trouble accepting that too. I finally decided that something within the Father himself changed when he heard Hai’s heart-wrenching description of what she had endured–public beatings, humiliation-- after being designated the Heir of the father’s estate in his absence.
Maybe some guilt because of abandoning her to that? Maybe he “repented” (=turned around) after that, because he did remove his family from his mother’s domaine.
I knew that it was difficult to trust anyone, yet the family met kind and helpful people along their journey. I suspect there were many such “hidden” acts of kindness through this horrific ordeal and government takeover.
I was shocked that Hong Kong went from 600,000 in 1945 to 2 million in 1950! That is an unbelievable increase of population. Whenever there is such a rapid growth, the structure of the place cannot support all the people.
Alos, learning about Citizen Village was surprising.
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What am I missing? Did China not know that it is the father who determines the sex of the child. This makes the devaluation of women many times more painful. Other than this misguided belief about the role of the mother all the other historical information was new to me. And am glad to be better informed now.
I’ve read other books on the Chinese culture, but this gave more information on the Communist Revolution. Also learning about Rennie’s Mill.
In the 80’s I followed the implementation of the Communist Party’s “one-child Policy”. The fixation of couples to give birth to a male heir had long ranging consequences, resulting in abortions of female fetuses as well as female infanticide. So it was no surprise that Hai’s mom was berated for giving birth to so many girls. (As if she alone chose the sex). But despite being diminished by her husband’s family, she demonstrated great courage and ingenuity in guiding her girls and surviving the hardships inflected by the communist party during the long trek from her village to Taiwan.
Though I was not that familiar with the history of China during this time period the novel did reaffirm my knowledge how women were treated–that is with great expectations but little respect and they had to rely on other women. Their father looked to their sons with happiness and hope.
I knew they had strong belief in their cultural values, I just didn’t realize how antiquated they are, I didn’t learn about all the different wives the husbands were entitled to and expected to hold, that they enslaved their own people. I knew about the foot binding but to learn more about it was intriguing.
It’s my understanding that foot binding was about controlling the girls/women who would become future wives.
I learned so much about China’s culture and history from this book. I knew that women were put down in the Chinese culture, but I had not fully realized the extent of the cruelty.
I learned so much about an enormous amount about the culture of China and I knew women were not favorably treated but I did not know that is was that extensive. I also, was surprised at the role reversal of who took take of the children.
This story was also a history lesson for me. I recall hearing the names of Mao and Chiang Kai Shek but did not realize their significance or role in history. I think I have more in sight into why China want to seize Taiwan for itself now…
Oh, yes. Things I had not known before.