At a time

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A tale of two young girls as they grow into young women in 1800s China. A time when the best chances for women to succeed in life were to marry well, hopefully into a noble family of high standing. The chances of that were amplified if your feet were bound- a sign of a girl being from a good family (ladies didn’t have to work) and a beauty standard. These tiny feet were known as golden lilies, that would fit into pretty “lotus shoes”.

Little Flower, has had her feet bound from a young age as her mother was preparing her for future prospects of a good marriage. Due to hard times, her mother is forced to sell Little Flower to a family where she becomes the muizai, an indentured servant to the LinJing, the young daughter of the first wife of a noble family. The promise is that she will be freed once they find a suitable marriage for Little Flower when she comes of age. Little Flower is a slave girl to LinJing, to be at her beck and call. She is a sweet girl who LinJing’s mother takes an automatic liking to.

What follows is a story of hardship and tragedy, envy and jealousy as the two girls grow up together. Are they close? They share a bond due to their lot in life as women in a man’s world, dealing with class and family obligations and expectations, and centuries old traditions. I had no idea of the absolute brutality of the system of servitude and what women had to do (and had to do to each other!) to survive. The relationship between LinJing and Little Flower is forced upon them, and each have their own struggles that force them to choose between themselves and each other. Is a friendship or a close relationship even possible? All of this while the modern world and views of the West are fast approaching, and women in general are forging more independence. Foot binding as a practice is becoming a signal of the old world.

I absolutely loved this book. I am Canadian born Chinese. My mother has told me of her own muizai (a girl of her age who was her personal servant) that she had when she was a young girl, before the Japanese attacked China in the 1940s. This girl had to do everything at my mother’s bidding. My grandmother freed all of their indentured servants during that war. My grandfather had several wives. My mom came from a well to do family, but she grew into a very modern career woman despite growing up with all brothers in a man’s world. This book made me appreciate even more how hard she had to fight for everything she has accomplished based on her start in China/Hong Kong.

The story, the beautiful descriptions with amazing sensory detail and emotional pull of the characters, the historical detail … it all had me hooked from the very first page. Highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Canada for an advanced copy for review.




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