Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter P.162-205

Summary

Although Adeline wasn't the only student at her new school, the Sacred Heart School and Orphanage wasn't a great time nor experience for Adeline, socially. She's doing tremendous, academically. As a matter of fact, she was the top student in her class and she skipped a few grades at such a young age. But she despised Sundays, which are visiting days at her school. Adeline seems always hide herself in the library with tons of books or in the restroom on Sundays because no one ever visits her. Just when the term ended, Adeline got the privilege to come back home for a visit. During that visit, Adeline expressed a tad bit about how she's feeling down, worried, stressed, despised, and just scared. But Ye Ye talked some sense in her, by giving her, his support and encouragement. When she returned to school, there was a playwriting competition going on. So she decided to enter and dedicated her play to Ye Ye. Not that long after, Adeline was told that Ye Ye has died. During his funeral, Niang told Adeline that there's a possibility that Adeline is not going to attend school anymore. Adeline was deeply affected by the death of Ye Ye and Niang's horrify news, but it all changed one day when her Father wanted to see her immediately. It turns out that Adeline had won the International Play-writing Competition! Because of her win, she made her Father proud of her, and so she convinced him to let her go abroad to England for college. Lastly, Adeline finally received a letter from her Aunt Baba. Aunt Baba just wrote what Ye Ye told Adeline. Aunt Baba wanted Adeline to know that she loves, care, and cherish Adeline oh so very much. Also, for her to keep persevering and try not to feel discouraged. 

Quote

"I have faith in you." (Mah 181).

*The quote above was said by Adeline' grandfather, Ye Ye.

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     From this quote, Ye Ye must've been a very important person in Adeline's life, besides Aunt Baba. This was the scene where Adeline told her grandfather and her Third Brother how she felt despised, unwanted, afraid, and whether excelling in school is a good thing or not. After Ye Ye heard what Adeline had just said, he immediately tried to comfort her by telling her that everything is possible and that he has faith in her. He also told her to always try her hardest in everything and that'll make him extremely proud. Because of Ye Ye's words, Adeline had a little confident boost and she entered a playwright competition. She even dedicated her entire play to her beloved grandfather, Ye Ye.

Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter P.123-161

Summary

After Adeline said goodbye to her aunt, off to Tianjin, she goes. Adeline was going to attend St. Joseph, a school that Niang went to before. St. Joseph was a whole lot different than Adeline's previous school. For example, classes were divided, according on how well your ability to speak English are. After November 1948, Nancy Chen and Mother Natalie left Tianjin, more and more girls would stop attending school each and everyday. In December, Adeline was the only student left at St. Joseph. All of a sudden, Mother Marie yelled for Adeline and told her that her aunt was going to Hong Kong and wanted to take her along. She was extremely excited to see Aunt Baba, but it wasn't Aunt Baba, it was Niang's older sister, Aunt Reine. Niang doesn't know that Adeline is coming back and Adeline's afraid of Niang's reaction when she returns. She wanted to go to Shanghai with her Aunt Baba, but Aunt Reine didn't let her. Adeline really enjoyed her stay with the Schilling family because they actually treat her with respect and fairness. It felted like she was a part of their family. When Adeline got home, everyone ran to greet Aunt Reine, her husband, and her kids. For the whole week that the Schillings stayed over, Niang went out with them everyday. But she never bother to invite Adeline to come along. Victor noticed that Niang was being unfair to Adeline so he decided to miss out on the trip to stay home and accompany Adeline. After the Schillings left, Adeline was soon sent to another boarding school in Hong Kong. She first thought that she was in danger and her parents didn't want her anymore because the name of the school was Sacred Heart School and Orphanage. But then, after Niang had a talk with these two nuns, Adeline was relieved because it was the middle of the school year and she got accepted as a boarder!

Quote

"Then she said, "What have you done that your parents should wish to punish you like this!" (Mah 129).

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I got very angry when I read this quote that a nun had told Adeline. I'm angry for Adeline because in my opinion, Adeline haven't done a thing that's wrong, rude, nor disrespectful. By sending her to Tianjin at this point of time was really messed up. They don't even care about Adeline's safety nor feelings, they probably just wanted to punish her for the fun of it. I just despise how wrong and unfair, her family treats her. I believe in karma, which is what comes around, goes around. But for Adeline's whole childhood, this is the complete opposite of karma, and that's what made me so angry when I read this part. Why does Adeline has to be treated like this, when she didn't do anything wrong? It's just immoral.

Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter P.85-122

Summary

Father and Niang still continued to travel back and forth to Tianjin due to their businesses. They even took Big Sister along with them at times. Niang brought Big Sister to Tianjin because she wanted her to meet Samuel Sung, the guy that Niang wants Big Sister to marry, and Big Sister agreed. Before the wedding, Aunt Baba personally gave Big Sister a jade pendant and Big Sister pleaded Aunt Baba not to mention a word about the pendant to Niang. Everyone beside them wore formal Western suits and gowns, except for Adeline, and her three brothers. When the banquet was almost ending, Adeline went to the bathroom and accidently overheard Grand Aunt and Niang talking to each other. Grand Aunt was comparing Niang's jade ring to the jade pendant that she had asked Aunt Baba to give it to Big Sister as her wedding present. Later, Big Sister and Niang decided to talk privately about something. It wasn't until the next morning, when Adeline found out what Big Sister and Niang was really talking about. It turns out that Big Sister lied to Niang, saying that it was all Aunt Baba's fault because she told Big Sister to keep all of this a secret and never reveal it to Niang. After Big Sister lied to Niang, she just left on her honeymoon with her newly husband. Not long after her Big Sister's wedding, Adeline was invited to Wu Chun-mei's (Her classmate) birthday party. That was one time that Adeline felt like she was a normal little girl just going to one of her friend's birthday party. She was having lots of fun, until she realized that she just broken one of Niang's rules and she was terrified of the consequences so she ran straight home. Wu Chun-mei and her classmates couldn't wait any longer for Adeline to return, so she called her house and Niang picked up. After the phone call ended, Niang called Adeline a manipulative liar and thief and said that girls like Adeline doesn't deserve to stay in her house, and that they needed to be sent somewhere else. When Father got home from work, he went into Adeline's room and whipped her, and forced her to tell the truth. After he finished whipping her, he told her that Aunt Baba was a bad influence on her, so they must be separated. The next day, Adeline went to school as if she was perfectly fine. She also found out that her class was having an election for class president and she won! Her classmates choose Adeline to be their class president and they wanted to surprise her by visiting her at her house. Niang didn't approved of it whatsoever so she started loudly lecturing and slapped Adeline so hard that her classmates could've heard it all. She had no other choice but to drag her little feet down the stairs and told all of her classmates to go home. After all of her classmates left, Father and Niang decided to send Adeline to a boarding school in Tianjin.

Quote

""I'm afraid you two will have to be separated." I looked up at him in utter desolation. The fabric of my life was about to be torn apart." (Mah 104).

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This shows how close Adeline's relationship with Aunt Baba was. Mah used a powerful personification when she said that the fabric of her life was tearing up. I could actually feel the pain that she felt at that moment, because I, too had to be separated from someone I passionately loved and cared about. This quote also screams out many sorrow emotions, like afraid, loneliness, and heartbroken. After she gets separated with her Aunt Baba, I think that was when Adeline began to grow out of her childhood and became a tad more independent. Since she was being sent to a boarding school in Tianjin, Aunt Baba can't be by her side anymore. Although, this was a horrid moment in the story, I believe that this was a teaching for Adeline. This whole situation caused her and her Aunt Baba to be separated, but it'll make Adeline much stronger than before.

Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter P.42-P.84

Summary

Chinese New Year finally came and everyone was excited to celebrate a new year and also a new beginning for the whole family. However, the five stepchildren of the Father's side were highly disappointed after they received their new clothes. They all noticed the inequality between them and Niang's children, which is Fourth Brother and Little Sister. Fourth Brother and Little Sister were given stylish Western and fashionable clothing, while the rest received Chinese traditional gowns. Then, the five of them decided to go into a room and discussed everything about how Niang treats them differently compared to their Fourth Brother and Little Sister. They had numerous of examples showing that Niang does indeed show favoritism towards Fourth Brother and Little Sister. For example, all of the three brothers (from the Father's side) had to shave their head, while the Fourth Brother had the most stylist hair cut out of all of the brothers. All five of the stepchildren was planning to write anonymous letters to their Father, explaining all of their problems and complaints. Then, Third Brother found out that Niang was outside of the door room, with her ears glued onto the door. They weren't positive that she had overheard everything, but just to make sure they burned all of the letters and promised each other not to talk about what happened in the room. During dinner, Niang didn't mentioned anything about what she may or may not have heard us talk about in that room. But she did invite Big Sister (which is the other four stepchildren's' so called "leader") to the second floor, where Niang, her Father, Fourth Brother, and Little Sister stayed. After that night, Big Sister had officially changed. She did everything she can to gain Niang's special favors. Big Sister was allowed outgoings with friends, received money, gifts and so much more. Adeline decided that her family situations was way too overwhelming for her to handle at the moment, so she just tried to study really hard and get outstanding grades on her report cards. School is the only way for Adeline to forget all the pain and sadness, that's inside of her. She was nicknamed Genius by her friends at school, because she did tremendously well in her academic grades and also because of her writings and short stories. She actually began writing by accident, but from the point on, Adeline loved to write and read. To her, writing was the only way, she could escape every terrible things that she had to go through every single day. The spring of 1946 came and Adeline's Father decided to take Niang, Big Sister, Fourth Brother, and Little Sister north (Tianjin) for three months. Meanwhile at home, many things had changed even more. Her two oldest brothers started becoming "rebels", by staying out late to be with their friends, whistle at pretty girls, raided the refrigerator and ate whatever they wanted. But everything seemed to return back to it's normal ways not long after Father and Niang returned from Tianjin and also Mr. and Mrs. Huang came for a visit. They were nice enough to gave us seven baby ducklings, for each and every children. But Adeline was the last one to pick and there was only one duckling left, so she had no other choice but to take it. She named her new pet, PLT (Precious Little Treasure). As time went on, Adeline grew a strong connection towards PLT. She considered PLT as her best friend because PLT was always there for her whenever she needed someone to talk to. Unfortunately, PLT died because Jake (family's dog) attacked PLT at the end of chapter 11.

Quote

"By the time my turn arrived, I was left with the tiniest, scrawniest baby bird." (Mah 73).

Reaction

This quote is pure genius. Adeline's extraordinary way of words to describe a small bird is an indirect metaphor to her life. Her other siblings that teased her and made her life miserable, took all of the healthy and beautiful ducklings, leaving Adeline the "tiniest, scrawniest baby bird" which is a comparison to how her siblings sees her. When it was Adeline's turn to choose her duckling, there was only one left because all of her siblings took the healthy and better looking ones. They just left her with the one, single duckling that nobody wanted. Adeline was that one, single duckling that nobody wanted. I believe that is why Adeline loved PLT so much, it's because she sees herself in PLT. Also, she wanted to love and care for PLT, just like how she wishes someone can do the same for her one day.