The eldest daughter of Ye Ye and Nai Nai, Aunt Baba is described as "meek, shy and unmarried," wholly dependent on her younger brother--Adeline's father--financially. Tasked with taking care of Adeline, the two develop a close bond due to their position as the unwanted and powerless members of the family. Aunt Baba provides encouragement for Adeline to pursue her dreams, a decision that causes her to lose favor in the eyes of Niang. What I'm saying is if many Chinese people around Yen Mah's age knew English wel,l there would certainly be hundreds of books like this. Myabe even crueler. They would all be able to have the attention and sympathy which they longed for, just like Yen Mah. (and make lots of money...) Within this quote, there is usage of descriptive adjectives. However, most significantly is the use of different sentence types to create the emotion. Dredge, Stuart (21 January 2013). "30 best iPhone and iPad apps this week". The Guardian. iPad app PinYinPal looks a lot like Words With Friends (well, Scrabble, obviously) but it's actually got even more educational ambitions. It's actually an app for learning Chinese through play, as you use letters of the alphabet to spell traditional Mandarin characters. A clever idea that looks good for anyone learning Chinese.

Anyway, moving on that rant. I, for the most part, while I didn’t love it, I still managed to find it interesting and there were some fairly interesting moments. I would note that I do think some parts of the story could probably have been told better instead of being glossed over, especially as they clearly were important for Adeline. Her writing style is ok, I suppose would be the best way to put it. It’s not bad, but I didn’t find it to be amazing. The next morning, the king goes into Ye Xian's house and asks her to come with him into his kingdom. Ye Xian then wears both her shoes, and appears in her beautiful sea-green gown. The stepmother and Jun-Li, however, insist that Ye Xian could not have clothes of that kind, for she is only their slave. The stepmother says that the finery is Jun-Li's, and that Ye Xian stole them. The king dismisses her lies, and invites Ye Xian to marry him and live in his palace. She accepts, but her cruel step-family is left with the worst possible fate: each other. The stepmother forces Jun-Li, who has lost all hope of marrying rich, into the same state of servitude that Ye Xian suffered for so many years. When Jun-Li promptly and bitterly rebels against her lot, it starts a violent quarrel, the result of which is a cave-in that buries both women and destroys their home. Meanwhile, the king takes Ye Xian's hand in marriage and makes her his queen. My heart gave a giant lurch as it dawned on me that he was agreeing to let me go. How marvellous it was simply to be alive! Study? I thought. Going to England is like entering heaven. Does it matter what you do after you get to heaven?’Adeline's loneliness is exemplified in this quote from her time at St. Joseph's in Tianjin, far away from any family or friends. There is nothing like isolation, especially in cases this extreme. With no one looking for her and no one writing her letter, not even her Aunt Baba, Adeline feels as alone in the world as one can be. The will to keep going even after that shows the perseverance that this book promotes. The practice of footbinding in Chinese culture was a cruel one that persisted for many centuries and only ceased in the early days of the 20th century. This form of subjugation for Chinese women was on of many ways that a pervasive anti-female culture was ingrained in the Chinese psyche. The belief that women were vastly inferior to males allowed for the ill treatment of daughters and the propagation of arranged marriages, creating an imbalance that would make it difficult for young girls like Adeline to succeed. The history of footbinding through the eyes of Nai Nai and what that meant for women of the day was another disadvantage that Adeline had to overcome while growing up. Adeline Yen Mah ( simplified Chinese: 马严君玲; traditional Chinese: 馬嚴君玲; pinyin: Mǎ Yán Jūnlíng) (馬嚴君玲) is a Chinese-American author and physician. She grew up in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and is known for her autobiography Falling Leaves. She is married to Professor Robert A. Mah with whom she has a daughter, and a son from a previous marriage.

Mah, Adeline Yen (1998). Falling leaves: the true story of an unwanted Chinese daughter. New York: Wiley. p.42. ISBN 978-0-585-36179-6. OCLC 47011622. Mair, Victor H. "The First Recorded Cinderella Story". In: Hawai‘i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture. Edited by Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt and Paul R. Goldin. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. pp. 363-367. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824852351-061 Yet another version of the story finds Ye-Xian's new husband bringing her stepfamily to live with them in his palace. There is a catch, however: Jin and Jun-Li must cater to the whims of his queen and himself, and to the eventual whims of their children and heirs. Otherwise, Jun-Li and Jin will be cast out among the populace...who, knowing of the pair's ghastly natures, will surely rip them both to pieces on sight. And so poetic justice prevails: Ye-Xian's stepfamily find themselves trapped in servitude, surrounded by the lifestyle of royalty to which they aspired; they are in it, and of it, but they will never have it. Rather, it has them instead. Ye Xian's only relief comes from her acquaintance with a very large and very chatty fish living in the river near Ye Xian's home. The fish, as it turns out, is a guardian sent from the sky by her ever-present mother, and helps Ye Xian through her dark home life. That is, until Jun-li catches Ye Xian with the fish and Ye Xian's stepmother stabs it with a dagger for her and Jun-li's dinner.In a way Adeline is like Cinderella is when she is a child she has a evil stepmother and siblings. he faces many challenges like when Cinderella gets her dress ripped up right before the ball. Adeline is like Cinderella at home when Adeline goes to school. When Adeline is with her stepmother it is like Cinderella with her stepmother. It is kind of like Cinderella so if you don’t mind a good story read this book.