I got to admit I bought this book due to the TV drama "人間四月天", I watched it when I was still in secondary school. The drama was about the story of Hsu Chih-Mo and his love life. The first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo was the main character in this book. Hsu Chih-Mo was a poet, his poem was featured in the test book too. So, I was quite curios with the storyline in the drama, was it all based on the facts or just fiction all along.
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| Bound Feet & Western Dresses |
From this memoir, most were consistent with the drama. I think maybe the screen writers plucked some storyline from this memoir. Compared to the drama, this memoir focused more on the Chang Yu-I, the first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo and the mother of his child. This was Chang Yu-I memoir after all.
Well, Chang Yu-I was born into a rich family and her mother bore twelve children, eight boys and four girls. Yu-I was the second girl in the family. In the old times, or even now I think, culturally Chinese prefer boys over girls. So, her grandmother considered her mother the most capable daughter in law among all her aunties. That is a bit funny and a bit sad. A woman's worth is measured by how many sons she is able to give birth too, not her talent or her intelligence.
Well, Chang Yu-I was born into a rich family and her mother bore twelve children, eight boys and four girls. Yu-I was the second girl in the family. In the old times, or even now I think, culturally Chinese prefer boys over girls. So, her grandmother considered her mother the most capable daughter in law among all her aunties. That is a bit funny and a bit sad. A woman's worth is measured by how many sons she is able to give birth too, not her talent or her intelligence.
