Foot binding, a secret language and loatongs ...

I love it when I find a really well written book, with a good story-line which holds your interest, but teaches you something about the culture and time in which it is written as well. Lisa See is an American author of Chinese decent, who is known for her dedication to thoroughly researching her subject before writing a book. She traveled to remote villages in China to find out more about their culture, and the women's secret language known as nu shu. Her research shows itself throughout this moving story about friendship, marriage and the life of women in rural Chinese society at that time.

'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' is set in the mid 19th century, in a northern remote part of China. It is the story of two young girls who become loatongs - which was a formal friendship arranged by a matchmaker, had a written contract, and lasted their whole lives. In a culture where young girls were simply seen as "useless branches of the tree" and were basically slaves to their natal family, then later to their husband's family, this arrangement provided them with some outlet and form of friendship. The loatongs were only allowed to see each other on certain festive days of the year, but they wrote to each other constantly using the women's secret language called nu shu.

Nu shu was a language known only by women and was passed down through the generations. It was painted on fans, embroidered into hankies, or simply written with brush and ink. Unlike the "men's language" which had over 5,000 characters, this was simpler with only 600 ... but, much of it's interpretation was through context, and this is where the story-line lay.

The author guides us through the traditional foot binding endured simultaneously by the two young girls ... a custom most of us find abhorrent ... but, she presents it in the story as simply another part of Chinese women's lives at that time, and the reader comes to almost accept it as such also. Yet, who would not cringe to read about young girls of 4-6 years of age having their four toes bound back tightly towards the heel, and then forced to walk back and forth daily until the toes broke? The process took more than two years of excruciating pain, and during that time they were kept in the upstairs womens' room. The way in which the young girl bore this pain and isolation apparently trained her in the qualities she would later need for marriage ... obedience, self-control, physical strength, adherence to customs, etc. Also, it indicated the young girls' health, since many died from the foot binding due to infection and gangrene.

The foot binding, which continued in China for over a thousand years, was done to produce a 3-4 inch foot on which women would then walk "beautifully on their golden lilies" for the rest of their lives. One wonders, however, if it didn't have more to do with keeping women under men's control ... for, once their feet were bound their world consisted of the house and the special upstairs "womens' room" ... if they ever went out they often had to be carried on a man's back or in a special carried chair called a palanquin.

A lovely story, beautifully written ... I learnt a lot, and came to feel such empathy for Lily, the heroine.

And, we sometimes grumble about our lives!!

Bye for now, until next time ...