Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See
2006

rating: very good

plot: The lives of two girls in nineteenth century China.



A beautiful book. I still find myself thinking about this story.

The book describes the lives of Lily and Snow Flower in 19th century China. A large part of their girlhood was occupied with foot binding. This is a part of Chinese history I knew of only in passing prior to this book, but afterward I researched for my own information. Foot binding is the century-old tradition of fracturing and re-forming girls feet, creating small nubs that were considered sexually attractive and, more importantly, vital for making a marriage. The process took years and many of the girls died from complications of this mutilation, not only when it was occurring but later in life. This crippled the women, enslaving them to their husbands and households.

But I’m projecting modern ideas onto this practice. The narrator, Lily, and her female relatives had no such notions about imprisonment. For them, the foot binding is a necessary rite of passage. Lily describes this process, then betrothal and then life after marriage for both herself and Snow Flower. Her outlooks is generally optomistic. Meanwhile, the author, See, raises excellent points about women’s status, place in society and duty to family and friends. So does this through her narrative; not through philosophical ramblings.

It's possible that as a firm feminist, I was more affected by some of the themes of this book than other may be; but still it would be hard for anyone to read this and be unaffected.