ebooks Bound Feet Western Dress: A Memoir by Pang-Mei Chang in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. it is told in the first person and as the names are Chinese (so I am not familiar with them) it is easy to start wondering if thBy painterAn extremely informative and interesting story. Engagingly written however I found myself often confused as the writer is telling the story from two people's points of view...the person it happened to and the girl who is writing the story of her relative. The problem is that no matter who is "speaking" in the book; it is told in the first person and as the names are Chinese (so I am not familiar with them) it is easy to start wondering if the young girl is speaking about her thoughts on the old aunt or if it is the old aunt speaking about herself as a young girl.Nevertheless an excellent read which I couldn't put down. Very interesting cultural; historical content and a very sad story as is the case so often with modern women living within ancient cultures.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Two Chinese women face the West at different times.By Kevin M QuiggThe author and her great aunt are the main characters in this book about the Westernization of Chinese women. Women in China (as in the Middle East) are second rate citizens. Chinese women have a medival system of allegiance to the men in the family. This caused the great aunt much trouble as she sees her husband cheating on her; and then ultimately divorces her while she was pregnant. Her loyalty is still to the ex-husband's family; since she is still officially a member of that. Both women ultimately had to establish their own identity before they could go out and confront the world.I liked the read of this book; and finished it the same day I started it. It is a good human interest story about the westernization of a Chinese woman. It shows the difficult emotional journey from the ancient east to the modern west.20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Top-Hats; Half-Moons; and the Painful Glint of ChangesBy ThatUmbrellaGuyChange can be a frightening affair; and looking back at change can be something that seems almost alien when beheld in the light of certain convictions. That seems to encapsulate the whole of the experience that Chang Yu-I talks about as she tries to explain something of who she is to her granddaughter; Pang-Mei; and it is one of the things that seemed to haunt me as a reader as I listened to Yu-I's tale. The chapters switch from Yu-I to Pang-Mei to give you and idea of how things have changed and to try to identify one person with the other; and I have to say that I found myself glued to the pages and not able to stop reading this book. At first I simply thought it was a story about a granddaughter wanting to explore her grandmother's life because she was the first person to have a Western-style divorce in China; and maybe that was her reason beginning the book. Still; the book goes well beyond that and touches on the dynamics of change and strength and how strong a person can be even when they think they are at their weakest.Honestly; I thought I could vicariously feel my heart cracking under the weight of some of Yu-I's confessions; amazed by some of the things she was able to tell her granddaughter.One of the best things about this tale is the detail that Yu-I goes into about China; and about the way things were seen in the past versus the way things became seen as war loomed on the horizon. Yu-I gives a great amount of detail about what it was like to be a child in a country like China; and she vividly recollects what its like to have one's feet bound and the reasons why this practice took place. All that breaking and rebreaking; the tying of the big toe over and over again; when I read this I cringed because it seemed so debilitating just to have a crescent-shape added to the foot. Furthering this are pictures in the book; showing what the feet actually look like when this happens - you can see the shriveled remains of feet that look almost mummified; and you can tell some of the extremes that went into making a foot look like that. Yu-I talks about the pain that's she; herself; experienced because of this practice; too; she tells her granddaughter about being three and having her mother try to bind her feet; and then talks about the torment of those moments and how it was her brother that made her stop this because he couldn't deal with her suffering. Yu-I goes on to tell of the pain that this caused her; too; with her always feeling as if she were ugly because she had "big feet" and "big feet" made a person almost untouchable when it comes to marriage. Still; she does marry the poet Hsu Chi-Mo and; for a time; she thinks this is perfect and learns the rites of being a wife. She cares for the mother-in-law; she takes care of the husband's family; basically she becomes a slave and thinks that this dedication is seem by her husband as love. It is only when she moves to a foreign country with her husband that she finds out what he is like and how she is alone; and when she understands that she is utterly abandoned she explains how it feels to want to die.There are other painful things in the book; too; things I can't disclose without messing up part of the tale; but I can say that when she is in Germany and loses something more dear to her than anything that this was devastating to read; making the book almost too heavy to pick up because its honesty was like a barb in the soul. I appreciated that; to be honest; and can say that I have read a lot of pieces of literature but that I have rarely encountered a person like Yu-I that both loves the world she lives in; understands the things that she has experienced; and even knows what forgiveness is like.While this normally would not be something I would recommend; it has my highest recommendation and the most humble form of respect I can give; thinking it an enduring read that really has something to say.I cannot give the book or the voice behind it enough praise.