Chinese Cinderella

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child abuse.

Throughout the tribulations of her childhood, Adeline frequently utilizes fantasy in various forms as a tool to generate hope and find a path toward survival. The memoir thus positions fantasy as a valuable—even essential—form of resistance against circumstances that are out of Adeline’s control. In her relatively powerless state as a young girl, Adeline is able to find agency and salvation within her own imagination.

In the earliest stages of her childhood, one of the most pressing difficulties for Adeline is the loss of her mother. She discovers storytelling as a coping mechanism for her grief, writing a story for class about her mother’s afterlife:

I think Mama lives high up on a mountain in a magic castle […] Nothing in Shanghai can compare with her place. It’s a fairyland full of fragrant flowers. towering pines, lovely rocks, soaring bamboos and chirping birds. Every child can enter without a ticket and girls are treated the same as boys. It’s called Paradise (52-53).

Adeline’s formulation of an egalitarian Eden directly juxtaposes with her hierarchical, urban reality, offering readers insight into what she despises most about her circumstances.