Read This!: Snow Flower and The Secret Fan

By Lisa See

As I mentioned before, I am a big fan of books that take place in China because I find Chinese culture and traditions to be fascinating. If it weren’t for the fact we had campylobacter after our last big vaca, I would be pressuring Mr. into going to China next year. But alas, I have a fear that food so different from what we are used to would lead to bad things. And the memories of campylobacter are still too fresh.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the story of two girls, Lily and Snow Flower, who become laotong or sworn sisters. Laotong are bound together for life in a relationship that is deeper than marriage (marriage really having one purpose: to have sons). Lily narrates the story which starts when the girls are very young, takes us through their childhoods, their marriages, their children, their hardships, and their disagreements (all the while bonded as laotong), and ends when Lily is an old lady. Throughout their lives, Lily and Snow Flower send messages back and forth to each other in nu shu, secret women’s writing, painted on a fan.

There is a very detailed passage on foot-binding in this book and I have to say, it turned my stomach to such a degree that combined with the fact I was really hungry and hot, I almost fainted on the train and had to step off and recover myself. It was gross, the foot-binding and the almost-fainting.

I found all of the cultural details to be really interesting, including the foot-binding. It fascinates me how a woman’s worth could be determined not only by the size of her feet but by whether or not she has sons (ironic considering we all know these days that it is the man that determines the sex) and that it could be seen as a blessing when a poor family has a daughter who dies because it is one less mouth to feed.

SF&TSF was recently made into a movie (released in July). I would be curious to see it as I am wondering how they would depict the story on the big screen. On reading the synopsis, it does look like they veer away from the book. I am not sure though that Mr. would want to go see this. I am still trying to convince him to see The Help and he has been known to put his foot down on too many chick flicks.