Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Chinese Cinderella, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Physical and Emotional Abuse
Coming of Age and Self-Worth
The Power of Stories
Toxic Family
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Though Adeline had hoped that she might get to see Aunt Reine’s family off when they left for Geneva, Father is in such a rush to pick them up and bring them to the pier that he leaves Adeline behind, and she misses her chance to wish them farewell.
Father’s ignorance of Adeline’s feelings suggests that life in their household will return to its normal, mean-spirited rhythm now that the visitors have left, with Adeline being completely neglected by her parents.
Themes
Two days after, the maid tells Adeline to pack her bags quickly, as she is being “taken away” again. Ye Ye is sleeping, so the only people to go wherever Adeline will be taken are Niang, Fourth Brother, and herself. Fourth Brother is still furious with her, since earlier in the day he had tried to play a prank on Ye Ye that would have dropped several weighty encyclopedias on top of the frail old man’s head. Adeline had thwarted the plan, sending Fourth Brother into a screaming rage. Little Sister, however, chastised him for his meanness. Father, when he saw that his son had tried to injure his own grandfather, did not punish Fourth Brother, but simply yelled at the children for making too much noise. Sitting with Ye Ye after the event, Adeline’s heart broke for the way that her grandfather was “imprisoned by his love for his only son.”
Fourth Brother’s prank is a major indication that he has become as vicious as Niang. That Father is unwilling to discipline him even when Fourth Brother’s pranks could have resulted in a very serious injury for Ye Ye additionally indicates how truly toxic the family has become. Niang rules with such impunity that her favorite son is similarly untouchable, even after committing an egregious crime. This instance helps to explain Ye Ye’s defeatism—even his own son no longer ascribes any value to his life or has any impulse to protect him, making Ye Ye similar to Adeline in their victimhood.
Themes
As they are driving, they pass a destitute, broken-looking man and his daughter. The daughter has a sign around her neck announcing that she is for sale. Adeline is filled with fear at where this car ride may take her.
The girl being sold, like Big Sister getting married, allows Adeline to glimpse a possible future, one that she understands to be bleak. With parents that care for her as little as Father and Niang, seemingly nothing is off the table and being sold seems a real possibility.
Themes
Fourth Brother demands that they stop for tea at a luxury hotel. When the concierge tells them that it will be a long wait, Niang insists in her best heavy European accent that they be seated, and gives her French maiden name. This, combined with her expensive Western clothing, convinces the concierge to move them to the front of the reservation queue, since in Hong Kong, a British colony, white people and Europeans always get special treatment.
The racial hierarchy in Hong Kong reflects the hierarchy of Adeline’s family, as well. Niang, being half-French, has passed her French blood onto Fourth Brother and Little Sister. As mentioned earlier, in her eyes this makes them of a higher class, and justifies—in her mind—the entirely unequal treatment and privileges afforded them. The oppressive realities of Chinese society are mirrored within the family structure.
Themes
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After tea, Adeline is taken to a combination orphanage and Catholic boarding school. While Niang is meeting with the administrators, Adeline is fearful that she is being abandoned to the orphanage. However, when two nuns come to meet her, she realizes that she has been enrolled in the boarding school and is relieved and even thrilled.
This is the second time that Adeline has believed and feared that she was being abandoned to an orphanage and instead placed in a boarding school. While still emotionally abusive, this seems almost a restraint on Niang’s part, which is curious since her cruelty so often seems uninhibited.
Themes
