Chinese Cinderella 

Sam Seo

Ms. Clarke

English 9 C Block

20 November 2015

 

Writing #3: Persuasive Writing Type: Book Review

              Adeline Yen Mah, published by Delacorte Press, imprint of Random House Children’s Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, United States, www.randomhouse.com/teens. 1999, ISBN 978-0-385-74007-4. US $8.99.

 

              Chinese Cinderella is an autobiography detailing Adeline’s childhood stories and giving inspiration to all the unwanted children in this world to be hopeful and encouraged. Adeline was born in 1937 and endured all the mistreatments Cinderella, in the Disney movie in 1950.

Adeline was attending to school in Tianjin, but in the 1940’s, Tianjin was influenced by other foreign countries and

 

              The story begins with Adeline asking her aunt about her mother, who died 3 weeks after giving birth to Adeline. Then came her new step mother, Niang who treated all her non-blood related children miserably, and her father, who didn’t even know Adeline’s name and her birthday, was busy off with his work rather than caring for his children. Adeline wanted to be accepted by her parents, but was abused both physically and mentally. Despite being tormented everyday, she focussed on studying and made her to become a top of her class because studying allowed her to escape reality. However, on her first day of school in Shanghai, nobody told or guided her to her school when she got lost. Niang set countless rules to the children. However, when Adeline broke a rule, she got slapped in front of her friends as a punishment and was sent to a boarding school in Tianjin where people were evacuating because the communists were invading down. So, she was left alone in the boarding school until she got rescued by her relative. However, things didn’t get better in Hong Kong, and was soon sent away to another boarding school which nobody came to visit her for 2 years. One day, Adeline’s teacher recommended her on participating a writing competition over the summer. But in the summer, she was worried that she would have to quit her school to work or having a forced marriage with a person she didn’t know. She worked harder and harder to show them that she was worth using money for, and when she won the competition, her father called her in. Her emotions were all filled with excitement and fear and went inside the room.  

 

Adeline Yen Mah’s book is very determining and compelling towards education. Her style of writing is very entertaining, but gloomy at the same time.

 

Persuade

Chinese Cinderella is a must-read book for the ninth graders. It provides the progression of the protagonist which is mixed with historical background. The Opium War influenced Adeline’s childhood with foreign concessions on her education, surrounding environment, and  

 

Overall review

 

Conclusion