Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See

An Ho, Wang Xifeng

(June 14) I really enjoyed this “autobiography” of a girl growing up in the hinterlands of 19th-century China. Like Memoirs of a Geisha, The Far Pavilions, I, Claudius, even Gone with the Wind, it seems to create a vivid, you-are-there experience of life in an exotic culture and a remote time. It’s the combination of (1) the sense that the author has done exhaustive research into the time and culture and (2) the intimacy of the first-person narration.

Lisa See is particularly good at providing “the insider view” -- the narrator does not seem to be explaining her culture to foreigners, she’s assuming the customs and motivations are already familiar; she’s unconscious to her culture, as we all are. As a BookCel member says, “the protagonist does not appear to be a 21st-century feminist playing period dress-up.”

And the details about foot-binding, family structures, nu shu, laotong relationships, marriage customs, economics and more are fascinating. It’s all women culture, but the way it’s presented, so vividly and devotedly, undermines any knee-jerk-feminist disapproval one might harbour about apparently misogynistic customs. You may have found it unbelievable that women put up with the mutilation of their feet, and See is not an apologist, but Snow Flower and the Secret Fan makes you appreciate how the pressures of culture are irresistible, and sometimes even yield rewards.