Product Description

Jung-ling's family considers her bad luck because her mother died giving birth to her. They discriminate against her and make her feel unwanted yet she yearns and continuously strives for her parents' love. Her stepmother is vindictive and cruel andher father dismissive. Jung-ling grows up to be an academic child, with a natural ability for writing. Only her aunt and grandfather offer her any love and kindness. The story is of survival in the light of the mental and physical cruelty of her stepmother and the disloyalty of her siblings. Jung-ling blossoms in spite of everything and the story ends as her father agrees to let her study in England.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17282 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Adeline Yen Mah first told her story in the emotive, bestselling Falling Leaves, an adult autobiography which charted her passage from childhood through to womanhood. Here in Chinese Cinderella she relates her tale for younger readers, detailing her difficult life as an unwanted and deeply misunderstood child.

Christened with the Chinese name Jun-ling, her mother died just a few days after her birth, and from that moment her fate within her family was sealed. As one of seven siblings, including two children from her father's second marriage, Jun-ling struggled to maintain her dignity from a young age, treated as she was with a vicious contempt by all around her at home, apart from her beloved Aunt Baba and her elderly grandfather.

Growing up as she did in a relatively wealthy Chinese family in the 40s and 50s, the privileges that money would normally give such a child passed her by, and even her intelligence which shone through as early as kindergarten could not save her from the emotional brutality of a family who simply did not love her.

Jun-ling¹s story, written from the very heart of the successful adult she has become, is a stinging and hostile tale of a child whose young life was blighted by lack of care and affection and is an emotional roller coaster journey which, without actually falling into the trap of melodrama, will wring tears of rage, sadness and deep, deep frustration from any reader. (Age 10 and over) --Susan Harrison

About the Author
Adeline Yen Mah lives in California after growing up in Tianjin and Shanghai, in China, Hong Kong and England. She studied medicine but gave up her career as a physician to become a full-time writer. After the death of her stepmother, she felt compelled to write her story and the result, FALLING LEAVES, has become an international best-seller.

Customer Reviews

one of the best books i have ever read
i enjoyed reading this book this book very much. yen mah portrays how hard her life was very well in not to much detail. she succeeds in making the reader feel pathos towards her and also, in a lesser sense to her brothers and sisters {not her half siblings}. once i had began to read this novel i couldn't put it down and read it in a whole night, after completing this novel it left me wanting to read 'falling leaves' straight away.

i recommend this book to everyone, as i am sure that most people would enjoy it.

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
No wander Adeline Yen Mah was compelled to write of her childhood. In this amazing yet painful story of a little girl who was considered bad luck by her parents, hated by her siblings and beaten by her stepmum, adeline struggles for love and acceptance. Adeline is clever. She wins prizes at her school but her father does not want to know. Only her Aunt Baba notices and loves Adeline for who she is. The family decide to leave Tianjin and move house to Shanghai. Adeline is almost forgotten. Infact on her first day at school in Shanghai, nobody remembers even to come and pick her up. This poor little girl is left to find her way home through the busy, bustling streets of Shanghai. Adelines life changes massively when she recives a pet duckling. Adeline now has a friend and she loves it so much. But as nothing can go smoothly for Adeline due to her family, this helpless duckling does not remain with Adeline as a consequence of Jackie, the family's German Shepherd and her fathers attempt to train it. Adeline's evil stepmum probably hates her the most. She has no sypathy, even when Adeline's friends come round to the house to congratulate her on winning Class President, Niang shouts at them all to go away and openly slaps Adeline round the face in front of her friends. I found this part of the book the saddest because just when Adeline is being praised for a great achievement, she is totally put down by her step mum and publicly humiliated. Adeline is sent to boarding school in Hong Kong. She is forced to leave Aunt Baba who encouraged her to be brave and strong. Adeline certainly needs to be brave and strong to fight many dangers and events at the boarding school. Adeline boards there for a long time. At boarding school, Adeline recieves an oppotunity that will change her life and how her family think of her forever. At last, Adeline can feel good about herself and so happy and the book is so well written that you experience this happiness as well. This book is so incredibly moving only because its true. All of what is written really happened. This is not a book for a pleasent evening read; it could possibly make you cry but it certainly will open your eyes to how lucky most of us are with our lives and oppotunities. However I do reccommend it because it is so well explained. Emotions, feelings, and thoughts are made very real.

better than cinderella
even though this book is aimed for children and i am an adult, i found the story so emotionally gripping. i found the book on my daughters bookshelf after searching for some entertainment during a very boring evening. i got so into it that i read it throughout the night and ended up going to work late. the details of the emotions and situations are so intimate that you can imagine being her or a part of her life from sitting in the own comfort of your bed. i would recommend this book to whoever wants a good cry.