Chinese Cinderella

Chinese Cinderella takes place amidst an era of political upheaval and cultural conflict. As various global powers—the French, the Japanese, the Americans, and the Chinese Communist Party—fight to dictate the Chinese zeitgeist, civilians such as Adeline are left to reckon with the shifting cultural landscape in their personal lives. Colonialist ideologies, such as Eurocentricity and white supremacy, infiltrate the Chinese mainstream and are introduced to Adeline by way of her education in the Catholic school system. Thus, external culture wars impact the internal conflicts of each character as the memoir presents Adeline’s problems as a microcosm of culture wars.

At the outset of the memoir, it is clear that the city of Tianjin is on the frontlines of European colonialism in China. Adeline recalls, “The conquerors parceled out the best parcels of these treaty ports for themselves, claiming them as their own ‘territories’ or ‘concessions’” (5). Such observations establish the (oftentimes hostile) interplay of cultures occurring all around Adeline as she grows up. Even within the walls of her own home, colonialist hierarchies dictate social functions within the family; Niang and her children have French heritage and use it as a justification for their superior status in the household. Later, the Europeans are forced out by the People’s Liberation Army, who arrive with their own cultural agenda; both Western and traditional cultural practices were viewed by the Communist Party as detrimental to societal progress. Adeline leaves China a decade before the onset of the Cultural Revolution, and the nuns’ fearful response to the Army’s arrival in Tianjin hints toward the intense cultural warfare that would eventually overtake the country.

Either consciously or subconsciously, Adeline begins to internalize the cultural conflicts around her such that by her teenage years, her Chinese identity appears diluted. This internal conflict is most evident in Chapter 16, “Hong Kong,” during her conversation with Ye Ye about the importance of the Chinese language. Her sudden outburst, “I hate studying Chinese! It’s a waste of time” (150), speaks to the intensity with which Adeline has developed an aversion to her Chinese cultural heritage under the supervision of the Catholic nuns and, in this chapter, in a colonized British territory. Ye Ye’s forceful retort that no matter how hard she tries, Adeline will never be able to escape the fact that she is Chinese speaks not only to a resolution for Adeline’s personal struggles but also to the futility of colonialist projects more generally. The memoir suggests that no matter how hard colonialist forces try to repress traditional culture, indigeneity can never be truly erased. In many ways, Chinese Cinderella itself serves as a testament to that cultural resilience, with Yen Mah using storytelling as a means of recording and teaching her readers about traditional Chinese culture.