Falling Leaves

Adeline’s Great Aunt establishes herself as a strong woman even as a child, refusing to have her feet bound in accordance with traditional Chinese culture. She goes on to pursue higher education in place of marriage and establishes the Shanghai Women’s Bank. Her bank is a tremendous success, and she prospers spiritually and financially. Her family refers to her as Gong Gong (or “uncle”) as a sign of respect for her achievements.

Gong Gong’s high level of determination and accomplishment marks her as a strong female role model for Adeline within a society that culturally relegates women to subservient roles. It is telling, however, that in order to recognize her accomplishments, she must be referred to as a man.

Ye Ye is Adeline’s grandfather. He is a kind, warm, and wise man who wears traditional Chinese robes and always sports a shaved head and tight skull-cap. In his youth, he is a shrewd businessman who passes on both his acumen and his assets to his son. Though Ye Ye invests in his son’s business—Joseph Yen and Company—out of love and confidence in his abilities, he effectively resigns control of his life to his son and his cruel new French-Chinese wife, Niang. Whenever he desires money, he must beg his son to give it to him, violating the sacred Confucian law of filial piety.

Ye Ye quietly attempts to protect his grandchildren from Niang’s wrath wherever possible, giving them secret gifts and treats as tokens of his affection. His secret offerings are always discovered by Niang, however, and he is cruelly scolded for spoiling her stepchildren.

Ye Ye finds solace in his practice of traditional Chinese calligraphy, repeatedly writing the word ren (endure). He believes that this word “represents the epitome of Chinese culture and civilization” (86).

Aunt Baba is an intelligent, resourceful woman who sacrifices her own potential for marriage and family to care for the children of her brother, Joseph. She initially lives as a financial dependent of Joseph and Niang and has little agency over the well-being of the family’s “have-nots” (herself, Ye Ye, and Niang’s stepchildren). Aunt Baba ultimately finds some small measure of independence, however, by taking a job at Gong Gong’s bank.

Aunt Baba serves as a loving mother figure for Adeline, who grows up without knowing her birth mother. She affirms Adeline’s value as a talented student, praising her schoolwork and her admirable grades as a way to gain independence (much in the way she did). When the rest of the family flees Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, Aunt Baba opts to stay, believing that life under Communist rule couldn’t “really be any worse than a life under Niang” (84).

Joseph Yen is Adeline’s father. He is a tremendously successful businessman who has a knack for reading the market and moving both his assets and his family wherever the next big deal is to be found. During the Cultural Revolution, he flees China for Hong Kong with his family, knowing he will be targeted as a wealthy capitalist.

Joseph initially becomes infatuated with Jeanne Prosperi (Niang) because of her striking appearance and her French-Chinese heritage. Like many residents of Chinese international port cities in the 1930s, Joseph believes that “everything western [is] superior to anything Chinese” (27). He views this marriage as a conquest, much like his many business ventures. He also views himself as the ruler of his family, making decisions about his children’s lives (decisions that are often not in their best interests) and forbidding them to contest. Ultimately, as their relationship progresses over the years, Niang’s control over both Joseph and his family increases, and he acquiesces to her will. As he ages—and ultimately develops Alzheimer’s disease—Adeline observes that her father appears submissive, “frail and feeble” (213), much like Ye Ye in his last years.

Adeline’s relationship with her father is fraught and complicated. Though she recognizes—and holds him responsible for—his unjust treatment of her and her siblings, she also feels a lifelong desire to earn his love and respect. She writes, “I wished above all else to please my father. Oh, so very much! To gain his acceptance. To be loved. To have him say to me, just once in my life, ‘Well done, Adeline! We’re proud of you’” (145).

Adeline’s birth mother, Miss Ren, is an intelligent young woman who works at Gong Gong’s bank and befriends Aunt Baba. After being introduced to Miss Ren, Adeline’s father is charmed by her, and begins a correspondence. They marry after five months of courtship and become inseparable.

Ren bears Adeline’s father four children—Lydia, Gregory, Edgar, and James—before becoming pregnant with Adeline. Immediately after Adeline’s birth, the doctor expresses concern over Miss Ren’s condition and advises that she be transferred to the hospital for follow-up care and observation. Joseph rejects this request (along with the request for a nurse) with the insinuation that this care is too expensive. Three days after Adeline’s birth, her mother develops a soaring fever and dies.

Adeline’s father is especially cold to Adeline throughout her childhood. When he moves the family to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution, he sends Adeline away to a boarding school in Tianjin, knowing full well that it is an unsafe environment. As Ye Ye explains, Adeline’s father blames her for the death of her mother, and “every day her presence is like a thorn in his side: she annoys [him] by simply being around” (86).

Uncomfortable with the idea of raising another woman’s children, Niang forbids her family to talk about Ren and destroys all photo evidence of her union with Joseph. Adeline has never seen a photograph of her birth mother.

Jeanne Prosperi is a woman of mixed French and Chinese heritage. Joseph marries her in Shanghai shortly after the death of his first wife. Jeanne orders her stepfamily to call her “Niang,” a Chinese word for “mother.”

Niang is stylish, beautiful, and charming, and is fond of attending fashionable parties and social events. She dislikes the idea of being a stepmother and banishes Ye Ye, Aunt Baba, and Ren’s children from her presence whenever she hosts parties at the house. Her stepfamily is relegated to the second floor of the house and treated as second-class citizens. A domineering, imperial personality (with racist views she openly flaunts in the home), Niang often becomes violent, beating and berating her children when they do not obey her.

Niang gives birth to two children, Susan and Franklin. She favors Franklin over Susan, giving him privileges that are not afforded to anyone else in the family. When Franklin dies as a child (after eating a batch of bad strawberries tainted with human manure fertilizer), Niang becomes even more cruel toward her surviving children. She obtains sadistic pleasure (and retains much of her psychological influence) from turning her children against one another.

Lydia is Adeline’s older (biological) sister. Throughout Adeline’s childhood and adulthood, Lydia bullies her and manipulates her. Adeline notes, tellingly, that Lydia is the only member of Niang’s stepfamily who gains entrance into the first floor of the house, occupying a gray area of her family’s social hierarchy. Lydia only obtains this access, however, through simpering displays of subservience, begging Franklin for “the smallest little taste” of treats given to him by Niang (57).

Lydia carries this behavior into adulthood, bowing to her parents’ will when they select a husband for her and attempting to curry Niang’s favor at the expense of Adeline (even after Adeline helps her family financially). Lydia and her husband are stuck in Tianjin during the Cultural Revolution, and Falling Leaves suggests that she acquires certain habits of mistrustful, interrogative communication from living under Communism.

Gregory is Adeline’s oldest brother. He is likable, gregarious, and somewhat favored by Adeline’s father (because of his position as the eldest son). He takes over the family’s satellite business operations in Nigeria for a few years before he is usurped by James as the head of the family. Gregory maintains a grudge against James for taking away his status.

After Niang attempts to disinherit Adeline, Gregory kindly offers her part of his share from the inheritance. The two deepen their adulthood relationship as Adeline’s mistrust of Lydia and James grows.

Edgar is the middle child. He is unattractive, unintelligent, and not charming. Edgar habitually bullies James and Adeline throughout their childhood.

James is the fourth child of Ren and Joseph. Growing up, Adeline feels closest to James, who was a fellow target of Edgar’s wrath and would always comfort her after his beatings, telling her “‘Suan le!’(Let it be!)” (36). James carries this mantra into his adulthood, attempting to avoid and mitigate conflict wherever possible. He takes over the family business in Nigeria and becomes the head of the family when his father passes away. His status means he must communicate regularly with Niang and subjects himself to her will and whims.

As an adult, Adeline questions the ethics of James’s “‘Suan le!’(Let it be!)” philosophy. When he is made the executor of Niang’s will and coolly informs Adeline that she has been disinherited, she feels greatly betrayed.

Franklin is the only birth son of Niang and the primary object of her affection. She spoils him tremendously, buying him fashionable European clothes, having his hair cut by designer stylists, and treating him to sweet snacks and desserts that are given to no one else in the family. Franklin develops a tyrannical sense of entitlement and frequently mocks and bullies his sister, Susan. When Franklin dies after eating a bad batch of strawberries, Niang is devastated and loses her few vestiges of maternal love.

Susan is the birth daughter of Niang. As a baby, she initially lives with Aunt Baba and Ye Ye before they move (from Tianjin to Shanghai) to join the rest of the family. When they arrive in Shanghai, Susan is afraid of Niang and attempts to run to Aunt Baba. Niang responds by brutally beating Susan (and punishing Adeline for her retaliation against this beating).

Susan and Niang maintain a troubled relationship throughout Susan’s teen years and adulthood. Susan grows into a beautiful young socialite, and Niang feels competitive tension with her daughter. After a visit with Niang wherein Susan dares to stand up for herself after Niang declares that “you owe me everything!” (187), she is coldly disowned by the family.

Byron is a Chinese immigrant boarder in a New York house where Adeline stays when she first moves to the US. He is instantly infatuated with her, and he charms her with elevated, exaggerated tales of his prosperity. They marry and move to California shortly after her arrival in the US.

Adeline quickly learns that Byron has not been entirely truthful with her about his profession and other details of his life. She also discovers that he has an erratic temper and often reacts violently against her when agitated. She lives with Byron in a tense cohabitation, channeling her energy into her professional development as an anesthesiologist. Eventually, Adeline’s parents visit them and observe that her husband doesn’t seem “right in the head” (175), encouraging her to divorce him.