Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Does Oprah still have a book club? Is it secretly running underground? Is the first rule Don't Talk About Book Club? I mean, how else would every woman my age know about this book? It seems as though all my GR friends over the age of thirty, many of which are lucky to finish 12 books a year, have read or plan on reading it. I just heard about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan's existence yesterday. This is odd because, regardless of what genres I prefer to read, I'm usually up to date on what's the newest hottest thing in the literary world.

That said, I tend to avoid this sort of literature like the plague, so it's no surprise that I likely walked past it countless times without taking a second glance. I mean, just look at the cover. It's bland as a bowl of plain oatmeal. Granted there are flowers on it, but I don't even like flowers all that much, or Chinese fans. Based on the title I can tell it's the sort of historical fiction that is chalk-full of horrors to woman-kind. The sort of writing rife with Emotional Porn. You know, the kind that will force you to collapse on the ground, snotting and sobbing and crying out for your momma.

*rolls eyes* The thing is, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the sort of thing I should want to read. I mean, I am a woman. I am over thirty. Statistically speaking it should be my bread and butter.

But it's not. It's totally not.

I've always known I was different, and not in a quirky, adorable way. Different because I snarl in the face of convention without even meaning to. I don't fit the mold. It's like I belong on the Island of Misfit Toys Women.

Whatever. I'll read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I'll do it because I'm sick of being the only person in the room that doesn't know all about whatever crappy new book all the Dignified Women are reading, especially when I'm the most well-read of the bunch. But if it contains something along the lines of 'You is kind, you is smart, you is important' all bets are off.

P.S. I'm willing to bet Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is nowhere near inspiring as Eon: Dragoneye Reborn.

18.07.20: Relectura obligatoria de uno de mis libros favoritos. No ha envejecido nada mal. Se merece todas las estrellas del mundo.

Review original:

Qué difícil es escribir sobre El abanico de seda. Por la puntuación que le he dado y el hecho de considerarlo un imprescindible ya podría decir mucho y, sin embargo, no es un libro tan sencillo de desgranar.

Es un ying-yang sobre ternura y sufrimiento a partes iguales. Esta es la historia de Lirio Blanco y Flor de Nieve, dos mujeres condenadas a vivir en la China rural del siglo XIX, donde el machismo recalcitrante y opresivo hace insufribles la vida de las mujeres. En este mundo, ellas no son más que objetos cuya valía depende únicamente del número de hijos varones que puedan engendrar en el futuro. Por eso desde pequeñas se les venda los pies y se las educa para obedecer, sufrir e incluso pasar hambre si es necesario para que su futuro marido y la familia de éste no se avergüencen de ellas. La sociedad les habla de destino, de que el sufrimiento les traerá cosas buenas y su honor quedará intacto. Al estar, pues, las reglas perfectamente trazadas desde el momento en que nacen, estas mujeres se crían con esa idea de la felicidad y lo asumen con perfecta resignación.

Pero en este escenario tan horrible todavía existe una pequeña luz. Si una mujer es lo suficientemente afortunada, puede unir su destino al de otra mujer y convertirse ambas en laotong, es decir, en almas gemelas unidas contra la adversidad. El vínculo entre laotong, que se considera incluso más sagrado que el del propio matrimonio, es una unión de por vida que promulga un amor inmenso e incondicional entre dos mujeres que nada en la vida terrenal puede arruinar.

Lirio Blanco y Flor de Nieve se unen por medio de este sello sagrado y desarrollan una amistad preciosa, íntima, sensual y fuerte durante casi cuatro décadas, desde que les vendaron los pies hasta que empezaron a ver crecer a sus hijos. Este libro es la historia de esta unión, que intentan salvaguardar lo máximo posible, sobre todo cuando sus vidas conyugales se vuelven más y más sombrías con el paso de los años. Cuando sus vidas dedicadas a complacer a su esposo les dejan algo de tiempo, se reúnen y hablan en secreto de todo lo que no pueden debido a que deben mantener su honor de mujeres casadas: su opresión, su soledad, y de que su única alegría son sus hijos y el vínculo que existe entre ellas. Cuando no pueden verse, se mandan mensajes en nu shu, un lenguaje secreto que solo conocen las mujeres, el único retazo de libertad que se les permite tener. Se hablan de sus tristezas, de sus alegrías y de que no siempre es fácil seguir las reglas y hacer todo lo que se espera de ellas, pero que ante todo, son valientes y subrayan la palabra destino y dignidad y que juntas son como dos aves fénix que sobrevivirán a la adversidad.

No puedo hablar mal de este libro. Es un sufrimiento constante, pero es bellísimo. Todo un homenaje a la sororidad que las mujeres tenían la oportunidad de prestarse en secreto, mediante confidencias nocturnas y mensajes escondidos, en una época en que trataban mejor a los animales que a ellas mismas. Salvo con una excepción: el final. El final es muy injusto y lo odio. Lo odiaré siempre y haré como que no existe cada vez que hable de este libro a alguien. Porque es dolorosamente real e incluso extrapolable a las relaciones de amistad de la vida moderna, donde a veces el orgullo echa por tierra algo precioso y que se ha atesorado por años y años. Pero no deja de dolerme. Este no es el final que corresponde a una historia de este tipo, donde el amor entre dos laotong era más poderoso que cualquier aspecto de la vida terrenal. No puede vender una idea marcada por la divinidad y truncarla luego con algo tan humano como es el orgullo y los malentendidos. Pero sí puede, al mismo tiempo, porque eso es lo que suele ocurrir. Nada dura para siempre, ni siquiera la relación entre laotong. Las mujeres no son seres divinos y, hasta con una alma gemela, no pueden llegar a serlo. Es la enseñanza con la que me quedo, perfectamente plausible, pero que mi corazón, tan involucrado emocionalmente en la relación de estas dos mujeres, aún no se siente capaz de aceptar.

Con todo, le doy las cinco estrellas. No podría darle menos. Hacía tiempo que no leía ficción histórica que me hiciera sufrir de esta manera. El poder de este libro ha superado mis expectativas por completo. No puedo sino calificarlo de maravilloso, ni más, ni menos. Leedlo mientras podáis, y prepararos para sufrir con una de las mejores historias de amor de todos los tiempos. Me resultaría imposible pensar que a alguien no le pueda gustar ni un poquito siquiera.

Dios mio, qué manera de llorar. Pedazo de libro, hermoso ❤️

I really hate cultures that put the importance of one human being over another and particularly boys over girls (mine included). But, Lisa See did a great job in taking us into the hearts and souls of two women and the hardships and love that they lived, endured and suffered over their lifetime. There are many tigger warnings here, foot-binding, disrespectful treatment of women by men and by women and some very poverty stricken circumstances makes for very difficult reading. If you want a more thorough understanding or review of this book, I suggest you read one of the other 300 thousand reviews. I don't have any energy left after finishing this one. Sigh.

There's definitely something to be said for reading a book all the way through in one sitting (I read this for Dewey's 24-hour Readathon). You get more absorbed, your mind more focused, like a movie-watching experience (especially one in the cinema): a highly cohesive, tight story-telling experience with no channel-surfing. Like when you're a kid, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of your teacher as they read aloud from a picture book, pointing out the details in the illustration while you gaze, mouth open, riveted.

Or like watching a train crash. It's that same "can't look away" feeling. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is definitely not a train wreck, in terms of writing or accomplishment, but it did have an element of threat and suspense that is symbolic of one.

Taking place in rural 19th century China (by our calendar, that is), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is about Lily, now a remarkably old lady in her eighties, writing her private memoir from her days as a girl growing up poor and her friendship with Snow Flower. Taught the secret women's written language of nu shu by her aunt, when she is six the matchmaker arranges for her to have a laotong - like an official best friend - and agrees that with her feet, her mother should not bind them until she is seven, but that she will have the smallest "golden lilies" and will be able to get a rich and important husband in the nearby village of Tongkou - a very high aspiration indeed.

It is her friendship with Snow Flower, the daughter of a wealthy and important family in Tongkou, that is the driving force of this story, the focal point, the ugly truth that Lily now wants to tell us. We are silent witnesses to an old lady unburdening herself.

n  n

Rich in cultural detail, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is powerful not just in its story - a story about women in a land where the women wholeheartedly believe they are worth nothing - but in its historical accounting. I remember when I was small, going with my mother to the museum with its Chinese exhibit, and seeing these tiny shoes, brightly embroidered little slippers that looked like they might just fit a baby. No, my mother told me, these shoes were worn by women. She told me about their tiny feet, and how they bound them. It was something my child's mind couldn't really grasp but was still fascinated by.

Years later, while in a doctor's waiting room, I read an article on the last living women - rural women, from a small village somewhere in China - who had had their feet bound (in, I want to say Cosmo). The account of the procedure was somewhat different from what is described in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - more horrific, if that's possible. Like with female genital mutilation (FGM, or female circumcision), it's yet another torture inflicted on women in the name of either fashion or purity or whatever nonsense the men can concoct. Because, of course, on these tiny feet, the women could barely walk (and with FGM, they can't take any pleasure in sex). What an effective way to control them! And even better, like with FGM, they do it to themselves - willingly!! What idiots we women can be! (Let's not forget the corset, or even the things we do to ourselves today.)

n  n

I loved reading about footbinding in this book. I was riveted. It wasn't just the process, which was educational in its detail, but also the mentality behind it. Some of these girls died from this. But because girls are considered worthless (sons are the greatest treasure and the only reason to have women around), the mothers don't hesitate to do what is necessary in order to marry them off - and get them off their hands. They're just mouths to feed otherwise.

Lily is a product of her time, her culture: she doesn't judge this, not even when her sister dies from blood poisoning. She is proud of her Golden Lilies (the men had sexual fetishes for them); it's because of her tiny feet that she married so high and became Lady Lu. And anyway, it's not the point of the story.

The novel celebrates women, and as we bear witness to Lily, the book itself gives witness to all the Chinese women who lived this life. It's not a pretty life. But amongst it there is beauty. The secret language of the women, nu shu, is remarkable: a phonetic alphabet created by women, used only by women, that men couldn't read - and, to be honest, had no interest in reading. It may be the only language like it, but the Japanese had something similar. In Japan, there are several alphabets in use: kanji, the adopted Chinese characters; hiragana and katakana, two Japanese alphabets; and romaji, our Roman/Latin alphabet. Hiragana and Katakana are lovely, simple characters, easy to read and I wish they would dump the kanji and just use these! But I digress. Hiragana was used by women because the men considered it beneath them - Chinese kanji was the alphabet of scholars and leaders. (Katakana is a shorthand version of kanji, like writing quickly, that is now used for foreign words.) I learnt this interesting tidbit from some of my students when I lived in Japan. Because the men considered it an inferior alphabet, they couldn't read it, thus the women had their own secret language. Just not so secret!

But I haven't mentioned Snow Flower yet. The characterisation in this novel is excellent, and I especially liked the development of Snow Flower. She isn't an easy character to like (neither is Lily at times - mostly because the mentality of these women is so different from the western one), but she is perfectly understandable and this makes her sympathetic. Even more so as the novel goes on and the lives of these laotong diverge so greatly - Lily goes from poor to rich while Snow Flower goes from rich to poor and abused. There is tragedy in this story, but it's balanced by the strength, resilience and fortitude displayed by these women. What's interesting, with Lily, is what she doesn't tell us. There're many details and people she skims over. She doesn't talk about her husband - he's there, he talks, but it's like a business arrangement or a room in a house: it's there, you accept it, but you don't love it or hate it. It's just part of your life. Like a mole on your face. There's the wife of Elder Brother, whom we never see even when she must be in the room, and Lily's children - the sole purpose of her existence, apparently - she doesn't reflect much upon. I guess, from the premise of her writing from an old age and writing the story she wants to tell, some characters just aren't important at all, and others just aren't that necessary. She can be almost heartless at times, and very generous and loving at others. Really, she's a more complicated character than Snow Flower is.

Calling a novel "powerful" is a terribly boring cliché but it is a true one. This novel is powerful. I felt like I lived it. Even if I hadn't been taking part in a readathon, I doubt I would have been able to put it down easily.

I had high hopes for this book, but ended up feeling deflated and disappointed. Two aspects of the book were interesting: descriptions of the practice of Chinese footbinding, and an exploration of 'nu shu,' the written language Chinese women developed to communicate exclusively with each other.

Unfortunately, the book also has two major problems: a boring story, and the use of cheap gimmicks instead of complex characterization.

The story deals with two girls who are matched as 'old sames,' sort of a best-girlfriend relationship that is meant to last for life. Unfortunately, the story of their friendship is just not compelling, and I kept feeling like the author missed the opportunity to tell a really interesting story within the context of the world she creates.

Aside from being boring (the worst sin in fiction) I was also disappointed with the way she handled the intimacy of the friendship between the two women, using what I call the 'cheap and easy Hollywood method for showing intimacy.' In other words, she introduces sexual elements to show us just how 'close' these two women really are, rather than really taking us inside the complex world that is the relationship between two best girlfriends. I thought it was a really shallow treatment of a very deep subject. It was hugely disappointing.

I don't recommend it.

3.5... Like I've said I'm a sucker for historical fiction esp about other cultures that aren't my own. This is a story about women's fate in 19th c. China. Women are just another mouth to feed and are worthless creatures as soon as they are born but the secret language of nu shu helps them get their grievances and venting out without disgracing their mother-in-laws and husbands. This story involves 2 women named Lily and Snow Flower that are to become best friends "old sames" throughout their lives, more important than man and wife bc they get to choose this mate. Their destinies rest on their feet binding, a tradition that breaks your feet and bones to have 7 centimeter feet that can secure a good marriage and status change. So Sun Flower and Lily have this beautiful friendship but as they get older things suddenly become different and naturally their friendship changes. Good story. Just really melancholy. You really have to pay attention or you might get bored.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a 2005 novel by Lisa See set in nineteenth-century China. In rural Hunan province, a county in China, Lily and her friend Snow Flower are a laotong pair whose sisterly relationship is far stronger and closer than a husband and wife's. Lily's aunt describes a laotong match this way: "A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose—to have sons." As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دهم ماه اکتبر اسل 2014 میلادی
عنوان: ‏‫گل برفی و بادبزن مخفی‬‏‫؛ نویسنده: لیزا سی‮‬‏‫؛ مترجم: شهرزاد بیات‌موحد؛ کرج: در دانش بهمن ‫، 1392؛ شابک: 9789641741589؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان چینی تبار ایالات متحده امریکای - سده 21 م

رمان، در یک کلام، با آنچه تاکنون خوانده‌ ام، متفاوت بود. داستان گل برفی و بادبزن مخفی، که «لیزا سی» نویسنده ی چینی تبار امریکایی آن را نوشته، همچون رویایی در بیداری، تسخیر کننده، و سحرانگیز است، و فراموش کردن آن بی‌تردید امکان ندارد. «لیلی» دختر کشاورزی فقیر است، و برای خانواده‌ اش، صرفاً یک دهان و شکم دیگر است، البته که سیر کردن آن، گران تمام می‌شود. روزی دلال ازدواج محلی، خبرهای حیرت‌ انگیز می‌آورد: اگر پاهای «لیلی» خوب بسته شوند، بسیار بی‌نقص خواهند بود. در چین سده ی نوزدهم میلادی، جایی که شایستگی زنی از روی شکل و اندازة پایش قضاوت می‌شود، این خوش‌ اقبالی فوق‌ العاده‌ ای ست. «لیلی» حالا توانایی ازدواجی خوب، و تغییر دادن وضعیت خانواده‌ اش را دارد...؛ وی، به منظور آمادگی برای زندگی تازه‌ اش، باید درد بستن پا را تحمل کند، «نوشو»، نوشتار مشهور مخفی زنانه را، یاد بگیرد، و با «گل برفی» دوستی ویژه برقرار سازد. اما یک تغییر تلخ سرنوشت، در شرف تغییر دادن همه‌ چیز است. شگفتی این کتاب این است که خوانشگر را به مکانی می‌برد، که هم غریبه و هم آشناست...؛ داستانی زیبا و جانگداز...؛ روایت حیرت‌ انگیز نویسنده، در قالب تصویری بی‌پایان از دوستی‌ طی چند دهه، با حسادت، خیانت، عشق و وفاداری ژرف، و تغییرناپذیر، همراه خوانشگر است. ا. شربیانی