Beautiful Moon will marry his cousin, who lives nearby. Two years later, Lily has a second son and Snow Flower has another stillborn daughter. Lily is now the eighty-year-old woman who is telling her story. It was so non-compelling, who were these little mice of women, what were they up to, why should I care? Eight years pass and Lily has no contact with Snow Flower. My name is Lily. 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. If this happened, it would improve her marriage prospects and social status. The two reunite and go home together to recover from the trauma they have suffered during the war. The brother turns away from them and goes on to have a happy life. She is expected to work hard, but they are kind. She also confesses that sex is the only thing that makes life bearable because it allows her to get things from him. Uncle Lu, a jinshi who is responsible for Lily’s family’s wealth and status, loses his position and returns home. The girls learn how to behave as women and perform domestic duties, and Snow Flower, who knows the families that Lily and Beautiful Moon will marry into, tells them about their future husbands. I don't have any energy left after finishing this one. The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Snow Flower’s husband was a good man. She also tells her about Taiping rebels who are seeking control over China by imposing strict religious observances and crippling taxes on landlords like her husband if he does not convert them into Christianity or Islam within five years (the penalty will be death). We follow Lily from childhood to old age and learn so much about Yao women's culture in nineteenth century China. On the fan, Snow Flower wrote “You won’t have to listen to my complaints anymore.” Lily starts to view everything that happened between her and Snow Flower as betrayals on Snow Flower’s part. Her family is neither rich nor poor. The epidemic was devastating, but the Lu family is doing well. After all the happiness that has occurred in this house recently, it’s only natural for something sad to happen so balance can be restored. They spend their time talking about life after the wedding, and how it will be different from what they’ve been accustomed to. At night, they sleep together as when they were children but now feel their babies moving inside them. She gets nervous because she doesn’t know what her husband expects of her sexually. The narrator Lily reveals that she’s telling this story to Peony, her grandson’s wife, as part of her confession to Snow Flower who has passed away. Their father gives them a space to work privately during the day while the men are away at work. they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and Snow Flower will marry out to the town of Jintian, but the girls worry that Snow Flower's husband isn't a good match. | Mama tells Lily, "you have promised to be united for life." When girls are 15 years old, Snow Flower comes to stay with Lily’s family for the “Catching Cool Breezes” festival. I was fascinated, however, by the potential for beautiful prose but lists just don't do that for me. A story set in nineteenth-century China and focusing on the life-long friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid social norms imposed on women. Snow Flower explains that her father smokes opium and has sold all their possessions. Chapter 3 Summary: The Fan. Author In defiance of tradition, she has become a vegetarian because she doesn’t want her daughter to go through what they did when they were young girls. This makes her father one of the three most prosperous men in his village, since he has just received an impressive gift from his future son-in-law. During the hot days of summer, Lily and Snow Flower sew clothes for their dowries. Instant downloads of all 1364 LitChart PDFs Reflecting on her first few decades, Lily seems to think her friendship So they got switched in their classes. Upstairs there is a room where women gather and unmarried girls sleep together. in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Snow Flower’s grandfather had been wealthy, but her father became an opium addict and sold everything to pay for his addiction. Wow. The fan and the secret language, created by the women of this time period, that the girls use on the fan is the central symbol of the novel. Have you ever wanted to know how it would have been if you would have lived in another time, like the Roaring Twenties, or ancient Egypt or Rome? Uncle and Aunt are distraught. One night, Snow Flower takes the fan and uses it to cool Lily’s body by writing nu shu characters on her skin. They are best friends who write letters to each other that are hidden in fans. She tells Snow Flower to be positive and hope for a son next time. A sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village. She also tells them that Elder Sister’s sworn sisters are coming over to celebrate Bull Fighting Day with them. Despite the sickening pain, she is forced to walk so that it will strengthen and shape them into a desired lotus shape. Along the fan's many folds, the two women have recorded their lives' significant events in Nü Shu, a secret written language used and understood only by women.Daughter DaysThe story begins in the home of a family in rural China. However, she eventually softens towards everyone but still remains angry at her mother long after the rest of the family has forgiven each other. The two girls sleep together in a room without any other women around. She does everything she can to make Snow Flower’s wedding look good by cleaning the house, hiring friends for help, and bringing food from her own family. Lily recalls a woman named Lotus, who brings Lily Snow Flower’s fan. In either time period the girls get separated, find love, are forbidden to see one another, and somehow they have kept the bond between them both. Madame Wang visits and tells Mama she's found Lily a laotong match with a girl named Snow Flower, who is supposedly of a higher class than Lily’s family. In the letter, Elder Sister talks about her baby and how unhappy she is in her new family. Later that day, Lily and her husband (Dalang) are officially married. Lily is sad for her sister but happy that she’ll be able to stay at home. To see what your friends thought of this book. When they arrive, Madame Wang tells them to wait inside while she goes off with her friends. This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. No phrase or passage noteworthy for its beauty or addition to literature. Although this is the book I've heard is the most "famous", I find "Shanghai Girls", "Dreams of Joy", and "Peony In Love" were a bit more to my tastes; I just connected more with those characters than I did with Snow Flower and Lily. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship