Bound Feet and Western Dress (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385479646)

A harrowing dual memoir that braids the story of a Chinese-American woman's search for identity with the dramatic tale of her great-aunt, who was born at the turn of the century in tradition-bound China and went on to become Vice President of China's first women's bank.

"In China, a woman is nothing."

Thus begins the saga of a woman born at the turn of the century to a well-to-do, highly respected Chinese family, a woman who continually defied the expectations of her family and the traditions of her culture. Growing up in the perilous years between the fall of the last emperor and the Communist Revolution, Chang Yu-i's life is marked by a series of rebellions: her refusal as a child to let her mother bind her feet, her scandalous divorce, and her rise to Vice President of China's first women's bank in her later years.

In the alternating voices of two generations, this literary debut brings together a deeply textured portrait of a woman's life in China with the very American story of Yu-i's brilliant and assimilated grandniece, struggling with her own search for identity and belonging. Written in pitch-perfect prose and alive with detail, Bound Feet and Western Dress is the story of independent women struggling to emerge from centuries of customs and duty.

Author: Pang-Mei Chang
ISBN-10: 0385479646
ISBN-13: 9780385479646
Publisher: Anchor Books
Language: English
Published: 09/15/1997
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.41lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.22w x 0.53d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.1
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 25903 / Bound Feet & Western Dress


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/18/1997