Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese Cinderella is a true story of an unwanted daughter written by Adeline Yen Mah. Chinese Cinderella is about Adeline Yen Mah’s childhood. It talks about how she was considered as bad luck by her parents and how they treated her differently from others. It’s about the importance of love, how being left behind can affect a child’s life, enduring the hardships of life and how writing about it can help others. The characters in Chinese Cinderella contribute to represent these themes in the novel through characterisation.

The most important theme represented in this novel is the importance of love for a child being loved by his or her parents. “So I was quite pleased to tell him you are my daughter. Well done!” He looked radiant. For once, he was proud of me. In front of his revered col- league….I had given him face.” This explains how being recognised by her father for the first time can make the daughter feel happy and how her life is being vibrated with joy. This also tell us that in this story, the child had to work hard and be successful in order to be not neglected but to be loved by her father. The theme, importance of love is being shown by using direct speech. It show us that saying pleasant and encouraging words can make a child feel being loved by his or her parent.

The consequences of emotional neglect for a child in childhood is a theme represented in this text. “My family considered me bad luck because my mother died giving birth to me. They discriminated against me and made me feel unwanted all my life.” This tell us that the unjust and prejudicial treatments by others made her feel miserable, unfortunate and alone in her entire childhood because of what others think of her. It constructs the idea that discrimination by others could lead to anxiety and depression in a child’s life. This theme is being represented by using the narrative convention of what others think of the main character to create the feeling