RJ4 E組 林家綾

The book I read latest is "Falling Leaves". It was written by Adeline Yen Mah and published by Penguin Readers at level intermediate (1700 words).

This book is the life story of Adeline Yen Mah, who was born in China at a time of great change trouble (early 20century).

Adeline's grandaunt showed her independence by refusing to have her feet bound when she was only three years old. When she reached school age, the family was richer, she was sent to a fashionable and expensive American school, the first child in the Yen family who was taught by foreigners. Several years later, Adeline's grandaunt opened her own bank, all the employees were women, and she didn't marry.

Adeline's grandparents entered an arranged marriage when they're very young. After getting marry, Grandfather supported his family by hiring out boats on the Huangpu River. He was careful with money and by the age of 40, he was quite a rich man.

Adeline's father did well at school, especially in English. At the age of 18, he chose not to go to university and was employed as an office boy in his father's company. When he was 19 years old, he started his own business. The company made money from everything it did. He began to be know in the business world as the "magic boy" who had the power of "changing iron into gold."

Four children were born in four years after Adeline's parents got marry. But her mother died after giving birth to her, and her family thought that she had brought bad luck. Her father's remarriage changed the life of the Yen family, especially after her grandmother's funeral.

In the period of World War 2, because Japanese's invasion, they had to leave Tianjin for Shanghai. Since then, Adeline suffered terribly over the years, emotionally and physically, from her father and stepmother's treatment of her. Her brothers and sister and she received no pocket money and had no clothes except their school uniforms. They also had to walk to and from school daily only if they showed their obedience to their stepmother. All members of the whole family had to listen to stepmother, inclusive of their grandfather and aunt. Adeline's disobeying worsened her relationship with stepmother very much. Life was very different for their half brother and sister. A private teacher looked after them. They had lots of lovely new clothes and toys. They ate meals separately in their room, and ordered whatever they wanted.

Adeline's big sister, Lydia, was forced to marry a man she never met when she was 17. Her stepmother kept the best wedding presents.

After Japanese lost the World War 2 and left China, a war began within the country, between the Kuomintang and the Communists. The Communists was against business people and people with property. The economic situation for people like the Yen was looking very bad. Adeline's father and stepmother decided to move to Hong Kong with her half brother and sister. Her grandfather would like to follow them but her aunt decided to stay in Shanghai. She didn't want to live with stepmother's daily criticism. Adeline's three teenage brothers were left in their Shanghai school, and then sent to university in England. About Adeline, she would be taken away from her family and sent to school in Tianjin and not allowed to send or receive any letters.

I haven't finish this book yet.