Why a Booktrail?
1800s: A beautiful story about female friendship and a very special secret language.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
What you need to know before your trail
In rural Hunan province, Lily and her friend Snow Flower are laotong – “‘A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity.”
The two girls undergo footbinding and write letters to one another on a fan in Nü Shu a secret phonetic form of ‘women’s writing which Lily’s aunt taught them.
The novel depicts human suffering in many ways: the physical and psychological pain of foot binding; the suffering of women of the time, who were treated as property; the terrible trek up the mountains to escape from the horrors of the Taiping Revolution
Travel Guide
Transport yourself to a village in the Hunan province in central south China during the 19th century. 80-year-old Lily, the narrator, who refers to herself as one who has “yet to die,” tells the story of her life.
The tradition of footbinding is an interesting one. The ideal foot ( called Golden Lotus ) was about 7 cm in length. The author explains this to a western audience: “Men in China feel about women’s feet as men in west do about a woman’s legs.”
But it is the language of Nü Shu which provides the real atmosphere and setting of the novel – this is a kind of secret language and the way in which the women learn it and take such pride in this communication and cultural skill is lovely to read and a fascinating look at language and what it stands for.
As for booktrailing – The author states that many places in her books are now closed to foreigners and special guides need to be employed in most situations.
Read more here – the language of Nü Shu
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter:@Lisa_See
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Web: lisasee.com
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