bound feet & western dress
in china a woman is nothing . br 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 is 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 chinas first womens bank in her later years . br in the alternating voices of two generations this dual memoir brings together a deeply textured portrait of a womans life in china with the very american story of yu is 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 .
alternates the stories of the authors great aunt growing up in the years between the fall of the last emperor and the communist revolution with the authors own search for identity belonging and her family heritage