Rating: 
Summary: Touching and very true.
Review: I loved the book and it reflects the life of Chinese girls very truely. If you know chinese, you'd feel funny, cute and familiar but a bit strange when you read her Chinese slangs transferred into english. Her childhood is miserable and her way of facing it, always hiding and dare not speak out, might not be approved, but its so common among chinese kids. All in all, i love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A true Cinderella account!
Review: This is a really wonderful book,in a way,to those who don;t believe in fairy tales,especially Cinderella,here's a really great book-a real-life autobiography.
In the 1930s,a girl named Jun-ling was born into an affluent family with an elder sister and three elder brothers.Unfortunately,her mother died within two weeks after conceiving her,and she was soon considered to be a jinx.And that was when her life changes.The poor rich girl was detested by her own sister and her brothers,and even her stepmother,a snobbish,intelligent and French-Chinese beauty.She lived in a lifestyle practically the same as Cinderella.Though she wasn't forced to do housework or anything,she has no freedom of her own,no new clothes(when the family was super wealthy).She moved from schools to schools,cities to cities,and witnessed the deaths of her beloved grandparents.What life is this for a child who was only aged 5-15 at the time? Her sister picked on her,her brothers tricked her into drinking their urine(yep,they mixed their urine with fruit punch and told her it was a reward for her as headgirl),her closest friend,a little duckling was bitten to death by the family's dog,a German Shephard.The little girl longed to tell someone how life was for her;her friends thought she came from a loving family(when her stepmother cared for her own children than her-slapped the girl,hoped for her death and all really horrible stuff.Seriously,is this what you call a life meant for a human? Adeline writes in a short and simple way.She tells her tale-not any fairy tale,though she did find happiness in the end.She won numerous awards as a student,has a passion for education.But nobody has ever cared for her.Each time she received an award,nobody was there with her.Her presence was almost inexistence at home.Her father hardly cared for his daughter,he did not even know his daughter's name and date of birth.Can one believe this? Reality was tough,reality was harsh,but the girl accepted it-without a word of complain.She did not give up,and promised to do well at school to live a life better than that of her family's.She became well-known for her flair of writng,went to London to study medicine,and became a doctor soon afterwards.This is a heartwarming tale of a girl.A true Cinderella.With a real stepmother.With stepsiblings(her own siblings detested her,what more stepsiblings?).And fairy-godmothers/father(her aunt Baba,grandad,friends).An amazing and truly profilic book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is one the most amazing books I've ever read and probably ever will read, and I've truly read many books. Chinese Cinderella have a lot of fact and can teach you a thing or two or twenty about Chinese and Asian culture. But also give you a story that will make you cry, you'll learn about her struggle through the first years of her life. This is an unique "based on a true-story"-book and it's a very touching story and I recommed it to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Chinese Cinderella
Review: This book is so good, and yet so sad. I cried so much through this book, but I couldn't put it down either, becuase it was so well-written! This is a MUST-READ book. With much description, emotions, and details, this is an AWESOME book! Plus,the fact that it is a true story adds to the emotions people get from reading this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!!
Review: I first read Adeline Yen Mah's book, Falling Leaves, and recognized Adeline Yen Mah's name when my sister gave me this book for Christmas.
Few children in the West can fully understand what it means to go without, particularly the love of parents. Even when there isn't much money to go around, most of the families in the US or Bermuda still have family that do the best they can to make sure each child knows that they are an important part of the family. In other cultures, this isn't always the case as superstition can lead to believing that a newborn child left behind when a mother dies in childbirth is cursed.
That was the case for Adeline. Her older siblings treated her brutily for "killing" their mother. Her step-mother wished she, and her full siblings, weren't around. And her father, her own father, didn't know her birthday, or could he even remember her real, Chinese name.
In spite of being abandoned and mentally, emotionally and physically abused, Adeline proved that even the youngest child can rise above adversity. She knew that she had a responsibility to at least herself to apply herself to her studies to make something of herself so that she wouldn't be forced getting married at a young age and never finishing school, like her older sister.
I encourage parents, especially mothers, to pick up a copy of this book for their children, especially their daughters. It will help children better understand the value of what they have and how to appreciate it so much more.
Rating:
Summary: This is a truly beautiful book.
Review: There. I have reviewed something and given it more than 3 stars. This book is absolutely astonishing. I read it as recommended background reading for a course on the history of China and had expected a book that would be interesting but rather bogged down in facts. On the contrary, I read a book which supplies enough background information for the main story to make sense. The rest of the novel is a beautiful, eloquent story of a young girl in China in the first few decades of the Twentieth Century. I have to admit I was tearful about Adeline's chick. I fully recommend reading 'Falling Leaves' - the first few chapters are a recap of what happens in 'Chinese Cinderella' (I'm not entirely sure why that happens, I mean readers could just buy both books) - but after reading 'Chinese Cinderella' I desperately wanted to find out what happened to Adeline afterwards. If you feel the same, read 'Falling Leaves'. 'Chinese Cinderella' can be read by young and old alike. I was also recommended 'Wild Swans', the standard autobiographical Chinese work, but I have to say I think 'Chinese Cinderella' tops it. Please read this novel. It is such an example of both simple but evocative writing and of human strength in the face of monstrous obstacles. I hope that nobody ever has to live through what Adeline had to cope with.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewatering
Review: I read this book for the first time two years ago, and it still brings tears to my eyes. The hardships that Adeline goes through are incredible. Being the fifth youngest child of her fathers first marriage, and having to younger children from his second, she is treated as dirt. Her blood siblings do not respect her, her step-siblings are spoiled beyond belief, and toyoung to know anything but their own greed. Though her family is well-off, and she is sent to good schools, that is the end of her familys care for her; she owns only her uniform, and eats meager amounts of food. She is sent nother in the middle of communist China, escaping only by accident. After traveling to Hong Kong, she is sent to an expensive religious private school, where we see how her families treatment of her affects her in adolescence. Chinese Cinderella is one of the saddest books that I have read, and I highly recommend it to any and everyone.
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