Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Fiction Novel by Lisa See Provides Historical Insight on China
Born within the same hour of the same day and year, Lily and Snow Flower, two girls at the tender age of seven, are matched to become laotong, a relationship stronger than that between a husband and wife.
Although the girls share many similarities, including number of siblings, birth order, and height, their social status within the community is not among them. While Snow Flower comes from a wealthier family, Lily's is among the poorest in the country. The girls both struggle to maintain their sacred and unique friendship when truths about Snow Flower's family arise and the women are thrown into different marital circumstances, and eventually a climactic misunderstanding.
Women's Role in Nineteenth-Century Rural China
At a time when women in China were restricted to the inner realm of cooking, cleaning, embroidery, and childcare, companionship came from other women in sworn sisterhoods, not men, who spent most of their time in the fields. See showcases the importance of an intimate friendship between women in excellent detail with the often harsh lifestyle in nineteenth-century rural China as an unforgiving backdrop.
Historical examples are spotted consistently throughout the novel and provide the reader with an understanding of the complications in everyday life that the two women experience. See, whose inspiration for the novel, comes from nu-shu, a Chinese women's writing kept secret from men for thousands of years, offers examples of poetry passed down from generations and compares the aesthetic appearance of both men's and women's writing in the dialogues of her characters.
See never lets the reader forget the hopelessness that women felt in nineteenth-century Chinese society. Part Chinese herself, the author accurately captures the culture and perspective of women after traveling to remote Jiangyong County in Hunan Province to research for her novel and to meet the last surviving original writer of nu-shu, Yang Huanyi, now deceased.
Female Characters in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
From their Milk Years at age seven, to their Hair-Pinning Days at age fifteen, Lily and Snow Flower display a childish exuberance for their friendship. Even so, See highlights significant, yet subtle differences between Lily and Snow Flower that appear in most every chapter of the novel and foreshadow conflict, making the friendship more realistic. Where Lily remains grounded by rules, convinced that harmony and happiness will always result from obeying, Snow Flower seems more detached from the conventionalities of life in nineteenth-century China.
By including historical bits, See paints an educational picture of the obstacles a Chinese woman at the time must face and the intensity of her emotional highs and lows. Even though See's characters share a common thread of hopelessness, she presents others who stray from the norm such as wistful Snow Flower, eccentric Madame Wang, and Lily's humorous aunt, creating a spectrum of realistic personalities.
See takes a world of arranged marriages and the painful tradition of footbinding that may be difficult for some readers with which to identify, and makes it possible for them to understand the characters, to feel their injustices, and to accept their reactions, whether they be good or evil.
For more by Lisa See, read Peony in Love.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
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