Jane Yang
The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang loosely adheres to the Cinderella trope of rags to riches with a setting in 19th century China. The narrative unfolds through the alternating first-person voices of Little Flower and Linjing.
Driven by severe poverty, Little Flower’s mother sells her to be a muzai (a maid servant) to Linjing, the daughter of a prominent family. But Little Flower’s mother tries to secure her daughter’s future prospects by binding her feet in the hope that her “golden lilies” will attract a spouse who will release her from bondage.
From the outset, Little Flower and Linjing have a contentious relationship. Linjing is jealous of Little Flower’s golden lilies and insists they should be unbound. The forced unbinding of her feet means Little Flower has permanently deformed feet. Linjing is also jealous of Little Flower’s extraordinary skill with embroidery—a talent unheard of in a maid servant with large feet. Little Flower’s embroidery skills earn her the respect of Linjing’s mother, which only exacerbates the tension between the two girls.
When Little Flower tries to escape her bondage, she is captured and suffers a severe punishment which leaves one of her hands permanently disfigured. Things come to a head when Linjing’s true parentage is revealed, and both girls are sent away to a sanctuary for celibate women to work in a silk factory. Linjing pins her hopes on escaping the drudgery of work by convincing herself the employer of the silk factory is attracted to her. When she discovers he is attracted to Little Flower, she becomes enraged and plans revenge. The consequence of her exposure of Little Flower’s relationship is far more serious than she had anticipated. The novel ends with both girls going their separate ways. Little Flower marries her former employer; Linjing becomes a teacher for orphaned Chinese girls.
Set against the backdrop of 19thC China, the novel captures the rigid hierarchy of Chinese society; the patriarchal family dynamics; the treatment of women as commodities to be sold, bartered, and/or married off; and the obsession with bound feet as a marker of upper-class society. The tension between Little Flower and Linjing propels the narrative. But the portrayal of the two main characters is stiff, labored, and marred by a heavy reliance on their respective internal monologues. Each is caught in a repetitive loop of interiority, articulating the same thoughts ad infinitum to the point of become tedious. Their internal thoughts lacked subtlety or nuance. The narrative further suffered from the unwarranted amount of exposition which slowed the pace and disrupted the flow.
The story had a lot of potential, but the execution was disappointing.