All of you might have heard of the story, 'Cinderella'. There, a girl named Cinderella loses her mother and has a stepmother, who treats her badly, not to mention the stepsisters, who act as if they are princesses. This story, 'Chinese Cinderella', is a real story of a Chinese girl who had a life sort of like Cinderella's.
This girl's name is Jung-ling, but in English, Adeline Yen Mah, and by her siblings, she is called Wu Mei, which means fifth younger sister. Her mother died giving birth to her, and from that on, her big sister and her 3 older brothers thought of her as bad luck. Life didn't get better for Adeline when her father remarried with a woman who was half French and half Chinese. The children were supposed to call her Niang. Niang was a beautiful woman and she gave birth to two children, Fourth brother and little sister. Niang spoiled her own children thoroughly but subjected the other 5 children. The only thing Adeline can rely on is her Aunt Baba and her school, where she wears the same cloths as the other children, and never get mistreated as the was she is at home. At school, she pretends she have a loving family, but nevertheless, she feels sad when she sees other girls being drove to school. Instead, she has to walk every day, no mater what, to school. Niang is much more strict than that. No weekly allowances for rides to school, no parties, no visiting a friend's house or calling one, etc... Adeline win prizes at school by working very hard. Her classmates respect her and she is happy at school. Also, the only way to get love from her father. However, at the same time, she gets hatred from he
r siblings. One day, Adeline gets voted for the class president, and not knowing that Niang hates other children in the house, follows Adeline home with presents. Niang gets really angry and sends Adeline to a far away orphanage. Niang's sister comes to 'rescue' her from the orphanage and take her to Niang! Of course, she didn't know the relationship between Adeline and Niang. Then, Adeline's grandfather dies, which was a great sorrow for Adeline. But luck came. Adeline took part in a story writing contest and she won, which made her father happy. So Adeline got what she wished. She went to college. A happy ending. Just like the story, Cinderella.
This story was a true story of an unwanted daughter, and it made me cry several times while reading it. Even if we don't want to admit, we must be thankful for the privileges we have.
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