On my bedside table

When I was in my early teens, I had the desire to serve a mission for the LDS church... to China. I really wanted to serve a mission there. Then I found out that China wasn't open to missionaries. I lost some of my desire to serve a mission because of this. I still think that somehow I will have some kind of experience with China and missionary service- maybe Koby and I will serve a mission there together, or perhaps one of my children will.

Despite all this, I don't know a ton about Chinese culture or even their history. The book group I belong to chose to read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See this last month. I read both this book and another book, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang (I am still reading it since I am on page 4 hundred something and it is a 6 hundred and something page book). It has been an eye-opening experience reading both books.


Snow Flower is a historical fiction novel and has a lot of information on Chinese culture (before communism) and foot binding. It is a great book about two Chinese girls as they grow up and how their friendship grows and matures with them. It follows their lives through foot binding, their matches as "old-sames" (a relationship almost like a marriage where they sign a contract to be best friends for life- a special relationship for only a few privileged women), nu shu which is the secret language between Chinese women that the men don't know, matched marriage, children, miscommunication between themselves, and then old age and death. It was a great book and I enjoyed reading it. I especially couldn't believe the process of foot binding. It is pure torture. A daughter usually has her feet bound anywhere from age 3-7 years old. They break the bones, curl all the toes except the big toe, under the foot, reshape the foot, then bind them so they will stay that way and will not grow.
Can you see her toes under her foot? Yikes!

The perfect bound foot is well formed and a mere 3 (THREE!) inches long. It is called a golden lily- very prized and a woman who has golden lilies can marry very well. Foot binding isn't done today but there are still women living with deformed or bound feet today.


The next book I read was Wild Swans.
It was also packed with information on Chinese culture and how the country changed when communism took over. It is an autobiography/ biography of Jung Chang, her mother and grandmother lives. Wow, I can not believe how much China as a country and people have gone through. Mao really messed up their country. Crazy thing was that I was almost rooting for him and the communist movement when they came in and stopped the massive corruption, pillaging, raping, killing and other horrible things. But, he brought in his own corruption. It wasn't apparent at first, but slowly, he manipulated the Chinese people and they still believed they lived in the best country, that they were going to one day help the poor, starving people of the U.S. because our capitalist society was so horrible that it couldn't take care of its people. Anyhow, the book is 600+ pages and I could go on forever about it. It was tedious reading at times, but I enjoyed reading it just because I didn't know much about the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, about how he could manipulate/ force the people to follow him willingly and at the same time spread such destruction and death around his country.

All I can say is I am so glad I live in America, where I do have freedom and a voice. Where I can say what I want (except for the word bomb on an airplane) and still live a happy life. I can blog. I can worship however I want. I can have an opinion. I really cherish my freedoms and I know I take them for granted. I wanted to post a few entries this month on what I am grateful for (like many bloggers are doing) and I unintentionally made this one of those posts.

So here is Thankful post #1. I am grateful to live in America and the freedoms associated with that!