Title: Text To Self: Chinese Cinderella
Author: Adeline Yen Mah Genre: Autobiography
In many ways, the story of Adeline life can relate to many.Chinese Cinderella made my blood boil and rumble, it was a shocking and rather tragic story about a young child attempting to navigate through an abusive household. Her family had a hatred for her before she could speak or walk. She was blamed for the death of her mother and resentment towards her is undeniable. The worthlessness feeling her family put on her made her have anxiety issues and struggle with loving herself.
This book is based on Adeline Yen Mah; the author of the book. I can not say that my life was anything similar to hers. She had to deal with being unloved and hated by everyone. I was unable to put the book down, you felt like you were going through this together. I can not compare my life to hers but it many ways the way she is feeling is how many adolescents feel. In many cases teenagers battle depression and feel misunderstood. They feel that everything is the end of the world and if i don’t do well now, i never will. They don’t go and talk to others and keep it to themselves until one day they can’t handle it anymore. Adeline for most of her life was unable to love herself and made herself feel worthless and believed what her family was saying is true,
Adeline and I have a main thing in common, it would be the struggle to be confident in our skin. In her case she was treated badly by her family and had to struggle to become her own person. In my case, it has been a struggle to love myself and believe that i’m worth it to others. When others treat me badly and it becomes a regular occurrence i tend to start believing that there lies were true. In both cases we were treated as not as good to make the bully feel more powerful and secure.
The book taught me that i need to believe in myself. Adeline was always told she wasn’t good enough and didn’t deserve anything she was given. But somehow even through that she still managed to overcome all of it and prove she could do anything. For a lot of the book she was trying to prove to her father she wasn’t bad luck or worthless, but she finally realised that she shouldn’t have to prove to anyone besides herself that she’s worth it.
After reading Chinese Cinderella, i experienced Adelines world and how she lived a very tragic life but was still able to be triumphant in the end. She made me realise that even if things feel like its the end of the world now, i still have the support of my friends and family. I admire her strength and how she never choose to give up
“Believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.” Quote From Chinese Cinderella
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter. Harlow, Essex: Longman, 2004. Print.