Napoli, Donna Jo - Bound

[oyceter]

(re: HP and the Racist DD Mods, I am still going through comments and unscreening things and may take a while to reply, depending on what level my blood pressure is at.)

Napoli writes another fairy tale take, but this time with the Chinese variant of Cinderella: Xing Xing's father has died, and her stepmother is trying to marry off her half-sister Wei Ping(or step-sister? I can't recall). Alas for Wei Ping, this means binding her feet to make her a better catch. Xing Xing has been untraditionally taught to read and write, and her father previously was against foot-binding.

So far, to me, this sounds like a recipe for disaster, given how many well-meaning books yet totally anvilly books attempt to tackle foot-binding.

Thankfully, Napoli does it well.

Xing Xing's father is from the south (or the north, I can't recall), where foot-binding is a fairly recent practice, and he largely likes the idea of Xing Xing and Wei Ping being able to help him out at work. Napoli doesn't specifically mention this issue, but I suspect class issues are involved as well -- foot-binding probably being a symbol of the upper class, who can afford to have immobile women.

Xing Xing's an interesting character to look at in terms of balancing historical mindsets with stereotypes. When her stepmother tells her that she must help Wei Ping and the family out by doing housework and by putting off her own marriage for Wei Ping's, Xing Xing doesn't protest that much. She generally accepts it as good for the family, even though she is a little resentful. I am always wary of the filial daughter who sacrifices everything and never protests. I still didn't quite buy Xing Xing's original portrayal -- that is to say, I believe it, but she didn't quite feel like a fully-fleshed character to me, though that may be more me personally than anything else. On the other hand, I did buy her change at the end.

I also liked that Napoli had the book set in a very specific place and time. She doesn't specify the exact year or location, but it's definitely not handwavy-China. There's difference between the northerners and the southeners, the rich and the poor, and those of different occupations. There's also a tiny note in there about the invention of chopsticks, which sounds like it is true because otherwise it would be odd putting it in there. I didn't catch all the puns and allusions that keilexandra refers to in her post (link below), though I did catch some fairly traditional ones in the poetry. I also totally nitpicked at the poetry; I am not sure what forms they were, but I do not it's not classical Tang poem style. They were a little awkward, but honestly, I am totally splitting hairs now.

Anyway, yay! YA with female POC protagonist! Xing Xing doesn't kick ass on the surface, but I do like how her story ends up going. And now I want to know more about Ming dynasty China.

Links:
- keilexandra's review

Comments

[keilexandra]

Yay, you read it! And liked it, which is always good. (Is Napoli a POC herself? I can never remember. But the historical setting definitely felt real.)

fandom's neglect of John Hersay

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

I don't know why it took me so long to think of it, since it's something I complain about regularly, but have you read John Hersey? Yeah, the guy who's so mainstream that some of his stuff gets assigned in high school.
He wrote science fiction and fantasy decades before "slipstream" blah blah, including a fascinating novel called White Lotus.
It transposes American racism from white on black to yellow on white. The eponymous protagonist is a young girl in the American Southwest who is captured by slave raiders and shipped across the Pacific to be sols in China. Through a largish novel, the story follows most of her life.
It's a long time since I read it, but I liked it a lot. I suggest taking a look when you run across a copy.

[oyceter]

I don't know about Napoli! I checked her webpage, and it doesn't seem like she is. But yeah, it felt like she had done a lot of research, and very specific research at that.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I was looking up Beast by the same author (which I just reviewed for IBARW) to add to my GoodReads review list when I saw you'd reviewed this. I've been thinking about reading it, but was afraid it'd be too much of a downer. Nice review, and I think I'll check it out next time I'm at the library.

[oyceter]

Hee, Napoli's stuff can be really depressing sometimes! Thankfully, this one wasn't. (I remember reading Spinners and feeling like I should just curl up and wither away.)