![]() ![]() ![]() The other six children, following Niang's lead, pick on her, too. But Mah, more willing than the others to defy Niang, is singled out for cruelty. The family has a racial hierarchy in marrying a partly French woman, Joseph hoped to improve his social statushis full-blooded Chinese children probably reminded him that he, too, was Chinese. Mah's father, Joseph, too, mistreats his first wife's children. Niang begrudges her stepchildren train fare to school while her own children are served tea in their rooms and are treated to beautiful new clothes. Her father marries a beautiful Eurasian woman, Jeanne, whom the children call Niang. Growing up in a wealthy Chinese family (first in Tianjin, then in Shanghai), Mah, born in 1937, is considered unlucky because her mother died giving birth to her. A well-told ``wicked stepmother'' story, with the vicious backdrop of racial inequality. ![]()
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