Part I: Bibliographic information
Type: Novel
Title: Ties that Bind, Ties that Break
Writer: Lensey Namioka
Copyright Date: 1999
Publisher: Dell Laurel-Leaf
ISBN: 978-0613-283779
Genre/subgenre: Young Adult -- Historical Fiction
Interest Age: 13+
Reading Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)
Pages: 154
Awards: California Young Reader Meda, 2004; Washington State governor’s Award, 2000; ALA Best Books list, 2000.
Part I: Reader’s Annotation, Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation
Reader’s Annotation -- A woman born in pre-revolutionary China looks back on the events that impacted her life starting with her father’s decision that she did not have to bind her feet and could go to school to learn English.
Plot Summary -- The main character is the third daughter born into the Taos family. Her father is a busy government official and her mother and grandmother raise the girls according to tradition. When it’s time for the very active “Little Miss Three” -- whose name is Aileen -- to have her feet bound, her father allows it to be put off more than with the others. The girl is introduced to her future husband Hanwei when she is around age 5 -- the boy is 7. However, his family insists that the foot binding should be underway already. Aileen puts up a huge fuss, and it’s very upsetting to both her grandmother and her mother. However, father sees that times are changing and decides to let her not be bound. The arranged marriage is cancelled shortly thereafter. Later, her father decides that Aileen will be allowed to attend a public school, where she starts at age nine and quickly excels at language and English.
The family sees a period of economic decline that is exacerbated by the revolution of the 1911. Many things are changing in China and for the Tao family but the promise of a republic replacing the dynasty excites her father. However, as a family, they are pressed to keep up with their old standards of living due to falling revenues from their farmland holdings. Also, her father falls ill and dies leaving the family decisions to the Big Uncle who is not so enlightened. He tells Aileen that she has to leave school. While she continues until the end of term, her education ends and she fears her friendship with fellow student Xueyan as well. Her hopes are hung on a missionary teacher, Miss Gilbertson, who sees her talent agrees to continue private English lessons outside of school.
Faced with the choice of being concubine, marrying a farmer or becoming a nun, Ailen rebels from her Big Uncle’s wishes and becomes a nanny for a Christian missionary family. After several years, they return to San Francisco and offer her to come to work for them. She knows it means she will probably never seen her family again and the goodbyes are hard. She finds that in America that the family is of modest means -- no servants, not cook. On route, she has met a Chinese American man in his twenties who father has a restaurant in Chinatown. They later meet and decide to marry. She finally contacts her family about her new life, which she enjoys though it’s hard work. By chance, her former fiance Hanwei comes to their restaurant and they talk about why she had to leave. He says she could have married in China and had a good life of leisure. But she tells him she is glad she did not bind her feet and is happy to have worked hard to earn something in life.
A brief epilogue discusses the history of foot binding and the reason the practice continued for hundreds of years in China despite its debilitating nature. The practice was primarily done to aristocratic Chinese girls for many centuries and left these women without the ability to walk properly or live independent of a husband and servants.
Critical Evaluation -- This unique work of culturally specific historical fiction was both moving and engaging as well are drawn into the story of one girl who stands against tradition at grave personal expense. Coming of age in pre-revolutionary China involved strict adherence to norms that the feisty Ailen feels go against her sense of self. To bind this girl who loves to run and play is something even her Grandmother struggles to understand. But there is too much for the family to lose and by breaking with tradition the family to whom Ailen is promised as a bride at a very young age breaks off the arrangement. She is doomed to a life of servitude at best. Yet she struggles to prove her value in a male dominated world and learns English as a way out of her predicament. The ending has both elements of tragedy and triumph -- and we do not soon forget the strongly drawn characters of grandmother, father and child that make up this deliberate and powerful story.
Part III: Author Info
“My name is Lensey Namioka. I was born in China and moved to the United States when I was nine....My husband is Japanese, and that's why I have a Japanese last name. I am interested in both Japan and China, so I have written books about both places....I remember being a little girl in China. I also remember what it was like when our family moved to the United States. So I have written stories about what it's like to move to a new country and learn a new language,” according to Namioka’s website.
Although she is Chinese, Namioka has a Japanese last name because her husband is from Japan. She has explored a number of themes relative to Asian American experiences, including this novel about foot binding, Asian marriage across nationality lines. (Namioka, n.d.).
Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues
Curriculum Ties, if any -- This work would be a good addition to an English course seeking to diversify into historical and culturally diverse fiction.
Diversity of Cultures -- This books explores the Chinese culture and its traditions of the early 20th century. Additionally, the author is Japanese American whose interest in the Chinese culture was in part motivated by her marriage to a Chinese man, which also constitutes a cultural faux pas.
Booktalking Ideas -- This story focuses on an ancient practice of foot binding that was widespread among aristocratic women in China. This practice embodies a fundamental prejudice against women as equals of their male counterparts. What other practices can we recall that compare to food binding? Are any of these still in use today?
Challenge Issues -- This story is somewhat disturbing in its descriptions of this barbaric practice. This makes it a work that the reader should be fairly mature to fully understand. I would not recommend this work to readers under age 13 for its mature content.
Part V: Reasons chosen
There is sometimes too little written in young adult about the variety of cultures represented on today’s America. Asian cultures are by and large underrepresented but also lumped into the broader category when in fact individually their histories and cultures vary widely. This particular book focuses on China and touches on the impact and reasons behind the Chinese Revolution of 1911. So not only do we learn about some of the social factors at work in historic China that may have contributed to the need for massive change but we also learn quite a bit about Chinese history through the late 19th and early 20th century in this work. It’s not a easy read because the girl’s fall from grace with her family is sad and traumatic. However, it raises some important issues about the role of women in our society both then and now as well as in China and here in the United States. It forces one to ask what other practices that embody fundamentally sexist beliefs do we tolerate now that might someday be viewed as hard-to-believe we ever tolerated. Additionally, Lensey Namioka is a relatively unsung talent as a writer and her storytelling really carries this work of historical fiction to a higher level literary polish than we would typically expect of a YA novel.
Part VI: Citations
Namioka, L. (n.d.) Lensey Namioka, writer [webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.lensey.com/about_lensey.html
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