“Suffering produces character.” To what extent is this true of Adeline in Chinese Cinderella?

Chinese Cinderella is the autobiographical account of Adeline Yen Mah’s childhood experiences
growing up in China and Hong Kong. While she was born into a wealthy family, she did not have a
happy childhood and experienced many forms of suffering as her family treated her as an outcast
and always seemed to value her the least. This suffering produced an adult who was kind, humble
and ultimately successful.

From birth, Adeline Yen Mah was treated unfairly by her family and this shows her how to be kind to
others. When Adeline was born her mother died, and right from the start her siblings cast her out.
Her father remarried a woman called Niang who had two more children with him, and her fathers
first children were not treated the same as the new ones. They are looked down upon by Niang. She
makes them shave their heads and wear traditional clothes, even though her biological children can
wear modern ones. The clothes are uncomfortable, and when the boys wear them it looks like
they’ve “stepped out of different centuries!” They are also banned from eating certain things and
from going certain places in the house. The disparity between Niang’s biological children and her
stepchildren is one of the reasons the children start getting angry. The older children wouldn’t mind
“if all seven of us were treated the same way.” But despite how they are all treated, Adeline had it
the worst. Her older siblings are jealous of how well she does in school in they constantly belittle
her. She is not allowed to go to friends houses, or even take the tram to school, and every part of
her life is controlled by Niang. She is sent off to schools where she doesn’t know anyone and
physically and mentally hurt. But she manages to use these experiences to be a kind and humble
person, who looks out for other people.

Adeline’s attitude towards PLT shows her kindness and ability to care. We see this when she
immediately tells all her school friends about PLT because she wants them to share in her happiness.
She values PLT because she was a gift from family friends. Adeline rarely gets gifts, especially not
ones approved by her family. PLT means a lot to Adeline and is her “best friend in the whole world”
because Adeline finally has someone who will care about her no matter what. PLT helps Adeline
through her grief and gives Adeline a sense of purpose. Adeline felt “immense consolation” when
PLT followed her when she was sad and felt that PLT was “the only one who’s always there” when
she needed it. The fact that PLT died because of her family was heartbreaking for Adeline. She was
“overwhelmed with horror” and felt an “aching sense of loss” whenever she remembered that PLT
was gone. She and Third Brother held a funeral for PLT and it brought them closer together. How the
family treated PLT showed Adeline what kind of people they were and made her promise herself
that she wouldn’t treat people like that. Even though Adeline is treated horribly by her parents and
siblings, she uses that as a reason to be kind because she doesn’t want anyone else to feel that way.

Adeline Yen Mah wrote Chinese Cinderella when her stepmother died and she was not
acknowledged in the will. She decided to share the experience of her unhappy childhood with the
world and therefore broke one of the taboos of Chinese culture; to be open about family life. While
Adeline suffered both emotional and physical bullying from both her parents and siblings, these
experiences helped her care for people and grow into a successful doctor and author.

Hannah Hyde
Word Count 621