Title: Luo ye gui gen (Falling Leaves)
First published: 2000
Description: Adeline Yen Mah was born in 1937 in Tianjin, a port city one thousand miles north of Shanghai. She was the fifth and youngest child of an affluent family. Her grand aunt - in an unprecedented achievement - had founded the Shanghai Women's Bank in 1924, and her father was a revered businessman whose reputation for turning iron into gold began when he started his own firm at the age of nineteen.

Yet wealth and position could not shield young Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of her own family.

Adeline's mother died giving birth to her. As a result she was deemed bad luck, and considered inferior and insignificant by her older siblings, who bullied her relentlessly. When her father took a beautiful Eurasian as his new wife, Adeline found herself at the mercy of a cold and cruelly manipulative stepmother. While Niang treated all of her stepchildren as second-class citizens, the full power of her wrath was unleashed on Adeline.

As the Red Army approached in 1949, the family moved to Hong Kong. Adeline was shuttled off to boarding school in virtual isolation, forbidden visitors, mail, and all contact with her family. Burying herself in books, she dreamed of freedom and a new life.
Subjects: Biography, California, China, Chinese Americans, Family, History, Social conditions, Social life and customs, Stepchildren, Women physicians, nyt:family=2015-02-08, New York Times bestseller, California, biography, China, social life and customs, Mah, adeline yen , 1937-, Yen, joseph tsi-rung , 1907-1988, Women physicians--california--biography, Chinese americans--california--biography, Families--history, Families--china--history--20th century, Stepchildren--social conditions, Stepchildren--china--social conditions, Families, Families--china--20th century, Ct275.m45115 a3 1997, Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction, China, juvenile literature, Women, biography, Women, biography, juvenile literature, China, biography, Chinese American women, Easy to read materials, Manners and customs, Biographies, Chinois, Recits personnels, Moeurs et coutumes, Mujeres como médicos, Vida social y costumbres, Chino-americanos, Biografía, Readers, China, social conditions
Places: California, China, Chinese Americans, Chine, Etats-Unis, Californie (Etats-Unis)
People: Adeline Yen Mah (1937-), Joseph Tsi-rung Yen (1907-1988), Adeline Yen Mah
Time periods: 1937-1945, 20th century, 1945-1970, 1970- ...