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Chinese Cinderella Hyperdoc

includes extracts from the text and the question of literary value

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Ruth Williams
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24 views3 pages

Chinese Cinderella Hyperdoc

includes extracts from the text and the question of literary value

Uploaded by

Ruth Williams
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Warm-up

Do you know the story of Cinderella?

Look at the front and back cover. What can we deduce about the story and
character in this text, based on what we read and what we know about
cinderella?

Brief summary

Chinese Cinderella is a heart-


wrenching memoir by Adeline Yen
Mah. It shares the author's tumultuous
childhood in China, where she faced
rejection and abuse from her family.
Despite her hardships, she found
solace in her resilience and pursuit of
education. She finds her sense of
belonging.

Read the excerpt below taken from ‘Chinese Cinderella’ by Adeline

In the third chapter, Nai Nai herself describes why her ‘feet are so tiny’.

“When I was 3 years old, a tight bandage was wound around my feet, bending
the toes under the sole and crushing the arch so that my feet would remain small
all my life. This has been the custom in China for over 1,000 years. In my day,
small feet were considered feminine and beautiful. If you had large and unbound
feet, no man would marry you. This was the custom.

“It hurt so badly I couldn't sleep. I screamed with pain and begged my mother to
free my feet but she wouldn't. In fact, the pain has never gone away. My feet
have hurt every day since they were bound and continue to hurt today. I had a
pair of perfectly normal feet when I was born, but they maimed me on purpose
and gave me lifelong arthritis so I would be attractive. Just be thankful this
horrible custom was done away with 30 years ago.”
I stared at Nai Nai’s toes, all deformed and twisted grotesquely beneath her
soles. Slowly she immersed them in the pan of hot water, sighing with relief and
contentment.

1. Highlight the words that indicate time. (Click the link for more information
about time words, and why they are important in your writing.)
2. Circle the emotive words. What is the effect of the emotive words used?
3. What tone is used by both the grandmother and the daughter? How do
the tones differ? Include evidence to support your answer. Click the link for
more tone words.

4. Think about context. What contexts are important to consider to help your
interpretation of the extract? Can you write a paragraph to explain?

Complete the round robin below to respond to a range of excerpts from the text.
What does each excerpt reveal about the concept of belonging?

See this folder here for excerpts: Chinese Cinderella

Extract 1 Extract 2

Extract 3 Extract 4

5. Why might this text have literary value? Let’s look at literary value here.
In stories, using words that show time is really important. Here's why:
Order of Events: Time words help keep the story in the right order. This makes it
easier for people to understand what happened first, next, and so on.

Understanding the Setting: Time words tell us when and where things are
happening in the story. This helps us picture the scene better.

Learning About Characters: Time words can show us what characters are like.
For example, if someone is always on time, we know they're organised.

Building Tension: Time words can make the story more exciting by showing
when something important is going to happen. This keeps readers interested.

Adding More Story: Time words can help hint at what might happen later, or they
can take us back to the past for more details. This makes the story richer.

Setting the Mood: Time words can also make us feel a certain way. For example,
if a story starts at sunset, it might feel peaceful.

Setting the context: Time words, in particular years, can help us understand the
historical context. For example, if a story takes place in 1945, we know that WWII
is happening.

Back to questions

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