Throwaway Daughter

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View books by Ting-Xing Ye, William Bell, Ye Ting-xing.

Recommended reading for adults and children. - Rated
This is one of the best Young Adult books I've read. It is well written and brilliantly illustrates the problems caused by the one child policy in China.
Grace, or Dong-Mei, lives in Canada. As far as she is concerned, she is Canadian like her parents and sister, even though she was born in China.
As she gets older, things crop up that remind her that she is "different". When the masscre in Tiananmen Square brings China to the forefront of the Western news, Dong-Mei is prompted to return to China to investigate her roots.
Told in parallel with Dong-Mei's life in Canada, we learn something of the history of her Chinese family and how she came to be abandoned in a Chinese orphanage.
Eventually the two stories link together forming a fascinating, infotmatve narrative.

Simply told - Rated
This novel is about a Canadian teenager who was adopted from an orphanage in her native China, as a baby. Each chapter is written from a different perspective, such as the girl herself, her adoptive parents, and her birth family. The story unfolds well, it is very simply told, and we understand the anguish and frustration that Grace feels as she comes to terms with her abandonment, and the conflict of being the only Chinese person in her hometown, and her eventual decision to go to China.

This type of story is easy to romanticise, but it hasn't been. The simple style may not appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed it. It is a very quick book to read, for those wanting a more deeper insight into China at this time (early 80s) there are plenty of autobiographies and novels around, but this is still a very enjoyable one.

Cradled on the floor - Rated
Cradled on the floor

“When a daughter is born, she is cradled on the floor; she shall wear no badges of honour, shall only take care of food and drink and not cause trouble to her parents:” Chinese Book of Songs
Throwaway Daughter by Ting-Xing Ye
This beautifully drawn portrait of teenager, Grace Dong-mei coming to terms with her ancestry is vividly told with a delicate touch. Since China's adoption of the one child policy thousands of baby girls are left at orphanages every year. Grace is one such girl, adopted as a young baby by a Canadian couple to live in the West. She grows up in the loving, caring Canadian family but is hurt that her adoptive mother, Jane insists on calling herself number two mama, because against all the rules her real mother had pinned a note to Dong- mei's clothing giving her own name which was Chun-mei (Spring Plum-Blossom) Dong-mei means Winter Plum- blossom. Grace is determined to seek out the mother who threw her away.
Told through the voices of Grace herself, her adoptive, Canadian mother Jane, and her Chinese ancestors the story explores China's recent history, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square massacre and the reality of modern day China.
The central story is Grace’s own development to maturity as she comes to accept the dichotomy of her ancestry and upbringing. Her soul-searching was reminiscent of the honesty and poignancy of The Diary of Anne Frank. In a different way it compares well to David Klass’s You Don’t Know Me because of Ting –Xing’s ability to show the vulnerability and self-conscious soul-searching of the teenage mind at war with itself. It differs from both in its use of multiple viewpoints, both Chinese and Canadian which keep the story moving at a fast pace. It is touching, funny, generous and desperately moving. I read it in one a sitting I was so blown away by it.