I am leaving for China shortly and wanted to read a tale that was placed in Shanghai in the late 1800. The Binding Chair by Katheryn Harrison was a book that fits this need. It centers on a young girl caught in the traditions of old China who endures foot binding to find a position in the society. Her adventures and emotional experiences reflect a kind of self loathing and tragic generational pathos peculiar to the females of her country. Just as I am about to pitch the book as a 'chick read' and find something else, the book discloses a character who is male and almost as tragic. Together, they form an unusual couple and endure further tragedies. My favorite was the scene in London where the main character, May, gets herself into a small riot because she needs a sedan chair carried by servants mistaken as 'slaves' by the outraged people of London. She is so crippled, she cannot walk otherwise. In the end it seems she actually embraces her imposed deformity and takes pride in it, but never her sad life. She is more in control than her husband, and you wonder if it is the culture of women who could survive ancient China and it's regulations on them, or if May and her husband are simply by products of life under any rules anywhere. I think the book could have been better - but it did make old Shanghai a little more real for me.
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