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A Novel
by Lisa See
Chapter 1
Milk Years
My name is Lily. I came into this world on the fifth day of the six month of
the third year of Emperor Daoguang's reign. Puwei, my home village, is in
Yongming County, the county of Everlasting Brightness. Most people who live here
are descended from the Yao ethnic tribe. From the storytellers who visited Puwei
when I was a girl, I learned that the Yao first arrived in this area twelve
hundred years ago during the Tang dynasty, but most families came a century
later, when they fled the Mongol armies who invaded the north. Although the
people of our region have never been rich, we have rarely been so poor that
women had to work in the fields.
We were members of the Yi family line, one of the original Yao clans and the
most common in the district. My father and uncle leased seven mou of land from a
rich landowner who lived in the far west of the province. They cultivated that
land with rice, cotton, taro, and kitchen crops. My family home was typical in
the sense that it had two stories and faced south. A room upstairs was
designated for women's gathering and for unmarried girls to sleep. Rooms for
each family unit and a special room for our animals flanked the downstairs main
room, where baskets filled with eggs or oranges and strings of drying chilies
hung from the central beam to keep them safe from mice, chickens, or a roaming
pig. We had a table and stools against one wall. A hearth where Mama and Aunt
did the cooking occupied a corner on the opposite wall. We did not have windows
in our main room, so we kept open the door to the alley outside our house for
light and air in the warm months. The rest of our rooms were small, our floor
was hard-packed earth, and, as I said, our animals lived with us.
I've never thought much about whether I was happy or if I had fun as a child.
I was a so-so girl who lived with a so-so family in a so-so village. I didn't
know that there might be another way to live, and I didn't worry about it
either. But I remember the day I began to notice and think about what was around
me. I had just turned five and felt as though I had crossed a big threshold. I
woke up before dawn with something like a tickle in my brain. That bit of
irritation made me alert to everything I saw and experienced that day.
I lay between Elder Sister and Third Sister. I glanced across the room to my
cousin's bed. Beautiful Moon, who was my age, hadn't woken up yet, so I stayed
still, waiting for my sisters to stir. I faced Elder Sister, who was four years
older than I. Although we slept in the same bed, I didn't get to know her well
until I had my feet bound and joined the women's chamber myself. I was glad I
wasn't looking in Third Sister's direction. I always told myself that since she
was a year younger she was too insignificant to think about. I don't think my
sisters adored me either, but the indifference we showed one another was just a
face we put on to mask our true desires. We each wanted Mama to notice us. We
each vied for Baba's attention. We each hoped we would spend time every day with
Elder Brother, since as the first son he was the most precious person in our
family. I did not feel that kind of jealousy with Beautiful Moon. We were good
friends and happy that our lives would be linked together until we both married
out.
The four of us looked very similar. We each had black hair that was cut
short, we were very thin, and we were close in height. Otherwise, our
distinguishing features were few. Elder Sister had a mole above her lip. Third
Sister's hair was always tied up in little tufts, because she did not like Mama
to comb it. Beautiful Moon had a pretty round face, while my legs were sturdy
from running and my arms strong from carrying my baby brother.
Excerpted from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Copyright © 2005 by Lisa See. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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