The Silk Fan (symbol)
Lily and Snow Flower send notes to each other on a silk fan. Through the letters, they share their joys and tragedies, hopes, and frustrations. They write songs, embroider messages on handkerchiefs, and create stories. Lily teaches Snow Flower cooking and cleaning, while Snow Flower teaches Lily the art of weaving and calligraphy. The silk fan records their achievements, anxieties, and failures. It symbolizes a medium of expression for women who live in a society bound by rigid social conventions.
The Secret Language (symbol)
The Chinese women use a secret language ‘nu shu’ which means ‘women’s writing.’ As the traditional Chinese culture forbids girls to receive an education, they practice nu shu in secrecy. Every mother teaches the language to her daughter. The system allows women to communicate with each other, keep autobiographies, write poetry and create stories. The emergence of the secret language symbolizes a woman’s retaliation to a sex-segregated society.
Tiny Feet (symbol)
In a feudal Chinese society, tiny feet are symbolic of feminine beauty and sensuality. The women live by the fetishistic expectations of a male-centric social order. The extreme pressure for a perfect body gives rise to the tradition of foot-binding. As a part of the stomach-churning custom, the feet of little girls are gruesomely tied and stunted in the hope that they will become beautiful like lotus buds. The ritual starts at the age of six years and takes two years to complete. The brutal mutilation frequently involves broken bones, infections, and incapacitation. The custom serves the purpose of preparing doll-like females to attract grooms from the upper-class of society.
The Lattice Window (symbol)
In a patriarchal Chinese society, women are uneducated, isolated, and undervalued. According to the Confucian norms, girls are supposed to live in a secluded chamber of the house until they get married. They are tucked away doing household chores, weaving, and embroidery. The room has a single lattice window through which they can look out. Lily and Snow Flower spend their days watching the birds fly, and the clouds sail. They observe the growing and shrinking moon. The lattice window is symbolic of a gateway to the world outside the confines of their home.
The Temple of Gupo (symbol)
The Chinese women visit the Temple of Gupo to pray to goddess Guanyin for sons. The new mothers leave behind baby shoes at the altar. The expectant mothers are supposed to secretly ‘steal’ the shoes for their new babies. The custom depicts the mindset of a society that gives preference to the male child. Expectant mothers are under pressure to give birth to sons, and a daughter’s birth is a matter of shame. A woman who bears a daughter is humiliated by her family, especially her mother-in-law. The Temple of Gupo symbolizes the stigma associated with the girl child.
Lotus Shoes (symbol)
In 19th century Chine, tiny lotus shoes had a special place in a little girl’s heart. The shoes are usually embroidered with certain motifs and given to her from her mother on the first day of footbinding. For the girl, the shoes have emotional meaning that goes beyond the material aspect, because since the day she receives them, her mother starts teaching her all the characteristics of being a good woman, beginning with sewing and shoe making. The shoes were of great significance as they were the sign of her mother’s love which was rarely shown especially since girls were not as valued as boys and their sole purpose was to give birth to as many sons as possible, but not daughters. (Ko 2001, 69)
Ko, Dorothy. 2001. Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet. London: University of California Press.
