Genre
Autobiography / Memoir
Setting and Context
China, post Cultural Revolution
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator is the author. She tells the story both from her own point of view, and from the perspective of other Chinese like her who wanted freedom.
Tone and Mood
The tone is at times upbeat, generally during the author's childhood when she did not realize the way that things were in China. There is also an underlying tone of manipulation and dishonesty. The mood is both exciting as she yearns to leave, and threatening.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The author is the protagonist, the architects of the Cultural Revolution her antagonists.
Major Conflict
Yu-Fang does not want to go to the General's house and declines his invitations but there is conflict later when these invitations become direct orders that she does not want to obey.
Climax
The author manages to leave China for a new life in the West.
Foreshadowing
The Cultural Revolution foreshadows the end of freedom in China in the way that it has been known and experienced previously.
Understatement
The status of a concubine was said to be "important" which is somewhat of an understatement because it was the only thing that could elevate a poor girl from her low status to a higher one and improve her standard of living or her future.
Allusions
The author alludes to the archaic cultural practices such as foot binding that are considered important and mandatory elements of a woman's upbringing but that are also oppressive to women.
Imagery
The author describes the practice of foot binding in great detail enabling the reader not only to imagine the way in which it is done but also to imagine the pain and discomfort that it caused.
Paradox
The international newspapers that were accessible to the Chinese people generally included quotes from the free West celebrating China and its leaders. This was intended to make readers believe that the people of the West were envious of the Chinese and wished that their countries were run in the same way, but it had the opposite effect on the author; it made her realize how much freedom and liberty there was in the west if a Westerner was allowed to freely praise another country and denigrate their own without facing any consequences whatsoever.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the author's growing older and realizing that there are no opportunities for her in China.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Cultural Revolution was an event but is also the way in which the author refers to the Maoist government and its dictator leader.
Personification
N/A
