May Meet-up: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

The theme for May will be China; we will be reading "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See and meeting at Ton Kiang in the Richmond. I received this book as a holiday gift and have been waiting to read until it was time to return to Asia with the book club. Ton Kiang serves great dim sum during the day and "Hakka" Cuisine in the evening. Of course with Chinese the food will be shared family style, but we can accommodate all diets.

About the book, from Publishers Weekly "See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. "