The Concubine's Daughter A Novel [Paperback]

An epic, heart-wrenching story of a mother and daughter's journey to their destiny.

Lotus Feet. He would give his daughter the dainty feet of a courtesan. This would enhance her beauty and her price, making her future shine like a new coin. He smiled to himself, pouring fresh tea. And it would stop her from running away&

When the young concubine of an old farmer in rural China gives birth to a daughter called Li-Xia, or Beautiful One, the child seems destined to become a concubine herself. Li refuses to submit to her fate, outwitting her father's orders to bind her feet and escaping the silk farm with an English sea captain. Li takes her first steps toward fulfilling her mother's dreams of becoming a scholarbut her final triumph must be left to her daughter, Su Sing, Little Star, in a journey that will take her from remote mountain refuges to the perils of Hong Kong on the eve of World War II.

Drawing on years of immersion in traditional Chinese culture, medicine, and martial arts, PAI KIT FAI, who worked as a merchant marine, a writer, and a creative director for an advertising agency before marrying into one of Hong Kong's founding Eurasian families, delivers a mesmerizing tale of passion and courage in this, his first novel.

1. Discuss the similarities and the differences between Li-Xia and her daughter, Siu-Sing. What matters most to each of them, and what does each do to achieve and preserve it?

2. Pai-Ling tells Li-Xia to gather your thousand pieces of gold wherever you may find them and protect them with all your strength. What do you think this means? How do Li-Xia and Siu-Sing gather their pieces of gold throughout the story?

3. What role does learning, from books and otherwise, play in the principal characters' lives?

4. Discuss the tradition of foot binding in Chinese culture. What are the deeper implications, aside from the obvious physical handicaps of the practice?

5.Tlc°