Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen-Mah

As a daughter in a Chinese family, Adeline Yen has been left out by her family in most occasion. And what’s more, she was born in the 1930’s and at that time Chinese girls still bind their foot (at that time, men find women with small feet attractive and they are considered marriagable) and sons are most prized in Chinese families. As such, the females are often deprieved of higher education compared to their male counterpart.

Adeline’s mother died when she gave birth to her. Because of this fact, her family began to shun her and think of her as bad luck and her father married a woman much younger than him (it was a common practice those days for men of high ranking to have concubines). The woman in question was Jeane Proseperi who’s of French descent (French dad, Chinese mom). She was referred to as Niang (another term for mother in Chinese) by Adeline and her siblings…and yes, she’s the classic evil stepmother as you have read in storybooks.  

Fortunately for her, her Aunt Baba (her father’s sister) is kind to her and constantly nurture her and to Adeline, her Aunt Baba is the kind of mother that she never had and was her role model even to this day. She kept Adeline’s report cards and whenever Adeline’s down (thanks to Niang), she will brought out those report cards to remind her of her great achievements. Mind you, Adeline’s one of the brightest in the Yen family. She even won an English essay competition or some sort and won a scholarship to further her studies in London. And yes, she’s fluent in English as a primary school kid in Shanghai. Her other role model was her Grand Aunt whom she called Gong Gong.

As a child, her Gong Gong rebelled against her father when she was to bind her feet like every other Chinese girls at that time. Her rebellion proved to be a success and her feet were never binded. And few years down the road, she became one of the most successful banker in Shanghai and she bacame the president of Shanghai’s Women’s Bank which she founded in 1924. And that was why she was referred to as Gong Gong rather than Grand Aunt.

Her childhood wasn’t a happy one. She had live under Niang’s “dictatorship”, war and even betrayals by her close ones and this well-written memoir that she authored tells it all. This memoir describes Adeline’s hardships and how she overcome it all even when there seem to be no hope at all. Read on, to know the real meaning behind the term Falling leaves or Luo ye gui gen in Chinese.

P.S: I’m one of those “bananas” and I’m not very familiar with Chinese terms. The Chinese terms mentioned above are from the book itself.

Note: Adeline Yen-Mah is now a physician and author now living in the States. For more info, click HERE.