This was lent to me by a colleague. Great autobiography by Adeline Yen Mah. It is appalling how cruel people could be to defenseless children. Adeline Yen Mah's story was set in a politically chaotic China during the second world war. She was born to a rich family but was often neglected and abused as she was believed to be bad luck (her mother died shortly after giving birth to her). Her father subsequently remarried to a half french half chinese woman, who constantly abused and left her to her own devices.
She was sent away to boarding schools and while, her classmates had visitors or food sent by family, she had nothing. When her classmates went back home during the holidays, she was left alone in the school, all by herself. Her stepmother, knowingly sent her to a boarding school Tianjin, when she knew that a war was impending. The whole family had escaped to Hong Kong. Fortunately for her, she was "rescued" by her stepmother's sister and finally reunited with her family.
Adversity does build resilience in her case. She excelled academically and eventually won the first prize in an international play writing competition. This award, may have seemed trivial, but it changed her life forever. It brought her recognition by her father and he eventually, was convinced to send her to London for medical school. She became a physician and practiced in America.
In the last part of the autobiography was a story written during the Tang Dynasty by Tuan Cheng-Shih. The story is essentially that of the popular fairy tale, Cinderella. This is believed to be the earliest version of the story and not the Italian version written in 1634 by Giambattista Basile. Some, however, believed the story had originated in Ancient Egypt.