However, Nai Nai's death leads to the return of her father and their move from Tianjin to Shanghai. The next couple of months are considered wonderful, since the children are under the care of their grandparents, Nai Nai and Ye Ye. Soon after, Niang and her older boy follow. When the Japanese take over mainland China, her father disappears from their hometown of Tianjin for an extended period of time. Adeline immerses herself in striving for academic achievement in the hope of winning favor from her father, who reacted positively to her medal for academic success. Denied love from her parents, she finds some solace in relationships with her grandfather Ye Ye, and her Aunt Baba, sympathetic-yet-weakened adult figures. Niang proves to be difficult and distant towards all of the children, particularly Adeline, whilst favoring her own younger son and daughter born soon after the marriage. This situation is compounded by her father’s new marriage to a young French-Asian woman who has little affection for her husband’s five children. Adeline’s mother died shortly after her birth due to complications bought on by the delivery, marking her as cursed, or ‘bad luck’, by her siblings. Born the fifth child to an affluent Chinese family, her life begins tragically. This book is the autobiography of a young Chinese girl, Adeline Yen Mah.
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