Themes
Traditions and customs
I think this
is the most remarkable theme in the book: Chinese old traditions and customs.
In my opinion, everything in the story goes around this. We can see a society
that has a strong relation with their traditions. The first tradition we face
is within the first chapters of the book: the bound feet. This tradition
started in the 10th century and basically consisted in deforming
upper social classes young girls’ feet as a matter of beauty and social status.
Eventually it spread to all social classes. In the book, Ailin belongs to a
wealthy family and her mother and sisters have their feet bound. The society
and her family create a pressure on the little girl to submit to this painful
practice. Nevertheless, despite of her short age, she decides that she wants to
have regular feet.
Gender roles
This is was
too obvious to skip it. Sexist customs and behaviors are well known in Asian
societies like China and Japan, and this is innocently showed in the book. As
Ailin is a little girl, her family traditions are normal for her, but as she
grows up she realizes that as a girl she should have the same rights that boys
have. One of the things that shocked me more was the fact that when a family
has a male visitor, the females have to eat somewhere else but the dining room.
Another sexist tradition was the fact that only boys get to go to the school,
girls are educated at home. The role of the women in this Chinese society was a
passive role. They were expected to serve their husbands, have children, learn
“educated girls” hobbies (like tailoring), and be submissive.
Close-minded people, xenophobia.
Big Uncle is
the perfect example of this vast population of people that resisted to
globalization. He criticized foreigner customs and appearance (calling skits
inappropriate clothing and Americans “big noses”) and argues that Chinese
market should stay local, this means, not to trade with foreigners. He even
states that he prefers to buy Chinese expensive clothing instead of foreigners’
economic products. Ailin’s father is the other face of the coin: despite he
looks like a wise conservative man, he says that letting in foreigners can
bring good things for the country.
Life decision
This is something I consider is worth talking about. It’s well known
that Asian cultures have really strong beliefs regarding religion and luck.
They have principles about accepting one’s destiny and those kind of things,
but we can see in the book this little Chinese girl that is completely decided
to fight against imposed traditions of her culture.
Significance of the book
The tradition of the bound feet ended in the early 20th
century thanks to the Chinese anti-bound feet campaigns. That means the
practice of deforming little girls feet lasted for 10 centuries. I think that
when the book was published (2000) had no other intention than showing this
“hidden” or “secret” part of Chinese traditions from a Chinese girl
perspective. As I mentioned in the themes in the Life Choices subtitle, I do think that the book addresses also to
the belief that the place where you come from may say a lot of things about
you. Namioka goes against this belief with the character Ailin.
The book was well received, and was nominee and earned some prizes:
Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee (2002), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2005), Washington State Book Award (2000)
Significance of the title
I haven’t
finished the book, so it’s kind of hard to figure it out. For what I’ve read, I
relate the title to the relation between personal choices and traditions. As we
can see in the book, Ailin’s family and the society she lives when want her to
follow things that are imposed to her, like feet binding, the place in the
society as a woman, etc. And “ties that break” may talk about the things a
person can do for him or herself, like personal choices. The way to space those
imposed things.
Sources
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/962767.Ties_That_Bind_Ties_That_Break
