Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is both an intimate and panoramic look into lives of women in 19th century China. Two young girls become "old sames", something like friends for life, but more than that. They enter into this arranged emotional relationship to further their marriage prospects. One marries well, the other one not, but they remain close friends for life, thanks to the Chinese secret women's writing, nu shu. This now mostly forgotten art made it possible for largely illiterate Chinese women to communicate by exchanging messages written in a simplified script on their fans or embroidered on pieces of cloth.

The protagonists of the novel live their mostly pre-determined lives in the "inner realm" of their respective households, the women's zone of submission, modesty and chastity. This world, as one can imagine, feels oppressive and claustrophobic to the modern reader, especially if the reader is a woman. This, however, does not make this novel any less compelling. A note: the book contains a fairly graphic description of the ancient - and thoroughly repulsive - Chinese custom of foot binding, which was practiced for a thousand years before it was abolished by the Communists in the 1940s.