Summary of Zhuqing Li's Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 My grandfather, Chen Shouchun, was the first member of the Chen family to break away from a long tradition of scholar-officials. He went to the Baoding Military Academy, where he took a new name: Chen Daodi, meaning Chen Who Smashes the Enemy. He briefly served in the Nationalist Army, and then returned home to marry and have children.
#2 The family was at the Confucian apex, and Grandfather’s mother, a commanding person with bound feet, was the strongest example for Jun and Hong, her granddaughters. Grandfather, who had been given little education, was a strong and well-respected man.
#3 The family compound known as the Flower Fragrant Garden was where the extended Chen family lived. It was there that Jun and Hong were raised, surrounded by a large family, and exposed to the family’s values.
#4 The Chen family, which originated in Luozhou, a small island in the fertile estuary at the mouth of the Min River, had moved upriver to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, by the time another ancestor, Chen Ruolin, won the clan’s second jinshi in 1787. They were all top degree holders in the bureaucratic system.

Sujets

• China
• Asia
• History
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547063
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Zhuqing Li's Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My grandfather, Chen Shouchun, was the first member of the Chen family to break away from a long tradition of scholar-officials. He went to the Baoding Military Academy, where he took a new name: Chen Daodi, meaning Chen Who Smashes the Enemy. He briefly served in the Nationalist Army, and then returned home to marry and have children.

#2

The family was at the Confucian apex, and Grandfather’s mother, a commanding person with bound feet, was the strongest example for Jun and Hong, her granddaughters. Grandfather, who had been given little education, was a strong and well-respected man.

#3

The family compound known as the Flower Fragrant Garden was where the extended Chen family lived. It was there that Jun and Hong were raised, surrounded by a large family, and exposed to the family’s values.

#4

The Chen family, which originated in Luozhou, a small island in the fertile estuary at the mouth of the Min River, had moved upriver to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, by the time another ancestor, Chen Ruolin, won the clan’s second jinshi in 1787. They were all top degree holders in the bureaucratic system.

#5

In 1937, my grandfather returned home from working for the Nationalist government in Shanghai to find his country in the middle of a civil war. He had been disillusioned by Chiang Kai-shek’s government, which he felt was putting more resources into combating the country’s Communist insurrection than they did into fighting Japan.

#6

The situation had an immediate effect on the Chen family. Grandfather soon announced that he would stay at home in the Garden for good. He may have completely given up on the Nationalists’ ability to protect the country, and decided to take the safety of his family into his own hands.

#7

The war between China and Japan began in July 1937, and by the end of July, Beijing and the port city of Tianjin had been captured by the Japanese. The invading troops marched quickly south down the Eastern Seaboard.

#8

The Japanese swept down half of the Eastern Seaboard in a matter of weeks. Fierce battles were being waged in Shanghai. The Chinese army under the command of General Zhang Zhizhong was suffering heavy losses. On August 17, three hundred Nationalist soldiers were brutally murdered.

#9

Jun’s father told her that the family should leave Fuzhou before it was too late. He explained that the country was broken, but hills and rivers remained. He suggested that she go as far as she could, just as much as she did.

#10

When the family went to Nanping, they were lucky to have a small cabin. The deck was covered with people and their luggage. Children’s cries mixed with the clucking of caged chickens, but still more people pushed their way across the gangway.

#11

The Chen family moved to Nanping, and Jun’s father began preparing the children to take the entrance exam to go to a Fuzhou missionary school called Weili. They all passed, and Jun took over the children’s supervision.

#12

In December 1937, the Japanese began bombing Nanjing, the capital of Nationalist China. The defending general, Tang Shengzhi, radioed from an American ship moored on the Yangtze River, pleading for reinforcements, but he only got any help from the American ship.

#13

The news of the Nanjing Massacre, which went on for six weeks, soon became known all over China. The brutality and horror of the event were seared into the national memory. Anti-Japanese fervor rose to a fever pitch, and the war took on a series of dramatic turns.

#14

Great-grandma was finally able to return to her home in Fuzhou, but she was not happy about it. She was not safe there, she said, and she needed to appease her ancestors in this unsettling time of war.

#15

Qingming, the Chinese holiday that celebrates the dead, arrived with no sense of the usual gravity of the occasion. Jun’s grandmother left the Garden, and Jun felt as if everything was suspended in the air, balanced precariously over a cliff.

#16

Jun’s grandmother had left shortly before Jun was scheduled to take the high school entrance exams. Without her grandma there to help her study, it was hard for Jun to focus on preparing for the exams. When she finally took the exams, she passed them, but missed the high school entrance exams anyway.

#17

When Jun was able to get up on her own, she tried to make her way to the bathroom without help. Down the hall, she could hear her siblings and cousins whispering to each other. Was it just because they didn’t want to disturb her.

#18

Jun’s father took her to a vocational school in Yongan, several towns southwest of Nanping, for an entrance exam. She was excited and nervous at the same time. This was the first step on a life journey of her own, humble as it might be.

#19

Her father, a farmer, had her wear a seat belt when she rode the bus to the city for the first time. It was the first seat belt that Jun or any of the passengers had ever seen.

#20

As Japan continued to push southward, the town of Yongan began to expand. The vocational school Jun was to attend was one of those schools.

#21

The family was excited to be back together again after two weeks apart. Jun’s brother Cang was supposed to arrive by boat from Fuzhou, but he had been saved from drowning by a panic-stricken Third Sister.

#22

After the Spring Festival break, school resumed for Jun in Yongan. She was elected class president, and was happy to be getting back into the swing of things. She loved teaching physical education, and was excited about the prospect of having her own dorm room.

#23

Jun’s life was turned upside down when Japan attacked America at Pearl Harbor, which led America to declare war on Japan. She began to consider going to America to study. Her sister, who was two years younger than Jun, went to medical school instead.

#24

The Liufang School was emptying out as students trickled home after their college entrance exams, though there was tension in the air. Everyone was waiting anxiously to learn the exam results. Jun and Cai were among them.

#25

The Chen family was returning to Fuzhou, and Jun was happy to keep a bubbly admirer by her side. Life would return to normal, and life would resume its course.

#26

The family moved out of the Garden, and rented a farmhouse in the middle of the fields at the foot of the Cangqian Hill.