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Chapter 5: Arrival in Shanghai
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Chinese Cinderella, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Physical and Emotional Abuse
Coming of Age and Self-Worth
The Power of Stories
Toxic Family
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
On the first day of her new school, Adeline is unsure of who is supposed to take her there. The house seems empty and the chauffer has already left with her brothers. The cook takes pity on her and brings her to school on his way to market. When school is let out, Adeline waits by the gate for someone to arrive to take her home, but no one comes. She waits until the school has emptied and the gate is locked, and then nervously walks into the streets of the city, trying to find her way home.
Within the new family hierarchy and as the youngest of the already hated stepchildren, Adeline is completely disregarded. For such a young child, this is a terrible realization to make and contributes to her loss of self-worth. If her parents or family cannot even consider her long enough to remember to pick her up from school, will anyone ever care for her at all?
Themes
Adeline walks through the streets for miles until the evening light begins to fade. She is very hungry. A shopkeeper sees the terrified little girl wandering outside and brings her in the shop to wait for her parents. Adeline finds a telephone and, having memorized her home phone number through a game she played with Big Brother, calls Father. Father picks up, seemingly unworried, and Adeline’s heart sinks as she realizes no one even noticed that she had not come home. When Father picks her up in his car, he hands Adeline a map of Shanghai and tells her that now she will never be lost again. Adeline is determined to learn to read it, for she realizes that without Aunt Baba, no one else is looking out for her.
Not only has Father and Niang’s neglect wounded Adeline emotionally, it has also placed her in considerable danger as well—the streets of a foreign city are not a safe place for such a young girl to be so late in the evening. It is noteworthy that Father never takes any responsibility for what has happened, never apologizes or even tries to calm Adeline’s nerves. Furthermore, expecting that by handing his six-year-old daughter a map she will be fine once again demonstrates his utterly unrealistic expectations of Adeline, expecting her to have the same capacities as an adult. This furthers Father’s characterization as an inconsiderate, narcissistic person who is hardly a father-figure at all.
Themes
