Having A Baby Is Painful In Order

If It Is Perfectly Acceptable For A Widow To Disfigure Herself Or Commit Suicide To Save Face For Her Husband's Family, Why Should A Mother Not Be Moved To Extreme Action By The Loss Of A Child Or Children? We Are Their Caretakers. We Love Them. We Nurse Them When They Are Sick. . . But No Woman Should Live Longer Than Her Children. It Is Against The Law Of Nature. If She Does, Why Wouldn't She Wish To Leap From A Cliff, Hang From A Branch, Or Swallow Lye?

When I Knew I Couldn't Suffer Another Moment Of Pain, And Tears Fell On My Bloody Bindings, My Mother Spoke Softly Into My Ear, Encouraging Me To Go One More Hour, One More Day, One More Week, Reminding Me Of The Rewards I Would Have If I Carried On A Little Longer. In This Way, She Taught Me How To Endure — Not Just The Physical Trials Of Footbinding And Childbearing But The More Torturous Pain Of The Heart, Mind, And Soul.

I’ve Never Thought Much About Whether I Was Happy Or If I Had Fun As A Child. I Was A So-so Girl Who Lived With A So-so Family In A So-so Village. I Didn’t Know That There Might Be Another Way To Live, And I Didn’t Worry About It Either.

I Am An Eighth Chinese, And I Come From A Large Chinese-american Family In Los Angeles.

I Know A Lot About Women And Their Suffering, But I Still Know Almost Nothing About Men.