Peony in Love II

So, I decided to finish Peony in Love afterall, and I'm really glad I did.

I learned a lot about Chinese cultural traditions around death and the after world...we observe many of the practices in our family but I had never really understood why and now I do...like why, when we go to my father's grave site we always bring food and burn incense and million dollar "Hell Notes", and the belief that the soul is made up of 3 parts - one which stays with the body, one which travels to the after world, and one which resides in one's ancestor tablet so they may watch over the generations to come.

I was impressed again with how well-researched this novel was - See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which I had read back in February was detailed in its description of the footbinding process, so much so that I cringed when reading it.

I'm now very much looking forward to her next book which is tentatively called Shanghai Girls and set in 1937 Shanghai and Los Angeles.