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270 of 286 found the following review helpful:
 Engrossing Story of Women's Friendships Aug 14, 2005
By Elizabeth Hendry
Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is an engrossing and fascinating story of women's friendships in nineteenth century rural China. This is an excellent, well-written novel--fascinating on so many levels. Lily, the narrator of the novel is in her eighties, looking back on her life. She shares the stories of her foot binding, nu shu, the secret women's writing, and the various formally women's friendships that society enforced. Lily's sister participated in a sworn sisterhood, where a group of young women formed a friendship that was to last until marriage, but Lily is paired with one girl, Snow Flower, her laotong or "old same." Lily and Snow Flower have a love that is stronger than all of her other relationships--and it causes them both more heartbreak. The novel is really the story of their friendship, its depths, its deceits, its strengths--and it is a fascinating read about a society so different from our own. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reminds me in many ways of The Red Tent in that it explores female friendship in a setting much different than any contemporary one. A fascinating read.
320 of 347 found the following review helpful:
 Sympathy with Both Women and Men Jul 10, 2005
By Virginia J. Tufte
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel is surely intended for any reader who likes a compelling, historically-set, moving, suspenseful story. I have been a fan of Lisa See's mysteries, and her sympathies with, and skill in creating characters of both sexes, are apparent in both the mystery plots and the present book.
This plot is beautifully woven, with two women at its center, but there is compassion for both the women and the men in the nineteenth-century Chinese society the author re-creates so vividly. Lisa See obviously LIKES her characters, and she develops some understanding of and compassion for ALL of them. Her natural sensitivity, vast research--including visits and interviews in the remote region she is writing about--make her work fully convincing.
Tender, celebratory, joyous, painful, heart-breaking at times-- this is a memorable, glorious book. After reading it, I found myself thinking more and more about some of the power, motivations, love, violence, and ways of communication in our twenty-first century societies.
I will pass my copy along to a friend or two, but I will say "Be sure to return it."
55 of 58 found the following review helpful:
Excellent! Dec 23, 2006
By Carolyn Rampone
"Carolyn D'Amico Rampone"
The lifelong story of Lily and Snow Flower broke my heart on so many levels. I cried for them as little girls enduring the traditions they were born to. I cried some more as their fates unfolded and it became evident it would not be a happy ever after tale. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" was an unexpected surprise for me, a great story with twists and turns you might not anticipate. It is fast moving , almost from the first page and by mid book, I wasn't able to put it down. I just had to know what happened and couldn't wait for the ending. Teen girls should read "Snow Flower" to better understand how far women have come since the days of foot binding and arranged marriages. This was an excellent story and I highly recommend it.
26 of 27 found the following review helpful:
A culture that is no more, and a lifestyle that once defined China Sep 03, 2006
By Linda Linguvic
This 2005 novel is about the friendship between two Chinese women in mid-19th century rural China. What was so wonderful about it was that I actually felt I was part of their world and totally accepted their view of life as my own.
Snow Flower and Lily are friends, but their friendship was not random. When they were only seven years old, a marriage broker arranged a contract in which they agreed to be friends for life. They did not live in the same town and Snow Flower came from a more prosperous family than Lily, but Snow Flower visited Lily often, and learned to do household chores as well as the complicated embroidery that all young Chinese girls did in preparation for their future marriages. Yes, both of these girls, as well as the other girls in their households had bound feet. The pain must have been awful. Yet, it was an accepted part of being a woman in those times, and mothers who wanted their daughters to marry well had to force their young girls to go through the agony.
A woman's world was completely different from the world of men. Their lives were that of isolation. In order to communicate, they actually had a secret written language. This language has been documented and really did exist. It is the only known language in the world to have been developed exclusively by women for women. The two girls would write to each other in this language on a fan which they sent back and forth to each other. Both of them hoped for a bright future.
As the girls grow up we share their experiences of marriage. They didn't meet their husbands until the wedding day. And their function in their new households was only to bear sons. Mothers-in-law were usually hard taskmasters and were always critical of them. But if they were married to the eldest son, they would, one day, become a mother-in-law themselves. And so their lives were that of stoicism and acceptance. This was the only way for them to live.
Lily was lucky. Her marriage was good. She produced boy children, and, through the years, she and her husband got to know each other and accept each other. However, the person she was closest to in the world was Snow Flower and they communicated throughout their lives. In contrast, Snow Flower's life was harsh. I shudder to think of it. And I even shudder more when I think of the rift between them when they were in their thirties. Lily does something that she regrets for the rest of her life. The book, in fact, is told in the first person through the eyes of Lily, who lives on to old age.
The author, Lisa See, is part Chinese and has researched this novel impeccably. She even traveled to rural China and interviewed many people, including experts on the secret writing. Times have changed and Chinese women no longer bind their feet, but interviews with elderly women regarding this practice as well as marriage rituals and food preparation add the essential authenticities that are the basic building blocks of this book.
I absolutely LOVED this book. And although I know that it will appeal mostly to women, I know it would add to everyone's understanding of a culture that is no more, and a lifestyle which once defined China.
301 of 361 found the following review helpful:
 A story that makes Chinese people laugh Nov 30, 2007
By BookNerd
"Nu Shu" is the only interesting element in the story. The rest of the story is very lame, very funny and make us laugh when we read. My family, my friends and I all read this book in Hong Kong, and we don't think this is a good story whether it's in English or in Chinese translation. We Chinese feel this story is like a Chinese Stir Fry Hamburger cooked by McDonalds, and then be called "Chinese Food". Poor farm girl could never marry up regardless of her feet! Marriage was dominanted by social status at that time, "Bamboo Door To Bamboo Door", "Wooden Door to Wooden Door" were the undefying rules for arranged marriages, which was never to be violated!!! Well-to-do Chinese Han (Majority Ethnic Chinese) families bounded their daughters' feet so they didn't have to marry down!!! There are many other stupid and laughable things in the story I don't have enough space here to name all!! Powerful, Royal and Rich Ruling Manchurians and a lot of other ethnic groups and poor Han Chinese didn't bind their women's feet!!! Qing Dynasty actually had an imperial ban for feet binding, but was unable to enforce it like the way they enforced the men's dress code!! Han Chinese did it also as a defiance against the ruling Manchurians, because it was the only victory they could hold after China was occupied by a non-Han Chinese ethnic group!
Lily sounds too detached to me in the story. The writer's American voice is too strong in the story, reads more like an American journalist trying to make sense of what she observed and the little she understood in Chinese culture, making whatever she knew Chinese look as exotic as Americans would like to see by adding acts of lesiban scenes (absurd how Lily and Snowflower got naked and lick their finger and write Nu Shu on each other's private parts in Qing Dynasty! They were supposed to be deeply influenced by Confusious teaching and yet doing that!!) Why don't Americans just re-write "Pride & Prejudice" so Elizabeth could do a little dirty lap dancing on Mr. Darcy during their first meeting?
What if the Chinese write a novel about Pre-civil war Georgia in America, e.g. "A Native American Navajo girl Pocahontas O'hara, dressed in a puffy lacey ball gown, wearing a necklace adorned by feathers and danced in a New Year ball hosted by her father, a plantation owner. She danced waltz with a very handsome Mr.Katz, who was an orthodox American Jew and he was wearing a Yamaka...During the whole dance, Pocanhontas was humming her melodic Navajo prayers into Mr. Katz's ears "
What will the American people think of the Chinese if we write something like that?? We will be booed on the "O Reily Factor" every night! Will you call this a good story about the American culture and diversity? But we will never venture into writing stories like that. We respect other people's culture so we just play safe and never write fiction of another culture, cause no matter how much we read about it, there are still things that we will never comprehend becaue we think differently with our Chinese minds! This "Snowflower" book is as silly to the Chinese pepole, as the above book idea to the Americans. Yes, there were some true elements in the book like the Nu Shu, but all mixed up and became very silly together, like a wierd stry-fry.
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