Xiao Feng grows up with little interest in wealth, power, or status while her older sister is groomed for a glamorous life and an advantageous marriage. The story focuses on Xiao Feng, a beautiful young girl born into a middle class family with a socially ambitious older sister and mother. I've long been interested in 1930s China so I thought that I'd enjoy All the Flowers in Shanghai. But as the years pass, she must come to a reckoning with the sacrifices and the terrible choices she has made to assure her place in family and society, before the entire country is engulfed in the fast-flowing tide of revolution. Ruthless and embittered by a life that has been forced on her, Feng plots a terrible revenge. In the enclosed world of the Sang household - a place of public ceremony and private cruelty - she learns that fulfilling her duty means bearing a male heir. For Feng, that means becoming the bride of a wealthy businessman in a marriage arranged by her parents. In 1930s Shanghai, following the path of duty takes precedence over personal desires for every young Chinese woman. Review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine Program and the publisher. Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks Original edition (December 27, 2011), 320 pages. All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson
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