Adeline Yen Mah
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Adeline Yen Mah (Chinese: 馬嚴君玲; pinyin: Mǎ Yán Jūnlíng) is a Chinese-American author and physician. She was born in 1937; the exact date of her birth date is unknown, though according to her biography she was later given her father's birthday, 30 November. She grew up in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hong Kong with an older sister, Lydia (Jun-pei); three older brothers, Gregory (Zi-jie), Edgar (Zi-lin)and James (Zi-jun) and a younger half brother, Franklin and half sister, Susan (Jun-qing). She has stated in her book Falling Leaves that she has not used the real names of her siblings and their spouses in order to protect their identities; however, she used the real names of her father, step-mother, aunt and husband. Currently she divides her time between southern California and London. She is married to Professor Robert Mah and has two children.
Biography
Adeline was born in Tianjin, China. Two weeks after her birth, her mother died due to medical complications from the delivery, and Mah was subsequently labeled "bad luck" by the rest of her family. One year later, her father, Joseph Yen, married a Eurasian woman, Jeanne Virginie Prosperi, whom she refers to as Niáng (娘, another term for mother). The woman doted upon Adeline's father and her own two children, while mistreating the rest of the family, particularly Adeline. This childhood conflict, involving emotional abuse and Mah's attempts to gain her father's affection, are detailed in her second novel, Chinese Cinderella.
At fourteen, as her autobiographies state, Mah won a play-writing competion, and convinced her father to let her study in England. She completed a medical degree, and established a medical practice in California. In her free time, however, she continued to write about the tragedies that had overshadowed her life. Her memoir, Falling Leaves, relates her full life story. It begins by relating her emotionally deprived childhood under her stepmother's cruelty, and goes on to recount how, after her father died, her stepmother prevented his children from reading his will until her own death two years later.
Falling Leaves sold over one million copies worldwide, prompting Mah to quit medicine and devote her time to writing. Her second novel, Chinese Cinderella, was an abridged version for children of her autobiography, and sold equally well. She has since written A Thousand Pieces of Gold, a book which looks at events under the Qin and Han dynasties through Chinese proverbs and their origins in Sima Qian's history Shiji; and Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, her first fiction book, based on events in World War II. YeYe believed in Adeline and told her to create her own destiny. She looked for hope in the face of hopelessness, she looked for joy in the face of misery and eventually became a success.
Bibliography
- Falling Leaves (1997)
- Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter (1999)
- Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Traditions, and Spiritual Wisdom (2000)
- A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China's Past through its Proverbs (2002)
- Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society (2005)