Adeline Yen Mah, the author of this fall's common reading, "Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter," told students Nov. 11 about the oppression she suffered at the hands of her stepmother, and the courage it took for her to write the book. Details...
“Falling Leaves” is a memoir about Yen Mah’s experience as an unwanted child in a large familiy in China, and her lifelong batle to overcome the emotional scars she suffered. Yen Mah grew up in a home where her tyrannical stepmother abused her both mentally and physically.
She told the audience in Koury Center Tuesday evening of the consequences she has suffered as a result of writing the book.
“It is rare for a Chinese woman to speak out as I have,” Yen Mah said. “Because of this, I have incurred the wrath of my relatives and I have been ostracized.” Repeated letters to her brother, James, have gone unanswered over the years, and she has little contact with her other siblings.
Still, Yen Mah says she does not regret writing “Falling Leaves.”
“By writing down particular incidents from my past, I began to understand what was once hazy and distant,” she said. “Writing the book was a tremendously cathartic experience. I have not, for one minute, regretted it.”
Trained as a physician, Yen Mah gave up medicine to write full-time after completing “Falling Leaves,” which has sold more than 1 million copies. Yen Mah has written three other books, including “Chinese Cinderella,” an autobiography written for children; “Watching the Tree,” and “A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China’s Past Through Its Proverbs.”
Yen Mah’s birth mother died two weeks after she was born. Growing up without the love of her mother left “a huge hole” in her heart.
“For those of us who never had a mother’s love, the yearning never goes away,” Yen Mah said. “People who have great parents should not take them for granted.”