Adeline finds solace in the affection of her grandmother and grandfather, Ye Ye. She channels her energy into her schoolwork and excels academically. However, despite this, Adeline never gives up hope that her father will love her and be proud of her. Jun-ling is given the name Adeline.īoth Adeline and her older siblings are emotionally abused by their stepmother, with Adeline taking the brunt of the abuse. Niang insists on changing the children’s names, giving them English names like her own children, Franklin and Susan. She takes a strong dislike to his earlier children, and to Jun-ling in particular. He marries her-enchanted by her European heritage and cosmopolitan style-and demands that his children refer to her as Niang, or “mother.” Niang has two children of her own with Jun-ling’s father. Soon after, he meets a younger woman of mixed French and Chinese heritage named Jeanne Prosperi. Her father seems to blame his youngest daughter for his wife’s death, and he is determined to find a new wife and create a new family. Jun-ling’s mother dies from complications only a few days after her birth. In Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah describes her troubled birth (as Jun-ling, her parents’ fifth child) in northern China, 1937.
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