Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

To prepare for the May visit by Lisa See at Arts & Lectures (http://www.artsandlectures.org), started Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a novel set in mid 19th century China.   Things I didn’t know: details of foot binding (OMG; had previously held the vague notion that bound feet were merely strapped together at the ankles!); hierarchy of Chinese families in mid nineteenth century, which provided insight into and appreciation of what I experienced during my trips to the Fan family compound near Shanghai China in 2008 and 2009 and to the countryside in Sichuan Province in 2005.