But the daughter he names Li-Xia – Beautiful One – has the fighting spirit of her rebellious mother, escaping the crippling bandages: she knows her feet will be her freedom. After her death he must make use of the girl as best he can: by binding her feet in the forbidden practice of the Golden Lotus, he can sell her for a higher price. To Yip Mann’s dismay, the wilful concubine dies bearing him a worthless girl-child. But surely he deserves such a plaything to give him the last of his sons. “Yip Mann, an elderly spice farmer, should have known better than to purchase a fifteen-year-old cherry-girl as his concubine, especially one beautiful enough to be seen as Ch’ien Gum – comparable to a thousand pieces of gold. To me, it looked like a romantic novel with a Chinese setting, by a Chinese author. Judging by the cover, Red Lotus looks like a novel about Chinese people (girl in cheongsam, man and buffalo in rice paddy) written by someone with a Chinese name.
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