Falling Leaves

The city of Shanghai—the birthplace of Adeline’s grandparents—is the center of Chinese trade and industry. In the late 19th century, the port city is a major hub for international trade, one of five treaty ports opened up to Britain after the First Opium War in 1842. The city includes residential concessions for affluent British, American, and French settlements, which results in a grand confluence of cultures and architecture. Shanghai is known by many as “The Paris of the Orient” (7).

Adeline’s Great Aunt establishes her strength in childhood when she refuses to have her feet bound (in accordance with Chinese tradition). Adeline’s Great Aunt goes on to excel in her studies at a prestigious Shanghai girls’ school. As an adult, her Great Aunt establishes the Shanghai Women’s Bank, which is staffed entirely by women and caters to women’s particular financial needs. The bank is a great success, and family members refer to Adeline’s Great Aunt as Gong Gong (or “Grand Uncle”) out of respect for her achievements.

Adeline’s grandfather—a kind-hearted, traditional Chinese man named Ye Ye—is also a shrewd businessman. He runs a thriving business renting small boats called sampans. Ye Ye secretly dislikes the sea, however, as he is prone to seasickness. After Ye Ye’s children—Baba and Joseph—grow old enough to attend Catholic boarding school, he sells his sampan business. He moves to manage an import-export business in Tianjin, a port city 1,000 miles north of Shanghai. He leaves his children behind so they can finish their educations.

Chapter 2 begins by highlighting the differences in the cultural atmospheres of Shanghai and Tianjin (at the time of Ye Ye’s move in 1918). Whereas Shanghai is mainly French and British, the port city of Tianjin includes a “kaleidoscope” (13) of styles, including Russian dachas, Italian villas, Japanese tea-houses, and German and Austro-Hungarian chalets. The chapter also foreshadows historical events to come, describing the beginnings of Japanese occupation as soldiers infiltrate Tianjin.

After completing middle school in 1924, Ye Ye’s son, Joseph, chooses to enter into business rather than pursue university studies. He goes to work for the import-export company Ye Ye manages and quickly establishes himself. As the Japanese influence in Tianjin deepens and the owner of the import-export company moves his business elsewhere, Joseph founds his own import-export business: Joseph Yen & Company.

Ye Ye’s faith in his son’s abilities is so strong that he invests all of his life savings into the business. Though Ye Ye’s investment pays off and the business flourishes financially, he establishes a pattern of subservience to his son that lasts the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Aunt Baba goes to work for Gong Gong’s bank in Shanghai.

An intelligent young woman named Ren Young-ping comes to work with Aunt Baba at the Women’s Bank of Shanghai. They form a close friendship and explore the exciting cosmopolitan world of 1920s Shanghai, dining at Sincere’s—a restaurant known as the “Shanghai Herrod’s” (19)—and experiencing confusion over the American “hot dog” advertised on the menu. On one of Joseph’s business visits to Gong Gong’s bank in Shanghai, he meets Miss Ren and becomes smitten with her. They marry in 1930 and move to a house in Tianjin.

The young couple enjoys a happy marriage. Ren bears a girl named Jun-pei (later to be christened Lydia) and three sons named Zi-jie, Zi-lin, and Zi-jun (later to be christened Gregory, Edgar, and James). When the fifth child, Jun-ling (later to be christened Adeline) is born in 1937, Ren suffers from a high fever. Joseph refuses the doctor’s suggestion that she be taken to the hospital—implying that this is unnecessary and expensive—and his wife dies three days after Jun-ling’s birth.

Just before her death, Ren tells Aunt Baba to “please help look after our little friend here who will never know her mother” (24). Adeline notes that she has never seen her birth mother’s photograph.

After the death of Adeline’s mother, her grandmother and father persuade Aunt Baba to resign from her job and serve as a caregiver for the children. Adeline explains that by serving as the children’s caregiver, Aunt Baba effectively surrendered “her chances of marriage and a family of her own” because Chinese women were then “expected to sublimate their own desires to the common good of the family” (23).

Joseph meets Jeanne Prosperi—the 17-year-old daughter of a French father and a Chinese mother—soon after Ren’s death. Struck by her stylish good looks—and with the idea that her part-European heritage makes her “a trophy, to be prized” (27)—Joseph courts her with expensive gifts and ultimately marries her. Jeanne christens Joseph’s children with European names and insists they call her Niang—a Chinese word for mother.

At first, the marriage is welcomed by both Adeline’s grandmother and Ye Ye, and the couple is happy in their union. As Japanese troops gain increasing control and the Flood of Nanking majorly disturbs life in Tianjin, however, their happiness is disrupted. Niang shows her true colors, demonstrating her lack of sympathy for their household servants who must make their way through the harsh flood to complete their duties.

Niang gives birth to Susan and Franklin, hiring an expensive wet nurse who boasts the qualification of previously caring for white American babies. With her insistence on hiring this servant, Niang demonstrates her racist views. Though Aunt Baba is overwhelmed with the task of assisting the family with so many children, she is “unsparingly kind” (33) and dedicated to their early education. When young Adeline enrolls in kindergarten in the summer of 1941, she is prepared to excel in school.