Daughters of Shandong

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses gender discrimination, violence, and death.

An unnamed narrator reflects on her childhood in Zhucheng, Shandong. She thinks of her home and the fields and wildflowers, underneath which the fossils of dinosaurs were later discovered. The narrator says, “I carry that land in my blood, in my bones, and in my memories” (2).

Nai Nai, Hai’s maternal grandmother, locks Mom out of the house because she has learned Mom is pregnant again. Hai loyally sits with her mother. The Ang family have gained prestige through government positions and they live in a palatial shiheyuan, but Nai Nai hates her daughter-in-law because she has only borne daughters: Hai, 11; Li-Di, 10, whose name means “younger brother”; and Three, who is two. “Girls,” Hai has been taught, “were nothing more than wives for other people’s sons” (7).

Nai Nai tried keeping Mom and her husband apart because a fortune teller predicted Mom would have a son when she was 36, so the pregnancy makes Nai Nai furious. Mom is treated like a servant by Nai Nai, who is hated by the peasants who work their land. Though Nai Nai is stingy, Mom sneaks food to the workers whose families are in need.