Understanding Lao-tong

Becoming Laotongs

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a beautiful story of two girls coming together as Laotong's. The reader follows along the story of Lily and her relationship with Snow Flower, through the challenges of being a women living in Hunan China during Daoguang's reign.

Eternity

Two girls would be chosen, usually by a matchmaker. The matchmaker would take in account of their astrological profiles, such as their looks, birth, zodiac sign, etc.

Once the matchmaker finds a perfect match, the two girls would meet and sign a kind of contract. The contract was making their relationship official. Some will have the date of the signing to become a special occasion to meet and spend time together.

Laotong and Nu-shu

Nu-shu

About the Author

Laotong's usually find themselves separated because of family or they are "happily" married and staying with their husbands.

Traditional Chinese

In order to communicate with one another they would use Nu-shu. Nu-shu is a "women's writing," meaning it is only taught to women. The writing is used to write their lives, secrets, and truths without the scrutiny of men. The writing is based off of traditional chinese, but the symbols are more stretched out, height wise.

Laotong

"Laotong" means "friends for life," it is a chinese relationship between two girls, practiced in Hunan.

Laotong couples would use traditional papyrus (a type of paper), to send messages to each other. Or they would use Chinese fans or on pieces of cloth to write special messages, such as poems or stories.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

was written by Lisa See. Lisa See

was born on February 18, 1955 in

Paris, France. All books written by

her are about the historical lives

of chinese women, about their

troubles and accomplishments.

She may not look it at first but

she is part Chinese.

It is the most sacred of practices between women.The practice bonded two girls together for eternity, even after death. It can be a wonderful experience or it can become a tragic story.

What is it?

Lisa See Family

Father's Side of the Family

Lisa See

The entire plot is based around Laotong. But what is Laotong, what brings the two together, how do they stay together, what does it have to do with the characters?

Laotong Troubles

Joy

Even with a Laoting to share their troubles with their lives can become miserable, regretful, and hated. Women were treated as property, the men could beat their wives without consequence. Women were only kept around to create sons to carry on their fathers legacy. That is the sad truth of the women living in those times.

Work Sited

Cathy, Silber. "Books: A 1,000-year-secret." Ms. Magazine 01/01/1984 1 Jan. 1984: 1. Print.

Karetzky, Patricia Eichenbaum. Chinese Religious Art. Lexington: Lexington, 2013. Print.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secrete Fan. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006. Print.

"Wikipedia." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2016.

http://www.lisasee.com/about-lisa-see/

Life

The Beauty of Laotong

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

By Darien Nappi