Set in 19th century China, this is the story of Lily, a girl of low birth who becomes a laotong, or “old same” with Snow Flower, a girl of higher birth. A laotong is a lifelong friend who is closer to you than anyone else, and two laotong seem to be essentially regarded as two parts of one person.

The book chronicles their love story (I find it ( Read more... )

This is based around the Chinese opera, The Peony Pavilion, and the book The Three Wives Commentary on The Peony Pavilion, which was written by the three wives of a poet named Wu Ren. I’m only very moderately familiar with the opera and the history surrounding it, so most of my information comes from See’s notes.

The Peony Pavilion is a twenty hour ( Read more... )