Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Hair-Pinning Days: Truth & Hair-Pinning Days: The Temple of Gupo Summary & Analysis

Hair-Pinning Days: Truth & Hair-Pinning Days: The Temple of Gupo

Summary: Truth

When Lily travels to Snow Flower’s home, she first thinks she is in the wrong place, as the house is dirty and smells foul. A woman in peasant clothing greets Lily and says she will get Snow Flower. Snow Flower calls to Lily from upstairs, and Lily goes to her, saying that nothing has changed between them. Snow Flower introduces the woman Lily thought was a servant as her mother. Alone, Snow Flower explains that her family was once prosperous, though fell out of favor when a former emperor died. As the only son, Snow Flower’s father had to sell the family’s land to pay for the family’s expenses. Snow Flower’s father eventually began taking opium, and Lily realizes this is the “pipe” that Madame Gao once referenced. Lily also understands that the smell in the house is coming from Snow Flower’s father. Snow Flower explains they were saved by her mother’s sister, Madame Wang. Lily understands that this is why Snow Flower refers to Madame Wang as “Auntie.”

Snow Flower reveals that she will be marrying a butcher, which horrifies Lily. Lily feels betrayed, as Snow Flower’s letter and absence from Lily’s wedding ceremony took enjoyment away from Lily’s marriage. However, instead of feeling angry at Snow Flower, Lily instead blames Mama for lying to her about Snow Flower all along.

Lily helps Snow Flower clean the house before the wedding. When Snow Flower shows Lily her dowry, Lily recognizes the fabric from Snow Flower’s old clothes, which Snow Flower reveals were first her mother’s clothes. Lily is impressed at how Snow Flower and her mother used women’s work to fool men. After the wedding, Lily delivers Snow Flower’s third-day wedding books to Snow Flower’s new home, and finds the women gathered there unsavory. Lily reads the books, as she is the only one who understands nu shu, before returning to her birth home. There, she writes on the fan lines about a phoenix soaring above a rooster, and paints a crying flower to mark Snow Flower’s marriage.

Summary: Hair-Pinning Days: The Temple of Gupo

When Lily returns to her birth home, she isolates herself from her family. Eventually, Mama confronts Lily, and Lily blames her for keeping Snow Flower’s circumstances a secret. Mama explains that she kept Snow Flower’s secret for Lily’s own good, and reminds Lily of how she bound her feet. Lily realizes that the footbinding had not been done out of love, but for Mama’s own ambition. Lily tells Mama she will never forget what she did.

A year after they have been married, Lily and Snow Flower meet at the Temple of Gupo, where they discuss how they can get pregnant. After another year, Snow Flower writes to Lily that she is pregnant. Lily feels humiliated, as she thinks she should have gotten pregnant first since she has a higher status. After Lily does become pregnant, she and Snow Flower travel to the Temple of Gupo together, where they pray to have sons. They pledge to love each other’s sons as much as they love each other.

Analysis: Hair-Pinning Days: Truth & Hair-Pinning Days: The Temple of Gupo

Lily at last learns the truth about Snow Flower that has been foreshadowed for many years. Snow Flower’s family does come from a line of prosperous descendants, which is why Snow Flower has mastered certain elements of refinement. However, they are no longer wealthy and do not live in luxury as Lily as pictured. Ever since Lily’s own fate was changed by the chance to rise in the ranks via marriage, social class has been very important to her. This was also the driving reason behind her admiration of Snow Flower. Although she says otherwise, learning the truth fundamentally changes how Lily sees Snow Flower. Although Snow Flower’s family’s fall from grace was due in no part to Snow Flower’s actions, Lily sees Snow Flower as an extension of her birth family, as revealed in Lily’s reaction to Snow Flower’s pregnancy. Rather than being immediately happy for her friend, Lily feels jealous, and clearly thinks Snow Flower is not as deserving as Lily is due to the difference in their classes. Though Lily continues to be a caring friend, by helping Snow Flower with her marriage and attending her third-day wedding ceremony, Lily’s reaction to the new women in Snow Flower’s life shows the disdain she feels for women of a lower class than her own.

As Lily is recounting this story as an older woman, she is able to see the subtleties she missed years ago due to not taking context into account, a crucial rule to understanding nu shu and, clearly, other aspects of life. When Lily first hears Madame Gao reference Snow Flower’s father taking a pipe, she assumes it was a tobacco pipe. However, upon understanding Snow Flower’s circumstances, Lily realizes her misunderstanding, as an opium pipe has far more serious implications. Similarly, Lily had assumed that Snow Flower called Madame Wang “Auntie” as a term of endearment and respect. She is then surprised to realize that Madame Wang is Snow Flower’s actual aunt. By not paying attention to certain nuances of language, Lily misses out on understanding the truth, or at least recognizing there is more to Snow Flower’s story than meets the eye. However, rather than exploring her mistakes, Lily takes the shame she feels from being fooled out on others.

Lily’s ignorance of the intricacies of nu shu is a reflection of her continued immaturity and childishness. Despite her obvious anger at being lied to, she does not blame Snow Flower or Madame Wang, but instead her own mother. By taking out her anger on Mama, Lily seems to be unleashing years of pent-up frustrations due to the lack of affection Mama displayed when Lily was a child, as well as the cruelty she showed during Lily’s footbinding. Such a scenario indicates how women’s suffering can be cyclical. As women are only worth the sons they give birth to, mothers feel that they must make their daughters marriageable by any means necessary. In the case of Mama and Lily, this meant footbinding. Lily then lashes out her repressed anger at Mama, creating more suffering for the both of them. In a culture where women are so oppressed, doing what seems best for a daughter is, at the same time, abusive.