A really good and worthwhile read. The early parts, especially when Zhao Linnan was still a kid, were my favorite.

The story has some meaningful discussions, particularly about the so-called *partiality* shown by the Zhou parents, which was actually due to extreme poverty and desperation. There's also a strong sense of patriotism, especially with the Zhao family having a soldier and the elders having lived through the Sino-Japanese War. Their children, in turn, experience the aftermath. As someone who isn't Chinese, the stigma against Japanese people felt off at first, but... more>> considering the setting (1980s) and the fact that the war ended in 1945, it makes sense. Forty years is still too soon to forget.

Spoiler

When Zhao Linnuan was born as Xu Tao's biological child, it was frustrating. It made me want to go back to the earlier parts of the book, which showed how good of a mother Xu Tao was. After Linnuan's birth, she suddenly became a hands-off mother, which was disappointing. The sister-brother relationship also became over the top, with Linnuan being too dependent on Linnan and everyone letting her grow up spoiled. Thankfully, the novel eventually corrected this, and Xu Tao returned to being the good mother she was in the beginning.

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The only real downside was the last chapter. It was unnecessary and left a bad taste. The author should have kept Zhao Linnan's image as it was. Anyway, that was more of an epilogue so I'll just pretend that didn't exist. <<less