East Wind: West Wind

Length: 5h 34m
Chapters: 21
Language: English
Genre: Historical Fiction

East Wind: West Wind, Buck's first novel (published in 1930), is set in early 20th century China. Kwei-lan, a young aristocratic maiden, narrates her emotional tale to her "sister", a friend familiar with both east and west. The book explores an ancient family culture where women have no rights, their feet are still being bound, marriages are arranged, husbands have multiple concubines, parents exert crushing control over their childrens' lives, girl babies are devalued and sometimes killed, and slaves abound. Alas, Kwei-lan's betrothed (made by arrangement before her birth and whom she has never met), has read Western books, studied Western medicine, yearns for more freedom and a modern lif…