Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Immediately after her own wedding, Lily goes to Snow Flower’s home for her “Sitting and Singing” month. Expecting to find a grand household, Lily is confused to find a dirty house that was evidently once very rich but now smells terrible and is almost empty of furniture. She finds Snow Flower and her mother together in the upper chamber, poorly dressed, cold and hungry, and with no servants to tend to them.

Snow Flower tells Lily that her grandfather had been prosperous and built a wealthy and powerful household, but that her father had fallen victim to opium addiction and had sold everything to pay for his habit. Lily comes to realize that everyone around her had already known of her friend’s circumstances—Madame Wang, Mama, Aunt, and all the other adults in her family—but that no one had told Lily. Snow Flower goes on to reveal that their lautong relationship was a scheme by Madame Wang, who is actually Snow Flower’s aunt, to improve the girl’s prospects for marriage. She explains to Lily, “From you I learned what I needed to know for my new life” (123).