Synopsis

“It was one o’clock in the morning, the 8^th of February 1959, the year of the boar. Jen looked up into the night sky. She craned her neck to count her stars twinkling up in the vast heavens above and whispered, ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR.’”

The story is set in a peninsular in the Far East where the cultural influence far exceeds personal choice.

    Jen is a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her widowed mother Lian, and three younger siblings. Lian eked a living by taking in sewing and doing the laundry for a local hotel, by hand and in the night, with Jen’s help.

     Jen attends the only girl’s school and is expected to leave at thirteen to make way for her younger brothers in the education stake. Her mother is unable to support all of them in school, as education is subject to parental ability to pay.

     She is a determined and resourceful child who sees a way out; the scholarship offered by her school for the most able child of the year. She is bullied for being different, but she found a friend in Patricia. They share a common bond for being different from the norm, Jen for being the daughter of a young widow, [a dark spirit inhabits a young widow, bad karma] and Patricia because she is a child of mixed parentage.

     Jen learns about society’s bigotry in the school playground. She copes admirably with all the daily chores that her way of life demands. The struggles she endures in order to stay in school, something that most people take for granted, shows her remarkable trust and belief in herself when she is awarded the scholarship.