I am almost halfway through this book by Anchee Min that I just picked up on Saturday. It's a historical fiction about this young girl from the country joining the Imperial Court as the Emperor's fourth wife. It's really entertaining, and it sucks you right in to the old world. I can only imagine what life must have been like back then. I find myself going online a lot to look things up that I found in the book.
One thing that fascinates me is the eunuch. I wonder how young men and boys back then go through that process, and what makes them go through that process, and the pain they must have gone through. And what sick person actually performs that... thing. Did these boys do it by choice? It's the same thing with ladies who bound their feet (though there are none in the book). I've seen some of the embroidered slippers that ladies with bound feet actually wore, and I can't even imagine the pain these girls went through to have their feet bound. It's such a different world that we live in today. I'm sure that's the reason these books intrigue me so much... life was so different back then, I can only imagine what it was like in my head.
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