Adeline Yen Mah (Chinese: 馬嚴君玲; pinyin: Mǎ Yán Jūnlíng; (official birthday 30th November 1937, however real birthday not known, this is in fact her father's birthday) is a Chinese-American author and physician. She grew up in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hong Kong with an older sister, Lydia (Jun-pei); three older brothers, Gregory (Zi-jie), Edgar (Zi-lin)and James (Zi-jun)and a younger half brother, Franklin and half sister, Susan (Jun-qing). Currently she divides her time between southern California and London. She is married to Professor Robert Mah and has two children. Adeline was born in Tianjin, China. Two weeks after her birth, her mother died due to medical complications from the delivery, and Mah was subsequently labeled "bad luck" by the rest of her family. One year later, her father, Joseph Yen, married a Eurasian woman, Jeanne Virginie Prosperi, whom she refers to as Niáng (娘, another term for mother). The woman doted upon Adeline's father and her own two children, while mistreating the rest of the family, particularly Adeline. This childhood conflict, involving emotional abuse and Mah's attempts to gain her father's affection, are detailed in her second novel, Chinese Cinderella. At fourteen, as her autobiographies state, Mah won a writing competition, and convinced her father to let her study in England. She completed a medical degree, and established a medical practice in California. In her free time, however, she continued to write about the tragedies that had overshadowed her life. Her memoir, Falling Leaves, relates her full life story. It begins by relating her emotionally deprived childhood under her stepmother's cruelty, and goes on to recount how, after her father died, her stepmother prevented his children from reading his will until her own death two years later. Falling Leaves sold over one million copies worldwide, prompting Mah to quit medicine and devote her time to writing. Her second novel, Chinese Cinderella, was an abridged version for children of her autobiography, and sold equally well. She has since written Watching The Tree, a book on Chinese philosophy; One Thousand Pieces of Gold, a book which looks at events under the Qin and Han dynasties through Chinese proverbs and their origins in Sima Qian's history Shiji; and Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, her first fiction book, based on events in World War II.
Bibliography
- Falling Leaves (also published as Falling Leaves Return to their Roots), 2008
- Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
- Watching The Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Traditions, and Spiritual Wisdom
- A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China's Past through its Proverbs
- Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society
