Yunxian & Her World
Yunxian is sent to live with her grandparents after this devastating event in her childhood.
What is the death of her mother?
The title's "circle" refers most directly to this source of strength in Yunxian's life.
What are her relationships with other women?
The dynasty in which the story takes place.
What is the Ming Dynasty?
See chose to write historical fiction based on this real woman.
Who is Tan Yunxian, the Ming-dynasty female physician?
Yunxian's grandmother is both a family elder and this to Yunxian.
What is her medical teacher/mentor?
This friendship becomes one of the central relationships of Yunxian's life, despite the social boundaries separating the two girls.
Who are Yunxian and Meiling?
The novel repeatedly asks who should have authority over this—especially when it comes to marriage, childbirth, sexuality, and medical decisions.
What is a woman's body?
This painful practice is an important part of the novel's depiction of women's lives
What is foot binding?
See uses detailed descriptions of these subjects to immerse readers in the world of the novel.
What are Chinese medicine, childbirth, foot binding, food, clothing, household customs, and daily life?
The novel repeatedly contrasts the experiences of women from different social classes.
What is wealth and social status?
Yunxian's arranged marriage dramatically changes her ability to practice medicine and maintain her friendships. What does her mother-in-law forbid?
What is seeing Meiling and practicing medicine/helping the women of the household?
Yunxian's medical career creates tension between this personal desire and the expectations placed upon her by family and society.
What are individual purpose and social duty?
A woman's status and opportunities were heavily influenced by this institution.
What is marriage/family?
Why does See place so much emphasis on women treating and talking to other women?
What is to show how gender restrictions affected medical care and to emphasize the importance of female knowledge and relationships?
Yunxian's privileged upbringing gives her access to education that many women would not have had.
What is her family's status and resources?
Yunxian learns about women's lives not only through books but through this.
What are their stories and experiences?
The novel complicates the idea that women are simply victims of a patriarchal system by showing women exercising power over other women as well. Name one way this happens.
What is mothers-in-law controlling daughters-in-law, women enforcing social expectations, or women using their limited power to influence others?
This concept helps explain why women's behavior, sexuality, and reputation are so closely monitored.
What is female virtue/chastity?
See uses Yunxian's medical cases as more than historical information. What do the individual patients allow the author to explore?
What are different women's experiences of marriage, childbirth, class, sexuality, family expectations, and bodily autonomy?
Despite her privileged position, Yunxian discovers that this aspect of being a woman cannot simply be escaped through wealth.
What are social expectations and restrictions?
Yunxian's medical practice becomes particularly meaningful because these patients often have difficulty being examined or treated by male doctors.
Who are women?
One of the novel's central paradoxes is that Yunxian's privileged position gives her access to education and medicine, but that same position also imposes strict expectations on her. What larger theme does this create?
What is the complicated relationship between privilege, power, and freedom?
One of the novel's historical tensions is between women's considerable knowledge and this restriction on their public power.
What is patriarchal society?
The novel combines a historical biography, a friendship story, a medical narrative, and a mystery. What effect does this combination have?
What is it makes a historical subject emotionally accessible while giving the reader several different ways into the story?
The novel's mystery involving a death ultimately reveals how the pressure to produce a male heir can lead to deception, manipulation, and violence.
What is the mystery surrounding Spinster Aunt's death and the male-heir succession issue?