"A Daughter Of Han"
From “A Daughter Of Han" by Ning Lao Tai-Tai.
I chose to write about 3 quotes from the excerpt which describes Ning’s experience of her child being sold.
“A child, they said, could not be sold without the mothers consent. He had, they said, got another five hundred cash from them by saying that I had not at first consented. They had first paid him three thousand. He had sold my child for a mere three thousand and five hundred cash.” (Tai-Tai, 633)
“She said, “How can you, by begging, support two children? Your man is no good, you know that. I will not treat your child as a slave girl. I will treat her as my child. Is she not better off with me than with you? If you take her back will he not sell her again?” I knew that her words were true so I went away.” (Tai-Tai, 634)
“The life of the beggar is not the hardest one. There is freedom. Today perhaps there’s not enough to eat, but tomorrow there will be more. There’s no face to keep up. Each day is eaten what has been begged that day. The sites of the city are free for the beggars.” (Tai-Tai, 635)
The first quote shows that when Ning was alive, it was common for people to sell their children. It shows that there was a price tag on these children. In this case her child was “worth” three thousand dollars and her consent was “worth” five hundred dollars. It is absurd to me that a human being could be worth a certain amount of money.
The second quote describes Ning’s encounter with the women who bought her daughter. For me the saddest part about this quote is that even though Ning is her mother, she agrees with the women because she knows that deep down she won’t be able to provide a good life for her daughter.
The third quote describes one of the ways that Ning views freedom. A lot of the excerpts that we have read have focused on the idea of freedom. While Ning’s idea of freedom seems to be different from a lot of the other women we have read about, deep down it is the same. She describes freedom as the right to make decisions for herself and to not be tied down by others.
Word Count: 395
I agree that it is absurd that it was even a thing to sell children in the first place. I think it was interesting because the first time her child was sold she was angry and determined to get her baby back, the second time she didn't necessarily give up but she did realize that her husband would just keep selling the baby and that the women the child was sold to would take care of her and the baby would grow up having a good life. I think that her freedom was different from the others we have read about, because after leaving her husband, she put herself into prostitution to survive.
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