I requested this book based on the cover--I didn't know who Eastern Jewel was, which makes me wonder if I should somehow be ashamed to not know the history of my own race? Anyway. I asked for it, received it, and read it.

I have to admit, it took me a while to finish. Not because I didn't enjoy the book, but because the subject's life--while it must have been entertaining and adventurous to her--made me feel sad that she was as exploited as she was, and how willingly she participated in her own exploitation, all in the guise of freedom. Abandoned by her own family, mistreated by her adoptive family, and married off to live in a wasteland (especially when compared to her former homes!), Eastern Jewel, a.k.a. Yoshiko Kawashima, decides to make of the rest of her life what she wants. And so she runs.

Who knows if she might have been better served by staying in Mongolia? It's a moot point anyway, seeing as how her feet were set firmly on the path she was to traverse, from the tender age of fifteen. One wonders how her life might have differed, if the women in her adoptive family would have tended to her better than they did. Or if the family she was born into, would have kept her and taught her instead of sending her off to Japan.

As penned by Maureen Lindley, Eastern Jewel's story will resonate with those who seek to overcome society's mores to live their lives on their own terms. It also serves as a precautionary tale as to the predators who are willing to assist in achieving that life, yet exact a price--one that may be too high to contemplate.

Inasmuch as this is a fictionalized account of the life of a Chinese-princess-turned-Japanese-spy, I mourn the loss of a daughter of China to China's inability to love her own daughters.