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Oppression and discrimination - Chinese novelist Bi Feiyu captures it all too well through the lives of three ill-fated Wang sisters growing up during the Cultural Revolution.
The story may be a figment of Bi's imagination, but it is unsettlingly real for those who lived in that era.
It centres around Yumi, Yuxiu and Yuyang and how they make use of, respectively, their steely character, charm and diligence to get ahead in life despite their fallen circumstances.
The fall from grace happens when their philandering party secretary father, Wang Lianfang, is caught in bed with a soldier's wife (which was, at that time, a heinous crime).
He loses his position, and with it, his power and wealth, and decides to become a painter. The household is left in the charge of Yuxiu, the oldest of his seven daughters. He also has a son.
