Occasion – the memory of water, Chen Ying

In 1912, when the last Chinese emperor was driven from his throne, Grandma Lie-Fei was five years old. She had just undergone the operation to bind her feet, to make them "as beautiful as lotus flowers." But thanks to the change of regime, or because of it, the operation was quickly interrupted, and it was with "average" feet – guaranteeing a middle ground in the conflict between tradition and modernity – that she navigated the communist regime without too much trouble... This unique destiny is traced by the narrator, "the little one," with a dry wit and an unwavering tenderness throughout a story that spans the 20th century, that of Grandma Lie-Fei, lulled by the scents and colors of a China in profound change.