Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (TV Series) Life in the Balance (1998) User Reviews

A balance...and a Chinese woman doctor...

[mda-63188 · 7/10 · 12 December 2016]

Again we see D.Quinn standing up for her beliefs and ideals, as a group of Chinese settles in the town. It's not my favorite episode,but it is a good one, though. Hank doesn't want them around, anymore than some people in the town do. He tries to set the Chinese camp on fire, but Daniel puts a stop to it before it's too late. At the same time, Dr.Quinn meets Jean Yang and her grandfather, who is also a doctor. They have a few cases of malaria in camp, and Dr.Quinn helps them out. We also see some Cantonese traditions and we learn more about their culture. We see them celabrating new year, the tradition of binding women's feet to make them beautiful, and their restrictions. I found these quite shocking...they don't show them, of course, but talking about them is enough to make anyone susceptible...Highly impressive, I'd say. In the end we see Jean Yang's true identity, as she reveals herself...Watch to find out! Hank really does set a fire on the camp, and he goes to Denver to stand trial. What I missed in this episode was Dorothy...I have a faint idea she would fit in the plot rather well. ENJOY THESE SERIES!

Inaccurate

[sherrisartin · 8/10 · 7 December 2022]

Inaccurate representation of foot binding. In the book The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck, foot binding of girls was in the higher socioeconomic families. Poorer families needed workers & the foot-binding was crippling. After Wang Lung in The Good Earth becomes wealthy, his wife starts binding the feet of their daughter. Small feet were found to be more attractive but Google search shows how disfiguring it was.

In this episode, Dr Quinn takes on her characteristic "fix-it" mode instead of accepting the Chinese culture as it was at that time period. Nice to see Hank face consequences of his actions.