Yeh's mother developed a character that combined the traditional and the modern. On one hand, she was forced to endure the agony of foot-binding as a child. On the other hand, because her father was a member of the commission on educational affairs in the Japanese colonial government in Taiwan, he had little choice but to set an example with his own family and allow his daughter to undergo a modern Japanese education.
葉石濤的母親年幼曾受過纏足之苦，並因外公是日本殖民政府的「學務委員」，必須以身作則，罕見地讓女兒受日本學校教育，也養成她既傳統又現代的性格。