Feathers From A Thousand Li Away
The first quarter of this book has 4 main chapters and 4 main events. The events are Jing-mei’s mother’s death, the story of how An-mei got the scar on her neck, Lindo’s immigration to America, and when Ting Ting met the moon lady. Jing-mei’s mother dies. She takes over her place at the table, and she feels like she is empty and sad sitting in her spotl. She feels like this because she never had a real connection with her mother. Her mother was always disappointed with her. By the end of the chapter she learns what happened to her half-sisters and she is set on a journey to find them.
The second chapter tells the story of how An-mei received the scar on the back of her neck, hence the chapter is titled “scar”. As a child, her mother was considered a ghost, someone who she was not allowed to see or make contact with. This is enforced by her grandmother so that she would not become like her mother; a failure. One day, her mother tried to take her away, An-mei was restricted by the rest of her family and in the process a pot of soup was spilled over the back of her neck, leaving a giant burn on her neck. This is unethical because it is her mother, she should be allowed to contact her.
The third chapter is the story of how Lindo immigrated to America. Lindo had been promised in marriage since she was 2 years old She was considered the daughter of the mother of the boy she was committed to. This is unethical, you cannot have an arranged marriage, it is unfair to the people who are paired together. on her wedding day, she was unhappy and she disliked her husband. They lit a candle and if it was extinguished, the couple was not meant to be. She was up late watching the candle, there was a scare and the servant blew out the candle. In fear of punishment she re lit it and Lindo was committed to marriage. To escape her husband, she outwitted him and immigrated to America.
The last chapter is of how Ying Ying met the moon lady. Ying Ying spilled a small amount of blood on her dress, so to make it unnoticeable, she covered it in pig blood, and got in trouble. In her punishment, she slipped off the side of the boat. She was picked up by a crew of fishermen and put on shore. She watched a play of the moon lady from the bushes. After the play she made a wish to the moon lady.
The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates
The fourth chapter, The moon Lady starts with Ying Ying sharing with the readers about her relationship with her daughter, and how they have drifted apart from each other over time, partly due to the fact that Ying Ying has been so quiet and unheard. Ying Ying then gets a flashback to the time when she shouted and ran at the moon festival to tell the Moon Lady her wish. Ying Ying’s family rented a boat on Tai Lake and her nanny promised her that she would meet the Moon Lady. Ying Ying got scolded for running around chasing a dragonfly because that was perceived as a “boys’” activity at the time. She watches some other people do their respective activities, and by the time her nanny finds her, her clothes were completely soiled. When the fireworks go off, Ying Ying falls into the lake without anyone noticing, and is caught by a fishing boat where kind-hearted fishermen picked her up accidentally in a fish net. They drop her off on shore, and Ying Ying thought that her parents would find her, but they never did. After a while, Ying Ying forgets her troubles when she watches a play about the moon lady. She is utterly entranced by the tragic tale of separation by the actors and she sobs at the end of the play when she finds a connection between the separation of the Moon Lady and her husband and her family and her. As she runs to tell the Moon Lady her secret wish, she realizes that eat shitthe Moon Lady is actually a man. Eventually, Ying Ying found her way back to her family and also forgot her secret wish. Back in the present, Ying Ying suddenly remembers her wish to the Moon Lady: that she was to be found.
Rules of The Game begins with Waverly Jong getting a flashback to when she was shopping once and her mother taught her about invisible strength when she threw a hissy fit because she could not have a treat. Her mum tells her “The strongest wind cannot be seen.” So the next time they went shopping, Waverly did not make a fuss and her mother bought her the treats. During the annual Christmas party, she sits on Santa’s lap, who said that she was a good girl and that she could select a gift. She got a twelve-pack of lifesavers, and her older brother, Vincent, received an old chess set that was missing some pieces. Waverly rapidly god obsessed with the game after watching her older brothers play. She makes a deal with Vincent to allow her to play in exchange for lifesavers. Waverly begins questioning all of the rules, to which her mother tried explaining to her but failed because she did not know how to read English words. therefore researched all of the and studied the strategies involved in the game. She learned that chess was “a game of secrets” where you could only show but never tell, which she connects to her mum’s “invisible strength of the wind” talk. After beating her brothers repeatedly, She starts playing against a bunch of locals, until someone suggested that she tried a tournament. She beats a boy in her first tournament, the whole time she’s thinking of the “invisible wind” analogies from her mother. She continues to become a neighborhood celebrity when she starts winning all sorts of tournaments. She was featured in Life magazine as a child prodigy after beating a man at a particular competition, who underestimated her for being an indecisive little girl. By now, Waverly does nothing else except going to school and playing chess. However, when she practices, her mother likes to hover over her, and one day, when they get into an argument, Waverly gets fed up and runs away from home. When she gets home, she imagines playing a chess match against her mother.
The Voice From the Wall starts with a flashback from Lena’s childhood, where her mother told her a family story about how her great-grandfather sentenced a beggar man to the worst possible death. Her mother refuses to reveal her how the beggar died, just that he died the worst death. As a result, Lena’s curiosity grows as she tries to find out what way the beggar died, so that she could know the “worst” out there in the real world. Lena tries to be perceived as white by opening her eyes really wide for people to think that she is white. According to her dad, he saved her mother from an awful life in China, and gave her a new name as they were in the immigration process, from Gu Ying Ying to Betty St. Clair. Ying Ying sees danger everywhere, so she constantly makes stories up in order to scare Lena away from dangers. However, the stories are always unbelievable and absurd, and some of them don’t even make sense. Lena’s parents have a communication issue: Ying Ying only speaks a little bit of English, and her husband does not speak mandarin, so he always just guesses what she’s saying by putting words in her mouth. Lena’s family moves to the North Beach neighborhood on a steep hill. While walking down the street, they face a Chinese man who terrifies both of them. Lena is slowly becoming more frantic in their new home. They suffer from racism because people in their new surroundings think that Ying Ying is Lena’s maid because she looks asian. Lena’s mother is unhappy with the “unbalance” in their new apartment, and constantly rearranges the furniture. Lena’s father does not get Ying Ying’s superstitions and figures it must just be her instincts because she was expecting a baby. One day, other relatives pick her up from school and take her to the hospital, where her mother was in a state of panic. She keeps shouting in Chinese, and Lena’s dad tells Lena to translate for him. Her mother told her in Chinese that the baby was trying not to be born, and when he comes out, his head would just be an empty eggshell. Lena tells her father a different story in English, just saying that her mother hopes the baby will be happy in death. In time after the baby’s death, her family starts falling apart, where her mother starts crying all the time, and her father is trying to fix everything. Lena tries to live through this by thinking that the family next door lived an even unhappier life, when one day, the girl next door wanted to use her fire escape to get back to her bedroom after getting kicked out of the house by her mother, and later that night, Lena realizes that the family next door actually loved each other, therefore Lena can not comfort herself any more by thinking their lives were unhappy. Lena imagines saving her mother, where she envision that she saw a girl in pain tell her mother that the only way to save her was to die by being cut a thousand times. Her mother suffers through it, but in the end did not die. Now that the mother had experienced the worst there was, she did not have to worry any more about what the worst was. As a result, she was saved.
American Translation
The first chapter of the third section of the book is called “half and half”, about Rose Hsu Jordan. This chapter starts off with Rose thinking about the white leatherette bible her mom owns, but now puts under the kitchen table. An-mei shioti remembers that lost religious faith after losing Bing (her youngest Son). Bing disappeared into the water and no matter what An-mei tried to do religiously, praying or just swimming herself, she could not find him the next day. Rose thinks her mother realized that faith could not change fate, but now she realizes fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. Rose also wants to tell her mother about getting divorced, but knows An-mei will tell her to save it. Even though Rose knows An-mei will tell her to save it. Even though Rose knows for sure there is no chance left, the couple had many problems with decision making. Ted (her husband) would always make the decision until one day he made the wrong one. So from there on he told Rose to make all the decisions. However, both of them were indecisive, so it just did not work out between them any more. Rose believes her inattentions caused Bing to drown as well as her marriage to fall apart.
In this chapter “Two Kinds” about Jing-mei, she talks about her childhood. Jing-mei’s mother always expected her to be something she was not. She wanted Jing-mei to become a prodigy and later a pianist. Suyuan hired a deaf retired piano teacher named Mr. Chong. jing-mei slipped away with playing the wrong notes and took the easy way out after learning that Mr. Chong was deaf. Later on, Jing-mei was entered into a talent contest in which she totally humiliated her parents, because it was a total disaster. She thought she’d never have to play again until two days later when her mother forced her to play again. Jing-mei said that she wished she was dead like the two girls in China. Suyuan offered the piano as a gift to Jing-mei for her thirtieth birthday, telling Jing-mei that she could’ve became a skilled-pianist if she tried. Months after her mother’s death, JIng-mei plays the piano and learns two pieces that she later realized were complementary pieces, because they were two halves of the same song.
The end summary is dedicated to “Rice Husband”, about Lena and “Four Directions” about Waverly. Lena’s mother once told her that her future husband would have one pimple for every grain of rice Lena didn’t finish. Lena then thought of Arnold, her neighbour with a pimpled face. She hated him so much and was terrified to marry him so she started wishing for his death. Lena never got Arnold, she got Harold instead. Ever since the two have met they kept a policy to split everything in half, which Lena soon got sick of, especially when she worked under him and he made seven times more money than her. Ying Ying visits, and Lena knows that her mother have very good predictive powers, which she uses to know that her daughter isn’t happy. Waverly wants to tell her mother about Rich, her soon to be husband, but Lindo seems to always avoid the topic. She’s scared that her mother would poison her marriage again just like her previous one. Another time at dinner, waverly fails to mention their marriage again because of the number of mistakes Rich made, which might not have been disrespectful in American culture but disrespectful to the Chinese . Finally, Waverly arrives to see her mother looking so innocent and powerless asleep and when Lindo awakes, she claims that she knew Waverly’s plans to marry Rich, and is surprised to think that Waverly thinks that Lindo does not like RIch. In both of these stories, the two women are worried about their mothers’ thoughts on marriage and her husband’s. Also, in both stories, the daughters are afraid that their mothers will disapprove of their marriages, but in the end both daughters learn to respect their mother’s thoughts.
Queen Mother Of The Western Skies
At the beginning of Rice Husband a certain event stood out to me, which was Ying Ying has the ability to predict bad things that would affect the family. Ying Ying told Lena a superstition on how for every grain of rice she left in her bowl her husband would have a pock mark on his face. The superstition has affected Lena greatly, it has lead to her not finishing her food for the well-being of Arnold. This induced into her suffering from anorexia. This was significant to me because it made me ponder why she didn’t stop the bad events from happening before it happened. Also Ying Ying’s unexplained, superstitious fears had made Lena stress about the subjugation of all events or actions to fate. A significant scene at the beginning of Four Directions, was when Waverly presented a mink jacket that Rich gifted to her. However Lindo didn’t compliment it but rather picked out it’s flaws, like how she does with everything else. Take Waverly’s favorite resturant, her ex-husband, and her current beat shitoyfriend Rich. This was compelling because why did Lindo’s words and opinions affect Waverly so much. In my opinion she’s overthinking it and she’s way too anxious. For Waiting between the Trees, a scene that caught my eye was Ying Ying realizing the signs of her Lena’s broken marriage are clear to her, although Lena cannot see them. It’s important because it shows the Ying Ying is afraid of Lena following her path and suffering great despair. In the beginning of Double Face, Waverly planned a trip to China for her honeymoon, she stated that she’d blend in so well that they won’t allow her back to America. However Lindo thought the opposite, she said that without Waverly even opening her mouth people would already be able to tell she’s American. Lindo feels at fault for not teacher Waverly enough about her chinese heritage. This passage was important because it was interesting how they both thought differently and how Lindo blames herself for not teaching Waverly more about the Chinese culture. In A Pair Of Tickets, Jing Mei is on the train to China to see her half-sisters for the first time. She thought back to when she was an adolescent and how she rejected her Chinese heritage. But now she’s worried about not being Chinese enough and not knowing enough about Suyuan. This scene was important because Jing Mei is now troubled by the difference the American culture has left on her. In both Lena and Waverly’s stories, they contain some similarities. To both Lena and Waverly, their mothers words weigh a ton, they play a strong role in their lives. For Lindo and Jing Mei, they also have a similarity, which is the American culture. Lindo has learned to embrace her “American face” and identify it as one of her identities. Jing mei has finally come to realize that the American culture does not prevent her from being Chinese, she would always be Chinese on the inside.
In the middle of the Rice Husband, when she learned about Arnold’s death she blamed herself and gorged herself on ice cream. this scene was important because Lena now believes that the future is already decided and the lack of perfection in her marriage is her fate. Therefore she doesn't bother to speak up. In Four direction a significant passage was when Waverly takes her mother to the parlor. But Lindo feels that she took her there because her daughter is ashamed of her, she’s saddened by that thought because she’s proud of her daughter but her daughter is ashamed of her. Although when they looked in the mirror all they saw were similarities. I thought this passage was meaningful because they were so identical that it’d be difficult to be ashamed of each other. For Waiting between the Trees, this event stood out to me. Ying Ying’s story about her first marriage. When she was sixteen she met an older man and was forced to marry him. However she soon came to love him and conceived a child. But several months after he left her for an opera singer and in rage, and sorrow aborted her unborn child. This scene was important because this incident destroyed her innocence. In Double Face a significant scene is when Lindo discusses the difficulties of keeping a “Chinese face” in America. When Waverly was born she noticed the similarities between them. This was significant because it made Lindo believe that Waverly’s fate may reflect on hers, causing Waverly to be more American. A signifieat shitcant event in the middle of A Pair of Tickets is when Jing Mei’s father told the story of Suyuan and the twin. He explained why she abandoned them, who rescued them, and who found them. This story was important because it answers many questions and added to Suyuan’s character.
At the end of the Rice Husband an important scene was when Ying Ying went over to Lena’s home and noticed the list of shared items posted on the fridge, she frowned at it, confused why they would commit to a list like that. She not only noticed the list but many other flaws of the house like the wobbly table Harold made. I believe this was important because Ying Ying didn’t want Lena to become like her, she could already see the flaws of their relationship through their house. Also at the end Ying Ying used the table as a metaphor of why Lena isn’t taking action of something that’s going to lead to something bad yet instead just waiting till it happens. In Four Directions a memorable scene was the day after the dinner when Waverly went over to her mother’s place, when she saw her sleeping on the sofa so powerless, she bursted out in tears. This scene was quite important because it showed that Waverly expected her mother to dislike Rich due to her past experiences. Through her worries she has gave her mother a spiteful,and critical facade. But when actually Lindo’s criticism was only for Waverly’s well-being. In Waiting Between the Trees a somewhat important passage was when Ying Ying explained she was born on the year of the Tiger and the tiger contains two natures, gold stands for power and black represents cunning. She explained that after her husband betrayed her she has depended on her black side. But then when she met Clifford she stopped depending on the natures of the tiger. This part was meaningful because through Ying Ying’s mistakes and solutions she may be able to guide her daughter through her marital problems. In Double Face when Lindo was looking in the mirror she noticed how Waverly also has a crooked nose. Although Lindo obtained her from an accident on the bus, she wanted her daughter to get plastic surgery because she believes it symbolizes misfortune. This is important because Waverly offered her view on her crooked nose and she says it makes them look “two-faced”. In the end of A pair of Tickets when Jing Mei finally met her half-sister was a moving scene because through her adventure she was able to discover her true inner Chinese identity. The thing all these stories and characters have in common is their struggle with a close, meaningful mother-daughter relationship and the language barriers, and cultural differences.
