Double Face 253-266
Lindo Jong – at the hair salon getting her hair ready for
the wedding. Waverly speaks for her mother.
Daughter – Waverly Jong – preparing for her wedding and
thinking about her honeymoon in China.
“When you go to China,” I told her, “you don’t even need to
open your mouth. They already know you are an outsider.” “What are you talking
about? She asked. My daughter likes to speak back. She likes to question what I
say.” (253)
“Even if you put on their clothes, even if you take off your
makeup and hide your fancy jewelry, they know. They know just watching you
walk, the way you carry your face. They know you do not belong.”(253)
“Oh, maybe ten years ago, she would have clapped her hangs –
hurray!-as if this were good news. But now she wants to be Chinese, it is so
fashionable” (253)
“It’s my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have
the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I
know these two things did not mix?” (254)
“…but I couldn’t teach her about Chinese character. How to
obey parents and listen to your mother’s mind. How not to show your own
thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of
hidden opportunities.” (254)
A Pair of Tickets (267-288)
Suyuan Woo – left twin babies on the side of the road, they
are now adults and Jing-Mei and her father are traveling to China to meet them
for the first time.
Daughter Jing-Mei Woo
“But today I realize I’ve never really known what is means
to be Chinese. I am thirty-six years old. My mother is dead and I am on a
train, carrying with me her dreams of coming home. I am going to China.” (268)
“Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same
mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.”(288)
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