Creative Writing: The Vietnam War

Jing-Mei can not speak Chinese, and Suyuan can only speak broken English, "I talk to her in English, she answers back in Chinese" (23) so Suyuan could never adequately explain why she pushed Jing-Mei so hard.

In being able to witness the first person narrative account, the readers are able to hear an honest view of what is happening, therefore Jing-Mei is able to build the trust of her audience. The altercation that Jing-Mei has with her mother after the talent show led to her verbal attacks as she shouts, "I wish I were dead! Like them"(200). The words spoken between Jing-Mei and her mother are realistic and throughout the story the tone is set by anger and disappointment, but nearing the ending it changes directions. The narrator's voice grows from a child into a woman. Jing-Mei's mother offers the piano that they fought over years ago as a peace offering. Jing-Mei finally realizes that her mother never lost hope for her, but only wants her to be the best she could be.

Chang does the right thing by going back to try and visit with Yingying, but she refuses and this was her last chance to recapture her adaption of the story, in which she is the goddess who appears and vanishes only on her own terms (Owen, 1996). “Hence, her power disintegrates when she loses her control of Zhang, who realizes her scheme, and plays

However, once Jing-mei stepped off the plane and saw her sisters, she was able to embrace them with "all hesitations and expectations forgotten"(331). The rapport between Jing-mei and her sisters demonstrates the capability of Jing-mei to forget her fears and have faith that she can do anything. Both Suyuan and Jing-mei worked through their problems by remaining strong and willful, making their lives much easier in the end.

However, her mother sees it as a way for her daughter to be the best. Meanwhile, Jing-mei decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes. During piano lessons with Mr. Chong she realizes easy ways to get out of practicing.

Huang Cheng is a dominant man. He is a man who will always get his way. Since Cheng is this way, “conflicts can’t be resolved” (“Bridegroom Theme”). Cheng began to worry about his niece, Beina because “she turned twenty-three and still had no boyfriend.” This shows dominancy in Cheng because it shows that he controls and worries about everything that Beina does. Cheng feared that “she’d end up an old maid” (365). If Beina would have ended up as an old maid this would make Cheng look like a bad guardian. It would appear that Cheng did not have good control over his niece. Cheng thought that he had found the perfect man for Beina but then he realized that “Baowen had been one of the most handsome unmarried men in the factory, and nobody had expected that Beina, stocky and stout, would win him”(365). This made Cheng realize that he made the wrong decision because it will only draw more attention to him and Beina. Beina’s marriage was not what Cheng had in mind for her. He did not expect her to enjoy it or become attached. Cheng was upset because Beina was not listening to him. He tried to use his power to make her divorce him, but her attention and focus moved to another man in her life. Cheng thought he wanted his niece to get married, but he realizes that he misses the control that he had over her. He realizes that “when Beina still refuses to divorce her husband and insists on his goodness and the inviolability of their marriage vows, her uncle

When she meets Fan Liuyuan, she takes her chances and follows him to Hong Kong. Her decision to leave Shanghai has two implications. Firstly, she wants an escape from her family. After years of following their rules and hearing their complaints about her presence, she finally has a chance to leave it all behind to find her own independence. Secondly, she is strangely attracted to Liuyuan and securing his love and attention is a conquest for her.

When Jing Mei recognizes the similarities between her mother and herself she begins to understand not only her mother but herself as well. There are subtle connections and likenesses from the beginning between Jing Mei and her mother that Jing Mei does not see. The book commences with Jing Mei taking her mother's place at the mah jong table, creating a similarity between them from the beginning. Suyuan dies two months before the start of the book, and therefore is not able to tell the stories. Jing Mei has learned and must tell her stories in her place, forming another parallelism between mother and daughter. Because Suyuan is dead, Jing Mei must act in place of her mother when she goes to meet her Chinese sisters in China. Throughout the book Jing Mei takes the place of Suyuan, showing she and her mother

Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).

The mother in the story tries everything in her power to make Jing-mei famous in some way. Yet Jing-mei was content to being herself.

About a year later, Mr. Chong and Jing-mei's mother wanted her to play in a talent show that was going to be held at the church. Jing-mei was going to play a piece called "Pleading Child." Her parents invited just about everyone they knew to come and watch their daughter in her moment of glory. When Jing-mei's time came to play her piece, she was so proud of the way she looked that she wasn't even worried about how she was going to sound. She walked up to the bench, sat down, and just started playing away. Then it hit her. She didn't know the piece, and just about every note she hit was wrong.

A moment from this novel that lingered in my mind is when Kropp said this, '"I've made up my mind," he says after a while, "if they take off my leg, I'll put an end to it. I won't go through life as a cripple."' This lingered in my mind a lot. Kropp was no older then the age of twenty when this happened. It is sad that a young man like Kropp would even ever have to have thoughts of suicide because their leg was blown off. The war inflicted a lot of damage on the young soldiers lives and seemed to not benefit anyones life. Another thing that lingered in my head is this, "will make a grand feed. About twenty yards from our dug-out there is a small house that was used as an officers' billet. In the kitchen is an immense fireplace with two ranges,

Everyone in China was indoctrinated to look up to the P.L.A. from when they were very. The P.L.A. were seen as heroes and when they came to visit Xin-hua's school the children called them Shu-Shu, which meant Uncle. On the night of June 4th everyone's life was traumatized, but she still had enough strength to keep going in spite of the feeling of devastation. The government had used the people's army against the people; this did not weaken her resolve. In a male dominated society it could be deemed strangle for a woman to be involved in political disobedience. Xin-hua's plan to see Alex and the tapes safely to Canada would require a lot of physical effort. Her physical ability was put to the test when pedaling the che away from a P.L.A. checkpoint. She was so close to accomplishing their goal when she was brutally killed. She died believing that if her country was governed properly the lives of her people could be improved. She had seen many of her friends, classmates and teachers slain by the P.L.A., but had been immensely determined to stand up for what the students believed in, even though she knew it could cost her life. It was her heroic determination to proliferate change within the government that caused her to go on, to help Alex and to give her life. Alex was affected badly by her death because they had become close and he respected her because of her beliefs. He respected the love and determination she had

In addition, Jing-Mei says, “then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me”(2).

At the end of the story, Jing Mei switches her narration from that of a child to that of the adult allowing the reader to see the "adult" perspective on her life. No longer is the relationship between Jing Mei and her mother antagonistic. With the offering of the piano, the mother tells her, "You have natural talent. You could have been genius if you want to" (Tan 1). Jing Mei states that she couldn’t. Then her mother states, "You just not trying" (Tan 1). Her mother bore her no anger or sadness when she made these statements and Jing Mei gave no argument in return.