Themes
Flawed and Incomplete Perspective
In this multi-perspective novel that explores intergenerational immigrant experiences, the issue of perspective is key. Kwok’s interest in this theme is often explicit. At the end of the novel, for example, Amy reflects on how her search for her sister has made her aware of the “curtain of language and culture” (312) that has long kept the women of the family hidden from one another. With Sylvie gone, Amy’s perception of herself and her family has changed, and Amy is now keenly aware of how much everyone misunderstands and strives to conceal about themselves: “As Sylvie once told me, we are all ultimately unreliable storytellers of our own lives” (312). Broadly speaking, throughout the novel, Flawed and Incomplete Perspective is also a primary obstacle and source of conflict, one that Kwok treats as a central challenge especially for women in immigrant families.
Problems with eyes and vision are present for both sisters, symbolically hinting at their issues with perspective. The bulk of the narration comes from Sylvie and Amy, the sister protagonists—Ma’s chapters are both shorter in length and fewer in number. Thus, the reader’s two main vehicles for viewing the world of the story both have literal difficulties with their eyes. Amy needs “thick purple glasses,” which she greatly dislikes. Refusing to wear them, and disliking the work of putting in contacts, leads to her having generally poor vision. Sylvie, as a little girl, wore an eyepatch for years to correct a lazy eye. Amy takes note that even now, when Sylvie is tired, her right eye still drifts outward.
In addition to the sisters’ difficulty seeing the world outside themselves, they struggle with self-perception, which serves as an important complication within this theme. These two central women, for all their contrasting characteristics, both profoundly fail to assess how others view them and what would make them happy. While the rest of the family sees Amy as a talented, energetic young woman with great potential, Amy sees herself as adrift and “ugly.” Sylvie, in turn, conflates the positive perception of others with her own happiness, even though over-achieving at her demanding job and marrying an affluent, white partner ultimately bring her pain. In both cases, the women’s ability to grow and thrive is undermined by what they fail to perceive about themselves.
On a practical level, flawed and incomplete perspective also drives the plot, with Amy’s lack of knowledge or perception hampering her search for her sister. Lukas and Filip are both unreliable in this context, withholding key information in their effort to shape how others view them. Although Lukas is the one who calls to tell the Lee family of Sylvie’s disappearance, at that time he already knows much more than he is letting on. Similarly, Filip hides his true relationship with Sylvie from Amy in the hope that his word as an outsider may do more to convince Amy to seek additional help looking for Sylvie.
The older generation also contributes powerfully to this theme, forcing the younger generation to operate on an unstable foundation of secrets and lies. The central secret of the novel—that Sylvie is in fact Willem’s daughter—compounds all the other issues that arise. Although her affair is more of an open secret among the older members of the Lee and Tan families, Ma does not share this vital piece of information with her daughters until it is too late to save Sylvie. The devastating effects of limiting the younger generation’s perspective by withholding painful or shameful truths has broader implications for intergenerational immigrant families. It is only once the truth comes out, enriching Amy’s originally limited perspective, that the families can start to reconcile.
The Harm of Everyday Racism and Prejudice
Although Kwok does discuss some acts of racialized violence, such as Lukas’s schoolyard fighting, the author is much more interested in the cumulative impact of micro-aggressions, or small acts of racism and prejudice that perpetrators often misrepresent as “just joking around.” Through representation of these experiences, Kwok emphasizes that systemic racism and large-scale acts of prejudice like hate crimes are only part of how racism and prejudice adversely affect the lives of immigrants of color. Also deeply wounding is the near-constant stream of daily discrimination to which they are subject. This area of engagement places Kwok’s work firmly in more contemporary conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through this theme, she joins a host of other contemporary authors in speaking out about the experiences of people of color in cultural spaces where whiteness is dominant.
Small acts of racism and prejudice have profound impacts on many of the characters in the novel, influencing their perceptions of themselves and their worldviews. Amy recounts the sexualized teasing she experienced and the cries of “Ni Hao” from boys who could not quite seem to decide whether they would like to hit on or denigrate her. Sylvie encounters racism most often at school, where she faces prejudice at the intersection of her racial identity and class position. For both women, the persistent abuse undermines their self-worth and leaves them isolated in two ways: It draws a line between themselves and their peers, and it prompts them to self-isolate to hide their pain and shame, cutting them off from their own family members. Sylvie in particular feels as though she must work harder than everyone around her if she wants to be seen for more than her racial background; the stress of this double standard is ultimately part of why she chooses to end her life.
The women’s reactions to this subtle form of violence are echoed in the secondary male characters their age, Lukas and Filip. Filip recounts the antisemitism that he has faced and tells the story of his Indonesian family members forced into concentration camps during World War II. Lukas, as the only Asian student in his village, endures bullying so severe that it often leads to physical altercations. Each man, although relatively happy and successful as an adult, demonstrates the effect of these early experiences of racism. They both self-isolate and are slow to trust, even among members of their own family, and generally prefer manipulation and obfuscation to revealing any personal truths—even when Sylvie’s whereabouts are unknown.
Estelle, although white, regularly affirms her friends’ experiences of racism by noticing it, calling it out, and discussing how damaging such acts of prejudice become, especially to young children. This trait is one of the most important aspects of her characterization. As she recounts her own history of gender-based discrimination and sexism as a female pilot, it becomes clear that these experiences inform and drive her empathy rather. In this way, Estelle serves as a model to white readers. Her understanding of the kinds of small micro-aggressions that go often unnoticed by white people because they are not subjected to them is an example of how to be an ally to people of color.
The Cultural Dissonance of Immigration
Cultural dissonance is a sense of disorientation, confusion, and disharmony about an individual’s cultural identity. Within the framework of this novel, cultural dissonance is the product of immigration. Many of the characters struggle with their cultural identities, pulled as they are between New York, China, and for Sylvie, Grandma, and the Tan family, also the Netherlands.
Sylvie is the most overt embodiment of this theme, as she immigrates twice in addition to being born into a family of immigrants. Raised until the age of nine largely by her Chinese grandma in the Netherlands, she first learns her grandmother’s language and Dutch. Sylvie then has to learn English when she moves to New York. Because Ma and Pa are effectively strangers to her, she feels much more tied to her Dutch identity, and she experiences a distinct sense of dislocation when she moves to the United States. Her affinity for Dutch culture and the space of the Netherlands is obvious when she returns as an adult. She feels truly free, happy, and comfortable for the first time since leaving the country. She speaks about how she still dreams in Dutch. Nonetheless, Sylvie has retained more of her Chinese identity than her sister, having initially been raised by Grandma, who spent more time with Sylvie and had a greater influence on the young girl. Moreover, at the time, Grandma hadn’t been competing with the particularly hegemonic force that is American popular culture.
The novels’ symbols and motifs also speak to this theme, most of them directing attention in some way toward Chinese culture and how it is passed down even by immigrants in a foreign country to their children. The recurring references to Buddhism speak to the extent to which Amy, Sylvie, and Lukas have been able to hold onto an important piece of Chinese culture. These references simultaneously indicate the fraught politics of cultural transfer. The young people acknowledge how difficult it is to adhere to cultural standards and practices that are not obvious within the dominant culture of a country. Both Sylvie’s doll, Tasha, and Grandma’s jewelry, for example, contribute to this theme. Although both are important to various family members, they also cause difficulty. Helena twice hides the doll from Sylvie, and the jewels become a point of contention between Helena and the Lees. Like Buddhism, these objects represent the characters’ tenuous connection to the cultures of their various home countries.
The novel’s conclusion suggests the possibility that cultural dissonance can be resolved or mitigated. In the end, the family celebrates an American holiday, with Amy wearing one of Grandma’s necklaces. Amy thus embraces both cultures at once, suggesting to readers that it is possible to feel at home in more than one world.
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By Jean Kwok
