“She [my mother] said that if I listened to her, later I would know what she knew: where true words came from, always from up high, above everything else. And if I didn't listen to her, she said my ear would bend too easily to other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning, because they came from the bottom of their hearts, where their own desires lived, a place where I could not belong.”
This book delves into the lives of four Chinese-American mothers and their daughters, examining the cultural and generational gaps that exist between them. The narrative intertwines their personal stories, revealing the struggles and triumphs of their lives as they navigate both traditional Chinese values and the American culture they now inhabit. more
“I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place.”
“Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption, also.”
“The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul.”