How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on her family (1.15).
Kingston's specific usage of "old China" in this excerpt distinguishes the right to choose from American and modern Chinese approaches.
Quote #2
The immigrants I know have loud voices, unmodulated to American tones even after years away from the village where they called their friendships out across the fields. I have not been able to stop my mother's screams in public libraries or over telephones (1.30).
Kingston is fascinated by the vocality of Chinese immigrants who speak at loud Chinese volumes without worrying about American etiquette.
Quote #3
Walking erect (knees straight, toes pointed forward, not pigeon-toed, which is Chinese-feminine) and speaking in an inaudible voice, I have tried to turn myself American-feminine (1.31).
Kingston feels torn between the different ideas of femininity in China and in the United States. The fact that she chose to be more American, demonstrates that sometimes gender is socially and culturally constructed.
Quote #4
"You weren't supposed to come here," he said, the front seat a barrier against the two women over whom a spell of old age had been cast. "It's a mistake for you to be here. You can't belong. You don't have the hardness for this country. I have a new life" (4.303).
Moon Orchid's husband tells her that she is foreign and wrong for America without realizing that he is the one actively ostracizing her from his life in the United States.
Quote #5
"Look at her. She'd never fit into an American household. I have important American guests who come inside my house to eat." He turned to Moon Orchid. "You can't talk to them. You can barely talk to me" (4.314).
Even though Moon Orchid and her husband both speak Cantonese, another type of language becomes the barrier between the lives they lead. This is not a language between individuals but between groups.
Quote #6
Her husband looked like one of the ghosts passing the car windows, and she must look like a ghost from China. They had indeed entered the land of ghosts, and they had become ghosts (4.315).
Kingston reflects on the foreignness between the once married couple of Moon Orchid and her husband. Both foreigners to one another now and figments of memory, Moon Orchid and her husband represent the problem of shifting locations without shifting relations.
Quote #7
I like to look up a troublesome, shameful thing and then say, "Oh, is that all?" The simple explanation makes it less scary to go home after yelling at your mother and father. It drives the fear away and makes it possible someday to visit China, where I know now they don't sell girls or kill each other for no reason (5.183).
Her family's stories instilled a fear of China in Kingston. She can counteract the potency of their traumatic stories by destabilizing their authority. She makes up her own stories of other places.