Vocabulary
disposed to cause harm, suffering, or distress deliberately; feeling or showing ill will or hatred
What is Malignant?
a childhood chess prodigy who - despite her mother - wants to marry a cultural outsider named Rich
June is going to meet them in China
Who are the Twins, or her Half-Sisters?
in the prologue, the duck turning into a swan represents change, or -
What is Transformation?
the author of The Joy Luck Club
Who is Amy Tan?
(in polygamous societies) a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives; a mistress
What is Concubine?
our main narrator, whose recently deceased mother revealed that she'd been married before and gave up a set of twin babies
Who is Jing-Mei (June) Woo?
the color of Lindo Jong's wedding candle
What is Red?
What is Mothers vs Daughters?
the American city in which all of the women and their families reside
What is San Francisco, CA?
a Chinese game played, usually by four people, with 136 or 144 rectangular pieces called tiles. The object is to collect winning sets of these tiles, as in card games such as gin rummy.
What is Mah Jong?
the victim of an arranged marriage, she cleverly escaped by faking a nightmare about an ancestral curse
Who is Lindo Jong?
how An-Mei Hsu gets the scar on her neck
What is She tips over a pot of boiling soup?
What is Talking vs Listening?
the name of the river that floods, destroying Lindo Jong's family's home, forcing her to move in early with her in-laws
What is the Fen river?
warn or reprimand someone firmly
What is Admonish?
her mother was a disgraced 4th wife - or concubine - who, nonetheless, was willing to sacrifice her flesh and blood to try to save her own mother's life
Who is An-Mei Hsu?
Lindo convinces her abusive mother-in-law to replace her with this woman of "royal" blood
Who is the Servant Girl?
An-Mei's mother's gift of her flesh to her dying mother, despite the woman's hatred of her, represents this minor theme
What is Sacrifice vs Antagonism?
the capital of China
What is Beijing?
a person, especially a young one, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities
What is Prodigy?
a angry and spiteful grandmother who would throw her own daughter out of her home before she would forgive her for playing mistress to a married businessman
Who is Popo?
how Rich insults Waverly's mother
What is Criticizing her cooking?
Among the mothers and the daughters, there is a constant clash of
What is Culture/s?
the four largest cities in China
What are (1) Shanghai, (2) Beijing, (3) Tianjin, and (4) Shenzhen?