Summary—Introduction
The parable that precedes the second section of the novel
deals with an American-raised daughter’s conflict with her mother.
The mother does not want her seven-year-old daughter to ride her
bicycle around the corner because her daughter will suffer an accident
when she is out of sight and earshot. The mother explains that a
book, titled The Twenty-six Malignant Gates, details
the dangers that can befall her child when she is away from the
protection of the home. The daughter cannot read the book because
it is written in Chinese, and when her mother will not tell her
what the dangers are, the girl becomes angry and rushes away on
her bicycle. She falls before she reaches the corner.
Summary—Waverly Jong: “Rules of the Game”
Lindo’s daughter Waverly Jong says that when she was six,
her mother taught her “the art of invisible strength,” a lesson
that helped her to become a child chess prodigy. She then begins
the story of how her talent emerged: at Christmas, one of the members
of the Jongs’ church in Chinatown dressed as Santa Claus and handed
out wrapped Christmas gifts, the donations of members of another church.
Waverly got a multipack box of Lifesavers, and one of her brothers
got a secondhand chess set that was missing two pieces. By offering
two of her Lifesavers to stand in for the missing pieces, Waverly
convinced her brothers, Winston and Vincent, to let her play. The
winner could eat both candies. Awestruck by what she deemed to be
a sort of hidden power within each piece, Waverly closely studied
the dog-eared instruction booklet and borrowed chess strategy guides
from the Chinatown library. She soon learned that the game hinged
on invisible strength in the form of secret traps and keen foresight.
After her brothers lost interest in the game, Waverly began playing
with Lau Po, an old man who played chess in the park. He taught
her many new strategies.
Waverly began to attract attention because of her young
age, and she became a celebrity within San Francisco’s Chinatown
community. She played in tournaments, and by the age of nine she
had become a national champion, 429 points
away from grandmaster status. Lindo took great pride in her daughter’s
talent, and although she gave her daughter preferential treatment,
she also made use of Waverly to feed her own self-pride. She would
force Waverly to come to the market with her, presenting her in
all the shops. One day, exasperated, Waverly yelled at her mother
in the street, telling her that she was embarrassed by her constant
bragging. Waverly ran off, ignoring her mother’s shouts; when she
returned later that night, Lindo said that because Waverly had no
concern for her family, the family would have no concern for her.
Waverly went into her room, lay down on the bed, and envisioned
a chess game in which her mother was her opponent. Lindo’s pieces
were advancing across the board, pushing Waverly’s pieces off; Waverly
felt so dislodged that she had a feeling she would fly away; she
felt she had lost her anchor. Waverly ends her story with the statement,
“I closed my eyes and pondered my next move.”
Summary—Lena St. Clair: “The Voice from the Wall”
Lena St. Clair says that her mother, Ying-ying, never
spoke of her life in China. Lena’s father, a man of English-Irish
descent named Clifford, says he saved Ying-ying from a terrible
tragedy that befell her in China, about which she could not bring
herself to speak. Clifford knew only a few phrases in Mandarin,
and Ying-ying never learned English very well. Thus, she spoke using
gestures, glances, and halting English. Because he couldn’t understand
her, Clifford typically would put words into his wife’s mouth. Although
Lena understands her mother’s words in Mandarin, she hardly ever understands
her meanings, often considering what she says to be crazy or nonsensical.
When she is forced to act as a translator for her mother, she often
alters the English meanings of what others say so as to trick her
mother into acting in more conventional-seeming ways; conversely,
she translates her mother’s odd expressions into English words that
convey more mainstream thoughts.
When Clifford received a promotion, the St. Clairs moved
from Oakland across the bay to an Italian neighborhood in San Francisco.
The apartment, built on a steep hill, disturbed Ying-ying, who continually
rearranged the furniture, claiming that things were not “balanced.”
Through the walls in her bedroom, Lena often heard the girl next
door, Teresa Sorci, arguing with her mother. She imagined that Teresa
was being killed or beaten, but whenever Lena saw her on the staircase
of the building, she could never see a trace of blood or bruising
on her. Soon after moving to the new apartment, Lena’s parents announced
to her that Ying-ying was pregnant. But although Lena’s father looked
forward to the baby with happiness, Ying-ying did not express joy
or hope.
Ying-ying’s baby, a boy, died immediately after birth
from severe medical complications. Lying in her hospital bed, Ying-ying
blamed herself, speaking incoherently of another son that she had
killed sometime in the past. But to her father, Lena translated
her mother’s words into expressions of hope and consolation. After
coming home, Ying-ying soon began to fall apart psychologically.
Lena comforted herself by thinking that the girl next door was more
miserable than she was. One day, however, Teresa knocked on the
St. Clairs’ door, went straight to Lena’s room, and climbed onto
the window ledge. She explained that her mother had locked her out and
announced her intention to sneak back through her own bedroom window
and shock her mother, who would be waiting for her to knock on the
front door and apologize. Later that night, Lena heard Teresa and
Mrs. Sorci yelling after Mrs. Sorci discovered her daughter’s prank.
They were screaming accusations and sobbing, but also laughing with
strange joy and love.
