What does The May Flower Dance Hall represent?

The May Flower Dance Hall symbolizes Ji Lin's secret self that she feels she must hide from the whole world. The reason she has the job is because of her mother's mahjong debts, but ironically, it is her mother who she most desperately wants to keep her job a secret from. When Ji Lin leaves the dance hall to go work William Acton's party, her departure symbolizes her going from child to woman; from that moment, she knows she can never return to the secretive life she led before—the one that was for others, not herself.