Summary

In the afterword, Li writes that there are many ways to answer a question. She asks herself, "What made you think suicide was an appropriate, even the only, option?" (195). She acknowledges the various hypotheses that have been given to answer this question as well as the practical explanations. However, she does not think she would have made different life choices even if she had known they would lead her into depression. She questions the alternatives paths her life could have taken had she not left China or not become a writer but she sees them more as negatives than true alternatives. She imagines the life of one of her characters who also emigrated and imagines the alternative life that character would have had in Beijing. She knows there is a space for her there but she does not occupy it. To conclude, Li writes...