The May Flower Dance Hall

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.

Numbers

Numbers symbolize deceptive appearances. Throughout the novel, Choo refers to Chinese numerology and puns to emphasize the double meaning not only of numbers, but of events in life. Numbers, belonging to the dependable and predictable sphere of hard science, are layered with new meaning...