Summary

The prologue begins in the first person, present tense on 9/9/1976 in San Francisco. Chairman Mao has just died. Mei reflects upon this, thinking, “In the beginning, he was the beginning” (3). She proceeds to think about an unknown “you,” saying, “For more than a decade, I have harbored my own secrets, trying to forget. Even you” (5). Chapter 1 is then set in the first person, past tense. Mei was a young girl who was being inspected among a group of other girls from the village by Secretary Sun. She yearned to be picked. Mei thought, “The people’s republic had been born the same year as me, and we were both still testing our limits…as we figured out who we would grow up to be” (11). Mei resented being the youngest daughter in her family, thinking, “I felt like another failed attempt at a...