White Tigers Summary

The narrator tells of Chinese girls listening to stories that teach them they can be heroines and swordswomen. There is a story of a woman who invents white crane boxing when the spirit of a white crane, who later becomes an old man, guides her. The narrator's mother tells stories nightly, and the narrator reflects on the power in this. Although the narrator's mother tells her she will be a wife and mother, her stories tell she will have to be a warrior woman.

The narration turns into a fantastical story of the narrator as a seven-year-old girl who follows the call of a bird. The girl climbs up a mountain and finds a hut. An old man and old woman invite the girl to share a meal with them, and she spends the night. In the morning, the old man...