But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. -Jing-mei

Only two kinds of daughters, she shouted in Chinese. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!

And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.

Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.

No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.

I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength..."strongest wind cannot be seen."

So sad! This is the saddest part when you lose someone you love- that person keeps changing. And later you wonder, Is this the same person I lost?