Section 1: Feathers From A Thousand Li Away, Chapter 2: Scar

Chapter 2
An-Mei Hsu
Scar

This chapter is narrarted by An-Mei Hsu. An-Mei begins the chapter with reflecting on her grandmother whom she called "Popo". Popo always told An-Mei that her mother was a ghost; not in the literal sense but in chinese culture, a ghost was someone whom is so terrible that you should never speak or think of them. An-Mei's aunt had told her, "Never say her name. To say her name is to spit on your father's grave" (pg 43). This was because An-Mei's mother was a window only a year when she became a 3rd concubine (woman who lives with a man but has a lower status than his wife or wives) to a man named Wu-Tsing. This action displayed lowliness and dishonor. However, when Popo becomes very ill and is lying on her deathbed, An-Mei's mother arrives. An-Mei says, "I was sitting at the top of the stairs when she arrived. I knew it was my mother even though I had not seen her face in all my memory" (pg 44). Though An-Mei's uncles and aunt's shooed her mother away, An-Mei's mother stayed to pay her respects. That evening, when An-Mei returns to her room, she finds her mother there. Her mother asks her if she knows who she is, then touches the scar under An-Mei's chin. This sets An-Mei into a flashback when she was four years old during an argument when her mother came home to retrieve An-Mei. Her family is arguing that if she goes with her mother, she will never be able to show her face to the world. During this argument, a pot of hot soup spills all over An-Mei which causes her to nearly die. This is why the chapter is named "Scar". Late that night, as Popo was dying, An-Mei saw her mother do a very honorable thing. Her mother cooked a soup that contained her own flesh and blood in a last attempt to cure her dying mother. An-Mei then says, "This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is a shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember whatis in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh" (pg 48). This quote really stuck out to me because, although it is grotesque, there is a beauty to it. It shows that truly sacrificing sometimes is the only way to show how much something means to you.

This chapter displayed a strong feminist theme. The reader starts to really understand what it was like as a woman during this time in China. I am starting to see that there were not many options for women, even less than in America during this time period.