When Yen Mah arrives to the airport, it is crowded with many people trying to fight for tickets. To her surprised, about 10 people boarded the plane. The younger Yen mah didn’t know of it at the time but Communists were advancing towards Beijing and Tianjin, their destination. While people were running away in the opposite direction, they were going towards the danger. On the plane passengers were required to fill out an information sheet to her dismay, Yen Mah’s father forgot her Chinese name and birthday; her father gave her the same birthday as his since they didn’t know. In Tianjin, everyone was speaking Mandarin, not in the Shanghai dialect she speaks at home. Once getting picked up, her parents immediately dropped her off at her old school where she went for kindergarten; it was night and when she settled into bed, some beds were empty, indicating that students left before the Communists came. The next morning, Yen Mah discovers from another student’s mother that they were drawing near and she should be fleeing this area and was wondering what her parents was thinking in leaving her there. Since families were leaving the city, there were fewer students attending school each day and soon Yen Mah was the only one left. The nuns allowed her to roam the place and avoided her since they didn’t know what to do with her. Even when Christmas and New Years Day pasted, her parents didn’t show up. To past the time, Yen Mah learned how to do origami and one of the nuns gave her an origami books for Christmas. One day a nun ran up to her and exclaimed that her aunt was here to pick Yen Mah up. With her hopes rising, she rushed to see that it was her aunt from her mother’s side, one that she met when she was only 4 or 5 years old. With her aunt, uncle, and their two children, Yen Mah sailed on a boat to Hong Kong. Along the way, she experienced a loving family where everyone was fair and loves each other. She also saw the brotherly love her cousin was giving to his sister, one that she would never feel because her brothers treat her like dirt. Once in Hong Kong, they made their way to her parents’ jam pack home, where her stepsiblings and grandfather also lived. Yen Mah discovers that her grandfather had succumbed to her parents and though her name was mentioned, her parents didn’t look at her at all. In the next few days, the family would go out and explore while Ye Ye and her would stay at home. Yen Mah didn’t know how to read Chinese and Ye Ye explains to her the Chinese symbols and writing. When her grandfather decided to travel along with them, there was no room in the car for Yen Mah. Niang pestered to leave her at home but her cousin, Victor, stepped out and stays home with Yen Mah. Having felt gratitude, Yen Mah gave him her prized origami book, which he is grateful but doesn’t fully understand the reason.
“To receive a letter addressed to me. Just one letter. From anyone” ( Yen Mah 131).
I chose this quote because knowing that she is always alone, I can predict that she would want a simple wish such as this. The meaning of the quote changes because as I read on about her experience back in this academy, she is still alone. From the start, there was a decrease in students and the classes were separated by the student’s ability to speak English. She was placed in a beginner’s class and was surrounded by students younger than her. Also, she was promised by her aunt that she would write back but with the country’s condition at that time, to deliver a letter seemed impossible. Of course, reading the new information about her stay, I could understand why she would want a letter from anybody.
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