70 pages • 2 hours read
Lensey NamiokaTies That Bind, Ties That Break
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 10-Epilogue
Chapter 10 Summary
Ailin, with the Warners, boards an ocean liner. She is placed in third class while the Warners are in second. Ailin has never realized before that the Warners aren’t rich. She starts to wave at the people below only to discover she is actually waving at someone she knows—Xueyan has come to see her off; she even went to the Tao residence to find out when the ship was going to leave. She says, “How I envy you! You’re embarking on a great adventure!” (122). As she leaves, she says she almost forgot, then hands Ailin her bag of money. She says Big Uncle wanted to make sure she had proper accommodations on the ship.
Ailin gets seasick and doesn’t go up on deck for four days. Then, she spends most of her time with the Warners in second class. She only has one bad experience when she goes to get a snack to feed Billy and the bartender orders her back to third class. She gets haughty, imitating her old teacher Miss Scott as she tells him that she is getting food for a boy she cares for who is in second class. He gives it to her.
She hears someone laughing, and that’s how she meets James Chew, who is pleased to see her put the Chinese bartender in his place. James was born in San Francisco. His father owns a restaurant there, and he is ten years older than she is. They start to spend time together on the ship, even talking about her unbound feet. Eventually she confides in him the story of her family and her employment. He tells her, “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met” (127). She says she’s no revolutionary, but he tells her that there are some traditions people need to fight.
James tells Ailin that his grandfather came to the U.S. during the California Gold Rush and failed to strike it rich, went back to marry a girl from Canton, and then opened a restaurant for the miners. The restaurant has prospered. His father, too, went back to marry a country girl with unbound feet. When Ailin asks James how he feels about this, he says, “When I marry, I want a companion, not a status symbol” (131). James is a second son, so he will not inherit the restaurant; he is expected to work under his brother, but his brother has no business sense.
During the trip Ailin also learns more about Imogene and is impressed with all the moving around that Americans do. Mrs. Warner expresses some nervousness about going “home” to San Francisco. James, too, seems sorry to see the voyage end, saying he probably won’t be traveling too much anymore. His father will retire, and his brother has very different ideas about how the business should be run than he does. He asks her to look him up at the Green Pavilion restaurant in Chinatown.
Chapter 11 Summary
The Warners’ house has a view of the ocean, and Ailin thinks America seems rugged and untamed. Life here is very different than in China; the Warners have no servants and she must care for the children while the adults clean. Their first dinner in the house is not good, and none of the family seems to enjoy being back. Billy reverts to even more childish behavior. Ailin tries to help as much as she can. One night she suggests that she try cooking, and the family is enthusiastic.
She works hard at this duty and eventually her food improves. She now cooks as well as shops for food, all while taking care of the children. She feels useful; a new sensation, as girls are rarely useful in Chinese families. In order to make Chinese food the way she likes it, however, she must get authentic ingredients. Mr. Warner suggests his wife take Ailin to Chinatown, and the very next morning they go. She is overcome by the sounds and sights of home there.
Every week she goes to Chinatown for the ingredients she needs. She learns a bit of Cantonese to talk with the shop owners there. One day, she encounters James Chew. He invites her to his restaurant for dim sum, and she catches him up on her life while she eats. She finds that he admires her. As he walks her to the cable car stop, he says that meeting her has made his mind up about his next steps in life: “I’ve decided to start my own restaurant!” (146). She has inspired him to take a more difficult path with her brave journey. They make a date to meet weekly.
The Warners are leaving for China again, and Ailin has decided not to join them. Mrs. Warner asks if she wants to see her family again, but Ailin is not ready. Instead, she asks them to take some books to her brother. The older woman tells Ailin they will be honored to give her away at her wedding to James, as long as she is sure this is the path she wishes to take. She says she knows it will be hard work, but she is ready. Upon his proposal, she had offered her bag of money to James; he said they’ll need a lot more money than that, but was touched by the gesture.
Epilogue Summary
Hanwei wants to know why Ailin ran away. He says that things are changing; if she had waited, he would have been able to marry her anyway, and her life would be much easier. She wonders what she would have done, as an upper-class wife. He reminds her she wanted to be a teacher, but she knows that she never can, now. She doesn’t mind the hard work, though. She thinks of the Chinatown wives with bound feet, who live lives of ease: “I knew I would lose my mind if I had to spend my days like that. I had chosen a different life” (150).
She is now two years into starting the restaurant with James, and the work has been even worse than she expected. Things have improved, however, and they have hired help and even have time for leisure activities—such as visiting with an old friend. She compares her hands to Hanwei’s—hers are work-worn, while his are soft. She realizes she is ready to communicate with her family and asks her old friend to tell them about her life. He asks if she minds his telling them how hard she works. She says she is proud of her and her husband’s success, which she got “by standing on my two big feet” (151).
Chapter 10-Epilogue Analysis
Much happens in these final chapters: Ailin comes to America, meets her future husband, and finally comes to terms with her own life. It’s a satisfying conclusion that may even promise happiness for the heroine in the future. She has escaped the culture and the family life that restricted her. She has found a partner who respects and admires her courage—who is even inspired by her example. She gets closure from seeing Liu Hanwei again. While her day-to-day life is full of hard work, it is work she has chosen for herself. To Ailin, this self-determination and freedom is worth a great deal. By this time, her personality has been fully formed by her life experiences, and she knows herself to be in the right and to be living the life she needs to lead. The courage she has shown has paid off, and her identity has become fully-formed.
Despite the non-appearance of her family within these chapters, they are still very much on the girl’s mind—but there is a conclusion for her relationships with her family. She will probably never see her relatives again, as she does not intend to ever go back to China. Yet her uncle, in an unexpected peace offering, sends her back her money through her friend Xueyan, and the appearance of Liu Hanwei gives her a connection to the past and an opportunity to send a message to her family that lets them know that she is content in the difficult life she has chosen.
Cultural conflict remains a theme, but even this becomes less poignant as Ailin and Mrs. Warner come to know each other better and to gain one another’s sympathy. The Warners miss China, where they have spent so much of their professional career, and this makes them more willing to embrace the Chinese customs that they once disdained. Ailin also experiences more class-based conflict within her own culture, which is what introduces her to her future husband, James Chew.
James Chew, A Chinese-American, can be seen in contrast to Hanwei. His grandfather came to America to strike it rich but started a restaurant and continued to work hard. James’s father continued the family business and married a country girl. In Ailin and James’s conversation about his past, they touch upon the topic of foot-binding, which continues to be an important motif in Ailin’s life even in America, where women are apparently made fun of for their bound feet. While James is American, his family still follows in many Chinese traditions, and he too finds himself restrained by them; he cannot do anything about his older brother’s mismanagement of his restaurant.
Inspired by Ailin’s courage, James breaks away from his family’s business in his own rebellion and starts his own restaurant. Hanwei, while amiable and clearly still caring about Ailin, travels a path carved out for him by his family and makes no objections to it; in a way, he is coasting through life without many obstacles. James, on the other hand, is part of Ailin’s recovery from the trauma she has experienced at the hands of her family and society. By helping raise her self-esteem and praising her independence, he shows that he can be a better companion to her in this new world.
Although Ailin has escaped the politics taking place in China, Hanwei reminds her during his visit that they exist, and that—had she chosen it—she could have waited them out and experienced a more comfortable life with him, even without bound feet. Echoing her father and uncle, he reminds her of all the changes going on back in China. He says, “I can’t bear the thought of all the work you’ve had to do!” (150). Though Ailin clearly regrets that she could never be the teacher she had once hoped to be, she is satisfied with her life and the fact that she has been able to do the hard work because her feet remained unbound. She ends as she began, having made the choice to stand on her own two feet—a cliché that is remarkably appropriate in her situation, as it represents the fact that she has fought her own battles, worked for her own success, and gained independence.
