Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Ma is Minli’s mother. Though she’s not the main character, she is an important and dynamic character whose own internal journey supports the story’s central theme of gratitude. The author’s decision to include scenes set in Minli's household, even after Minli leaves home, allows Ma's character arc to develop in a parallel way to her absent daughter’s. Ma begins the story unsatisfied, world-weary, yearning, but also loving. Her frustration with life is best illustrated in her frequent sighing: “Ma sighed a great deal, an impatient noise usually accompanied with a frown at their rough clothes, rundown house, or eager food. Minli could not remember a time when Ma did not sigh” (2-3). However, when Minli leaves, Ma misses her and regrets being so negative toward her. She reflects on their household, which she previously thought was poor but realizes is only truly poor without Minli in it. Ma also begins to take care of Ba by sharing his emotional burden. In "The Story That Ma Told," Ma narrates her own character arc as if it were someone else's, fully aware of her flaws and their consequences. Her dissatisfaction is also the catalyst for change in the story because without it, Minli likely would not have left. Minli’s absence turns Ma into a lighter, happier, more thankful person: “Ma sighed. But it was a sigh of joy, a sound of happiness that floated like a butterfly in the air” (270).

Ba is Minli’s father. He’s a good storyteller and a loving husband and father who feels the burden of their difficult life but doesn't show it the same way Ma does. Rather, his generosity of spirit leads him to ease the burden of his loved ones, exemplified in his feeding of Minli’s goldfish from her bowl and his offering to tell Ma stories when she’s sad. Ba is not unrealistic about the content of his stories, but unlike Ma, he sees great value in storytelling and passes that trait onto Minli. Ba, like Minli, is able to hear the goldfish when it talks, which demonstrates that he is in touch with his sense of optimism and faith in the impossible. Though he deeply misses his daughter, his faith in Minli is strong: “‘I think Minli, like the secret word and the paper of happiness,’ Ba said, ‘is not meant to be found,’” (87). Though Ba experiences great emotional turmoil while Minli is away, he gives energy and faith to Ma, and he grows more tender toward her as a result of her own transformation. Ba is a relatively static character, who doesn’t change his core qualities through crisis but rather begins and ends as an embodiment of faith and optimism.

Dragon is Minli’s best friend and sidekick. Though Minli has never seen a dragon before, she believes he's real: “He was brilliant red, the color of a lucky lantern, with emerald-green whiskers, horns, and a dull, stone-colored ball like a moon on his head” (46). Dragon is a 100-year-old orphan whose origin story is full of turmoil: he was born as a painting, sentient but unable to move or see, until one day, he escaped the painting and fled from his evil master, Magistrate Tiger. The artist painted him standing on the ground, which means that he's unable to fly until Minli removes the ball from his head at the end of the story. Dragon has lived a long, lonely life, and he's prone to insecurity and sorrow, but he also quickly adapts to companionship. He's a solid, unwavering partner to Minli and even risks his life for her when the Green Tiger attacks her. By the end of the novel, as a result of participating in Minli’s journey, he finds a home and companionship.

The buffalo boy is a minor, static character who lives alone in the City of Bright Moonlight with his pet buffalo. He’s an orphan with no money and no support system, but he turns down Minli’s gift of a copper coin. The buffalo boy embodies contentment and influences Minli to appreciate what she has. The buffalo boy also has a magical friend, the weaver girl, who brings him joy and softens his personality.

Magistrate Tiger is a character the reader gets to know only through the stories people tell about him. He’s wrathful, selfish, power-hungry, and violent. He seeks to make himself more powerful by marrying his son to a princess, and he orders that everyone in his way be killed. Magistrate Tiger is a one-dimensional character in that he has no positive characteristics to speak of; rather, he acts as the most clear villain in the story, appearing repeatedly as a force for chaos and evil in the lives of Minli's allies and their ancestors. Embodying greed and selfishness, he stands in direct opposition to the qualities—gratitude and selflessness—Minli gains on her journey.

By the time Minli meets Magistrate Tiger, he has been reincarnated in the form of an actual green tiger: “it was not an ordinary tiger. It was bigger than a horse or buffalo and it was a dark, dusty green like the color of sand dirtied from ocean foam” (163). For all his power and strength, the Green Tiger ultimately suffers defeat at the hands of two young children, A-Fu and Da-Fu, who use his anger against him. The Green Tiger’s demise through his own flaws mirrors several characters throughout the novel, including the monkeys, who refuse to relinquish the rice; and Wu Kang, who refuses contentment in favor of constantly pursuing rewards.

The king of the City of Bright Moonlight is an unlikely ally of Minli’s, considering it's rare for a person of ordinary status like Minli to interact with royalty, and people doubt her when she says she wants to meet him. When she does meet him, he's dressed in beggar's clothing and playing a prank on a fruit vendor to punish the vendor for not helping feed the poor. He sneaks out of his kingdom often to interact with townspeople in this way and doesn't tell his advisors, which lends a sense of mischief to his clear moral purpose.

The king is a direct foil for Magistrate Tiger—he's a powerful ruler, but instead of being greedy and wrathful, he's empathetic, generous, wise, and humble. The novel best expresses his humility through his handling of the “borrowed line” he ultimately gives Minli. The page from the Book of Fortune is so precious to him, he wears it close to his chest in a “gold-threaded pouch” (138). Yet, when the page suggests he give away his prized possession, he doesn't question the wisdom of the magical book and easily parts ways with it, embracing the message: “You only lose what you cling to” (140). In the end, the king rewards Minli for bringing him the dragon's pearl, a clear display of his magnanimity.

A-Fu and Da-Fu, who prefer to go by their combined name of Da-A-Fu, are twin children who conquer the Green Tiger through their ingenuity and audacity and disobey their grandparents in the name of saving their town. They’re younger than Minli, and she marvels at their diminutive appearance in contrast with their bravery: “with their dimpled faces swollen with smiles and their matching, bright red clothing, they looked like two rolling berries” (175).

A-Gong is Da-A-Fu’s grandfather, who generously stays with Dragon to administer a healing medicine overnight, even though Dragon and Minli are strangers. Amah, Da-A-Fu’s grandmother, is warm and hospitable. She takes care of Minli as if Minli were one of Amah's own children. The family is descendent of the famously happy family Magistrate Tiger once tried to kill for keeping the secret of their happiness. They exhibit warmth and love, and they remind Minli of what her own family has, developing her character and preparing her for her final choice when she meets the Old Man of the Moon. The family values hospitality, keeping their doors open to all visitors and going out of their way to take care of Minli and Dragon. They also embody sacrifice, as each of the family members and townspeople contribute a square of their own clothing to the making of a warm coat for Minli.