Becoming Chinese
My aunt and uncle have adopted two girls from China, one as a baby, and the other
just this past summer as a 12 year old. I sometimes wonder what it is like to have two distinct
cultures as part of one’s heritage, and what it would be like for my cousins if they went back to
China one day. Therefore, in the short story “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, Jing Mei, her
journey to the country her family once called home, and her discovery of what it means to
“become Chinese” captivated me (Tan 179). I can imagine one of my cousins telling a similar
story one day. In “A Pair of Tickets”, Amy Tan uses her narration style and descriptive setting to
develop her primary themes of self-discovery, belonging, and the importance of family and
culture in forming one’s identity.
Significantly, Tan chose to write in the first person limited. This is vital to the theme of
Jing Mei’s journey to self-discovery and belonging, because it gives the reader access to Jing
Mei’s thoughts and feelings throughout the journey. As Jing Mei tells her story, I feel like I am
right there in the busy streets of Guangzhou. I can feel the oppressive heat of October in China
and the press of bodies against me filing off the train (Tan 183). By using the first person
narration, Tan enables the reader to identify with Jing Mei and travel right beside her.
However, in the beginning of the story when Jing Mei and her father are on the train, Tan
switches to the second person narration using the word “we” (Tan 180). Tan uses this form of
narration to relate that Jing Mei shares her journey with her father who is on his own journey,
seeking to understand the missing piece of his late wife’s past. This story is about a pair of
tickets, not a single ticket; Jing Mei doesn’t have to face the past alone, her father is with her.
Finally, towards the end of the story, Jing Mei’s father takes over the narration of the story. In
this four-page section, Jing Mei’s father carries both Jing Mei and the reader into Jing Mei’s
mother’s past, explaining why she had to abandon her babies and how she was never the same
again (Tan 190-194). This passage is the turning point for Jing Mei, when her attitude changes
and she feels a connection with her sisters. As one writer for The Midwest Quarterly explains,
discovering and understanding the past helps one make sense of the present, as Jing Mei’s
father’s narration proves true (Wood 83, 96). While “ A Pair of Tickets” is primarily told through
Jing Mei’s perspective, the shifts in narration add to the development of Tan’s themes.
Additionally, in her narration, Tan jumps between different verb tenses, switching from
the present to the past and then to the future tense. Each transition serves a unique purpose in
developing her theme. Whenever Tan has Jing Mei speak in past tense, she provides the reader
with context and important family history. When Jing Mei remembers how her aunts had
written to her long lost twin sisters, she sets the stage for the story and helps the reader
understand the purpose of her journey and how it all began (Tan 180-181).
In contrast, when Jing Mei starts to daydream and speaks in the future tense about what
will happen, she is revealing her expectations to the reader, showing us where she is at in
processing everything that she is discovering about her family. At the beginning of the story, it
is apparent that Jing Mei dreads and fears her reunion with her sisters (Tan 182-83). At this
point, she feels like an outsider without any personal connection to her Chinese family. But by
the end of the story, after Jing Mei has learned the truth of her Mother’s difficult past, Tan uses
the future tense to relate how Jing Mei feels a connection with her sisters and wants to be able
to help them understand their mother’s story (Tan 195). By observing these flashbacks and
daydreams throughout the story, the reader watches Jing Mei’s character development, as she
comes to accept her Chinese heritage and discovers that where she belongs is with her family.
Another literary element Tan uses is setting. Tan chose to write descriptively about the
places that Jing Mei stops along her journey. By writing in vivid detail, Tan makes her story
distinct, highlighting that this is a very personal journey and story. Additionally, the explicit
details about the setting, such as the bright clothing, the heat and congested streets, help
create a picture of the Chinese culture and atmosphere (Tan 183,186). As Jing Mei interacts
with her surroundings, she describes what she sees through the lens of an American tourist.
She compares the working standards to that of American standards and makes comments like,
“this is Communist China?” in surprise over the prosperity and normality of the city she finds
herself in (Tan 186-87). As Jing Mei describes the places she passes through the reader can see
that Jing Mei feels distant, like an outsider among the Chinese. At this point, she has a long way
to go in her journey to becoming Chinese. She is still American.
Geographical setting is significant in this story because as Jing Mei encounters Chinese
places, she is able to identify with her mother for the first time. In her article analyzing motherdaughter relationships in Amy Tan’s book, Michelle Wood highlights how American born
daughters struggle to relate to their Chinese mothers because they do not share a geographical
context to help them interpret cultural and personal stories (Wood 83). Jing Mei struggles with
this early on in “A Pair of Tickets” whens he recalls her mother telling how she knew her family
was dead, because Jing Mei doesn’t understand the culture and family dynamics her mother
grew up in (Tan 183-184). As Jing Mei’s story illustrates, “mother-daughter relationships in the
United States ‘are not marked by a slip of the tongue or even a generational gap, but by a deep
cultural and geographical chasm’ “ (Wood 83). It is only when Jing Mei journeys through China
and combines the stories she hears of her mother’s past, meeting her Chinese family members
for the first time, and experiencing Chinese culture and her geographical surroundings that Jing
Mei is able to understand and connect with her mother and in turn, understand herself better.
It is interesting to note that Tan never references time in her story, with the exception of
one pivotal point. Jing Mei wakes up in her hotel in China “at one o’ clock in the morning,” the
time of night when exhaustion sets in and conversations flow to deeper topics (Tan 188). The
telling of Jing Mei’s mother’s family history, which was filled with disappointment,
abandonment and suffering, facilitates the character development in Jing Mei that helps her
understand who she is. She is no longer a tourist in the busy streets of Guangzhou, rather she
identifies with her sisters, as evidenced by her desire to know their actual names (Tan 189).
In the end, when Jing Mei meets her sisters, they all embrace with “all expectations
forgotten,” and she realizes that the Chinese part of her is her family (Tan 195). Once Jing Mei
understands her family’s history, she understands who she is, and feels a sense of belonging
with her sisters in China. Significantly, in The Midwest Quarterly, Michelle Wood explains how
in this story, Tan isn’t stereotyping what it means to be Chinese, rather she makes it clear
through the story of Jing Mei that there is no one general definition of what it means to be
Chinese (Wood 95). Tan’s setting and narration in “A Pair of Tickets” help develop Jing Mei as a
character until finally she understands that her family and Chinese heritage come together as
part of her identity. It is then that Jing Mei truly becomes Chinese.
The story of Jing Mei could easily have been Amy Tan’s story if she hadn’t been given a
second chance to get to know her mother after her mother’s close call with death. While Tan
gets the opportunity to listen first hand to her mother tell about her tragic family history,
including the death of Tan’s brother, father and grandmother; Jing Mei doesn’t realize what she
has until it’s gone (Tan “Review”). It’s only when Jing Mei’s mother dies that she journey’s to
China and discovers the truth of her mothers hardships and abandoned twin babies. Jing Mei’s
story is one of a series of stories in the book Joy Luck Club written by Tan about girls who don’t
get the second chance Tan got, and thus is a very personal story, as the mood of “A Pair of
Tickets” reflects. The themes of self-discovery and seeking to belong and understand ones
family and culture that permeate “A Pair of Tickets” are a reflection of what Tan might have
wrestled with if she had been like Jing Mei, and hadn’t relayed to her mother “what [she] felt
and had to say before it was too late” (Tan “Review”).
Works Cited
Tan, Amy. “A Pair of Tickets.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. Portable
11th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 179-195. Print.
Tan, Amy. “Review: GUARDIAN BOOK CLUB: Amy Tan on How She Found Her Reason to Write
the Joy Luck Club.” The Guardian: 6. Nov 23 2013. ProQuest. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
Wood, Michelle Gaffner. “Negotiating the Geography of Mother-Daughter Relationships in
Amy Tan’s the Joy Luck Club.” The Midwest Quarterly 54.1 (2012): 82,96,10. ProQuest.
Web. 7 Feb. 2014.