The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

Ford creates the character of Afong Moy out of a stereotype. Though Afong Moy was a historical figure, she was brought to the United States to sell goods from China (and goods manufactured to look like they were from China): She was a model who couldn’t speak English or walk far because of her bound feet. As a result, much of what is “known” about her is merely the public image of her, which was constructed from racist, exoticized caricatures of Chinese women.

With little information about the real person or her real responses to the events of her life, Ford invents her backstory and personality, creating a round and dynamic character for a woman who was constantly othered and silenced in life. Ford’s Afong does what she is told while rebelling in her heart, complicating the problematic stereotype of the meek and moldable Asian woman. For example, during her marriage processional, Afong sees Yao Han and “want[s] to run to him, but she [can] not. She [does] not know how. She [can] only shuffle on the shriveled flowers her feet [have] become” (33). Bound by her lotus feet, she physically cannot do what she wants to, so she accepts the fate her father has arranged for her.

Eventually, Afong acts on the rebellion in her heart. Upon learning that Nanchoy told Yao Han she was dead, Afong stabs and kills Nanchoy. Rather than accept the reality of what Nanchoy has done in lying to Yao Han and in creating a situation where she must become his wife, Afong stands up to her abuser in a moment of extreme violence that is antithetical to the stereotype to which others have sought to reduce her. Her final narrative action is to refuse to accept the fate laid out for her or be dependent on abusers, finding Agency in the Face of Racism and Misogyny.

Faye Moy is a dynamic character whose arc takes her on a journey of acceptance that develops the theme of Buddhist Doctrines Bring Hope and Peace. The novel begins with Faye signing an agreement not to marry: “a notarized statement of marital exclusion seemed to hammer home the fact that she’d never been in love” (3). Faye does want marriage, love, and family, but it hasn’t happened for her. As she interacts with John Garland, saving him, assisting in his operation, reading to him, watching him die, and preparing his things to return to his family, she feels a deep connection with him—especially after she finds her photograph among his possessions. His death leaves her with questions that will change her character.

A ghostly version of John Garland leads Faye to the hondo that will serve as his mortuary and her place of spiritual reckoning. While there, she meets Shi, a Buddhist monk, who helps her process her life, especially giving birth to Zoe at 14 and giving her up for adoption. Like Xi, the nun Dorothy later meets, Shi helps Faye “calm” her “ocean” and accept her karma through meditation. After decades of holding on to shame and guilt, avoiding Buddhist temples and sacred spaces, saying no to marriage proposals and opportunities, and shying away from anything that involved the vulnerability of family and spirituality, Faye stops futilely struggling:

[Faye] gave up on solving a mystery. Abandoned the idea of reconciling her past. Stopped. trying to rewrite her mistakes. Instead, she closed her eyes. She focused on the moment between inhalation and exhalation. The dot on a unicorn’s horn. A liminal space—a bardo—where we go between this life and whatever comes next (286).

In the end, she realizes that she would never have met John Garland if she hadn’t lived the existence she did. Though she never has a relationship with him, their interaction allows her to find peace, thus justifying everything she went through before.

In many ways, Zoe Moy’s story embodies the theme of agency in the face of racism, as well as the way in which the latter intertwines with misogyny through the character of Guto. The kiss he coerces Zoe into demonstrates that he does not understand (or at least care about) consent; he places a hand on the back of her head in a violent, forceful attempt to make the kiss linger regardless of Zoe’s desires, or lack thereof. Zoe considers “giv[ing] him what he wants” in an attempt to make him “go away” but ultimately resists by striking his hand (71). However, Guto is later part of the group of students who vote for and enforce fascism as the school’s new model of government. Zoe and eight other students—of Polish, Jewish, Indian, Japanese, and Chinese origin—are rounded up and assigned chores no one else wants to do on the grounds that they “come from a class of people subjugated by British rule” (225).

Once again, Zoe’s initial impulse is to try to appease Guto. When he confiscates Zoe’s book of Sappho, which contains her letter to Mrs. Bidwell, Zoe submits to the forced labor and tries to convince others to do the same. However, when she learns that Guto has mailed the letter to Mr. Bidwell anyway, she physically attacks him, having learned that attempting to placate abusers often results in further abuse. She claims her agency by reclaiming her book, beating Guto up, and visiting Mrs. Bidwell at a psychiatric hospital, but it is only Dorothy’s intervention in Zoe’s timeline that secures Zoe a happy ending.

Like Zoe, Greta Moy initially lacks assertiveness and consequently makes choices that she comes to regret. Greta constantly questions herself, her motivation, and what action she should take. When Carter, Syren’s angel investor with a shady reputation, asks her out, she finds herself “agreeing” to the date by default: As their first conversation ends, he leaves “before she [can] tell him that she hadn’t actually said yes” (163). Although this demonstrates the desire to stand up for herself, she lets him leave before she has communicated a firm denial, having instead engaged in banter sprinkled with his unwelcome innuendos. Later in the day, she writes a to-do list that includes “find[ing] a way to get out of ‘dinner’ with Carter Branson” (163), signaling her awareness that what he has framed as a simple “dinner” promises to be anything but. Nevertheless, she goes on the date, and Carter sexually assaults her, creating a scandal that gets her fired and causes her to lose Sam.

Ironically, part of what motivates Greta to go on the date is the very curiosity that has led to professional success. As a software developer, she is a problem solver, so she responds to Carter with the desire to figure out If he is as shady as the stories make him out to be. This same aspect of her character takes her to Sam’s house after he has moved out and results in her spending the rest of her life dating men who look like Sam in an effort to heal her wounds.

Lai King Moy’s young age at the time her narrative unfolds is key to her two main functions: as an epigenetic precursor for Annabel and as a total innocent facing racism. Lai King lives during the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first of a series of historical laws limiting emigration from China to the United States. Life for Chinese Americans at the time was marked by similar institutionalized racism, which Lai King, as an observant child seeking to understand the world, witnesses in action during the 1892 bubonic plague outbreak. Within hours of the first sailors becoming sick, Lai King and her parents try to leave Chinatown only to encounter a quarantine sign. However, Lai King quickly realizes that white people are allowed to come and go as they please; it is only the Chinese and Black Americans who are subject to the restrictions, putting them at heightened risk of disease. It is Lai King’s first experience with this type of segregation, making the moment all the more impactful.

When Annabel has a dangerous epigenetic vision, she sees Lai King’s experiences with Alby: “I saw the boy. The same one you saw. He was waiting for me to come play, but when I got up out here he was gone” (240). This illustrates Lai King’s desire to reunite with Alby after losing him.