"Rules of the Game" - Shannon Walsh (Week 7)

         The author embeds Chinese cultural ideals in the details of the writing, through action and descriptions. The narrator refers to her mother’s traditional Chinese cooking: “Our mother sprinkled flour and rolled out small doughy circles for the steamed dumplings that would be our dinner” (501). She also refers to her heritage when asked how old she is: “I thought it was a trick question. I was seven according to the American formula and eight by the Chinese calendar” (500). These glimpses of culture allow the reader a better understanding of the characters and the narrator’s Chinese-American experiences. 
        Many traditional Chinese tendencies and values are also brought to the story through the characterization of the mother. The mother speaks in broken English as her second language, saying fragmented statements like, “Who say this word?” (499), “Too good. Cost too much” (501), and “In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind” (497). The mother also embodies the traditional ideal of Chinese humility, when she watches her daughter win at chess and responds, “Is luck” (504), as well as the ideal of strict discipline as shown when she scolds the narrator, “We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us” (508). This characterization of the traditional Chinese mother allows the author to incorporate a very specific culture and set of ideals into the story.