Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Secrecy and Misunderstanding
Memory, Culture, and the Past
Storytelling
Women’s Solidarity
Summary
Analysis
The orphanage is in an old, abandoned monastery near Dragon Bone Hill. Eventually, two American missionaries approach LuLing. LuLing has never interacted with a foreigner before and finds herself unable to speak. The women talk to LuLing in Chinese and inform her that they didn’t know she was coming. LuLing remains silent. Finally, LuLing writes Chinese characters in the air. Upon realizing LuLing can read and write, the women allow her to stay at the orphanage as a student and tutor, and she works as Teacher Pan’s helper.
That LuLing secures a teaching position at the school shows that Precious Auntie’s sacrifice to prevent LuLing from marrying into the Chang family is already benefitting her, enabling her to harness her knowledge to secure a job and personal empowerment rather than being disenfranchised and miserable by marrying into a cruel, dishonest family. Precious Auntie died so LuLing could have a better life than the one she had.
Themes
In addition to Teacher Pan, the monastery also employees Teacher Wang and Sister Yu. The missionary women’s names are Miss Grutoff and Miss Towler, who is the orphanage’s director. The foreign men who work there are scientists who were involved with finding the Peking Man’s bones. The orphanage hosts around 70 girls, most of whom are illegitimate children like LuLing. All the girls look after one another in the orphanage.
The orphanage represents an institution of (mostly) women and girls who persist and survive through their solidarity and dedication to supporting each other. Society has cast many of them aside due to their illegitimacy, so they must turn to each other for support instead.
Themes
Teacher Pan tells LuLing she’s the best calligraphist ever to attend the school. He tells her she could’ve been a scholar if she’d been born a boy and admits that she’s a better calligrapher than his son, Kai Jing. Kai Jing is a geologist. Although he had polio as a child, he received care from then best doctors and recovered with only a slight limp. The missionaries helped him obtain a scholarship to attend college in Peking, and he returned to be with his father and work in the quarry after his mother died.
At the orphanage, LuLing finds herself surrounded by people like Teacher Pan, who respect and admire her for her capabilities. In contrast, the fate she narrowly avoided of marrying into the Chang family would have placed her amidst people who are only interested in her so long as she can contribute to their wealth. This is further evidence of LuLing's luck, though she can only see her situation as cursed and unfortunate. Kai Jing is the man LuLing mentioned as being one of her husbands in the opening section, so it’s likely that LuLing will meet Teacher Pan’s son at some point during her stay at the orphanage.
Themes
One day, Teacher Pan takes some of the older girls to the quarry at Dragon Bone Hill. The girls bring cakes and tea to the scientists who are digging there. Kai Jing explains some of the artifacts the scientists have found there and how they know how old they are. Sometimes, they let the girls sift through the dug-up dirt. LuLing remembers the first time Kai Jing complimented her careful, precise work.
Kai Jing and LuLing’s relationship resembles Baby Uncle and Precious Auntie’s relationship. It appears to be based on mutual respect and admiration for the other’s intelligence and skillfulness. Moreover, it's a real romance instead of the transactional, symbolic one LuLing would have had with Chang’s fourth son.
Themes
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LuLing enjoys teaching painting and calligraphy at the orphanage. Her least favorite job is sweeping the floors and cleaning the chapel, since Sister Yu is constantly overcritical of her efforts. One day, Sister Yu tasks LuLing with removing the many bugs that infest the orphanage. LuLing does an excellent job and earns two hours of free time. She chooses to spend her time alone and takes Precious Auntie’s story into an abandoned storeroom. To LuLing’s surprise, when she opens a small pocket in the blue cloth that binds the story, she finds a small oracle bone Precious Auntie had shown her when she was a little girl, as well as an old photo of Precious Auntie when she was young, before her face was burnt.
Reading Precious Auntie’s story helps LuLing feel closer to her mother. Precious Auntie’s writing ensures that her voice and spirit live on after her death. The oracle bone connects LuLing to Precious Auntie but also to the broader family heritage she never had the chance to appreciate while Precious Auntie was alive due to her own ignorance about her identity.
Themes
After LuLing has been at the orphanage for two years, Miss Grutoff hands her a letter—from GaoLing. In the letter, GaoLing reveals that she married the fourth Chang son after the Changs called off the wedding between the son and LuLing. After marrying into the family, GaoLing realized how horrible they were. They never stop reminding her that she and her family are indebted to them, since the Changs loaned her family money to rebuild the ink shop. The Changs are also not as rich as everyone thinks and spend all their money on opium. GaoLing apologizes for not coming to see LuLing and advises her not to write back, since it will get GaoLing in trouble with her in-laws. She promises to send her another letter as soon as she can.
GaoLing was always the favored child, but now she has met a fate considerably worse than LuLing’s. GaoLing’s letter shows LuLing the life she narrowly avoided by being sent away to the orphanage. Even so, LuLing’s overwhelming, persistent shame over Precious Auntie’s death keeps her from feeling thankful for her circumstances. She continues to see herself as cursed, even though her situation at the orphanage—where she has a job, the solidarity of other women, and personal agency—is clearly preferable to GaoLing’s.
Themes
Next, LuLing recalls falling in love with Teacher Pan’s son. Their romance begins one afternoon after class, when Kai Jing comes by on his bicycle, as he always does, to take his father back to his rooms. On this day, Kai Jing comes early and offers to help LuLing and Teacher Pan’s class with the banners they are painting for the temple fair in the Mouth of the Mountain. LuLing is flattered when she realizes that Kai Jing is watching everything she writes and copying it exactly.
Kai Jing’s attention flatters LuLing because it shows that he values her skills rather than her financial or social status. It’s also special to LuLing that he appreciates her calligraphy specifically, because it’s a skill she learned from Precious Auntie, so it’s a way of symbolically honoring the mother who raised her.
Themes
Later, Kai Jing accompanies LuLing to take the banners to the fair. As they walk, he shows her the book, The Four Manifestations of Beauty, which is about the four levels of ability required to master an art: Competent, Magnificent, Divine, and Effortless. Kai Jing tells her that he’s been feeling “the beauty of Effortlessness” lately and asks if she feels the same way. LuLing knows Kai Jing speaks of their mutual love. They share a kiss.
Kai Jing’s remark about feeling “the beauty of Effortlessness” reflects the authenticity of his and LuLing’s romance. It’s a genuine attraction more in line with the romance Precious Auntie and Baby Uncle had rather than the marriage LuLing would have had with Chang’s son. LuLing is living the life Precious Auntie nearly had but was denied the chance to experience. LuLing’s manuscript is interesting because while she presents it as evidence that she was cursed, so many moments she describes (such as this romance with Kai Jing) actually reveal how loved and blessed her life was, though her shame and unresolved grief often prevents her from seeing it this way.
Themes
