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
LuLing waits in Hong Kong for GaoLing to secure her a visa. The rooming house she lives in is located near a part of the city where fish are sold and smells awful. LuLing refers to this place as the Fragrant Harbor. Her side of the island, the Kowloon Walled City, is filled with Chinese who fled their motherland.
LuLing incurs much suffering and misery when she turns down the chance to emigrate to the U.S. Knowing that GaoLing has gone instead gives more context for the sometimes contentious, jealous relationship the sisters have as old women.
Themes
A month after GaoLing leaves for the U.S., she sends LuLing a letter containing bad news. Miss Grutoff died shortly after they arrived. In addition, she’s discovered that she won’t be able to sponsor LuLing as soon as they’d initially thought. GaoLing informs LuLing that she’ll have to apply as a refugee, though the chances of being accepted are slim. Another option is for GaoLing to become a citizen first and then apply to sponsor LuLing. However, the latter option will be difficult since GaoLing will first need to improve her English and find a decent job. Finally. GaoLing can marry a citizen and become a citizen that way, which will be much faster. GaoLing encourages LuLing to stay strong and not lose hope. She ensures her that life in the U.S. isn’t as idyllic as they’d hoped: she works all the time, though she earns very little money.
LuLing receives nothing but disappointment in return for her good deed in letting GaoLing travel to the U.S. first. LuLing’s superstitious tendencies likely cast this as further evidence of Precious Auntie’s curse. GaoLing’s letter rubs salt in the wound, too. While her life in the U.S. surely can’t be easy, it’s probably not nearly as bad as LuLing’s wretched living conditions in Hong Kong. GaoLing is less resilient than LuLing because she grew up in the sheltered, comfortable Liu household. LuLing is stronger because Precious Auntie raised her to be that way. While LuLing used to envy GaoLing for the way Mother favored her, it’s apparent that LuLing’s upbringing has made her the better-equipped of the two to weather the hardships of war and economic hardship that consume her life over the course of her early adulthood.
Themes
GaoLing also catches LuLing up on things back home in China: Father was furious when he learned that Fu Nan lost the Peking ink business. Meanwhile, Chang refuses to criticize his son’s actions, reasoning that Fu Nan is a war hero and deserves respect. Without the income from the Peking shop, everyone struggles to make ends meet. LuLing finishes GaoLing’s letter and realizes how hopeless her situation is. She admits she might be waiting in Hong Kong forever.
LuLing is resilient, but GaoLing’s depressing letter causes her to lose hope. Although LuLing’s life has been plagued by hardship, this is the first time she’s truly been alone in her life, without the support of a sister, husband, mother, or mentor to support her and give her strength. This will be a significant moment for her. She can choose to wallow in self-pity and give in to her perceived curse, or she can redirect her focus toward the future, harnessing the positive traits Precious Auntie instilled in her—such as her confidence and independence—to fight to improve her circumstances.
Themes
The next day, LuLing packs a bag and heads to the train station but finds that she cannot afford a ticket to Peking. She resolves to pawn her valuables but realizes everything she has—Kai Jing’s notebook, GaoLing’s jacket, and Precious Auntie’s story and photograph—are valuable only to herself. Then, she remembers the oracle bone. She realizes the bone is her last chance to earn enough money to leave but finds herself unwilling to sell it just yet.
Parting with the oracle bone is a highly symbolic decision for LuLing to undertake. Keeping the bone symbolizes LuLing’s devotion to the past, Precious Auntie, and their shared family lineage. To sell the bone, though, symbolizes LuLing’s decision to part with the past in an effort to give her the financial means to make a future for herself. Her unwillingness to part with the bone shows she isn’t ready to leave behind her past.
Themes
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LuLing returns to her room and devises a new plan: she’ll find an even cheaper place to live, find a job, and save up money while waiting for the visa. If that doesn’t happen after a few months, she can return to Peking and work as a teacher. That same day, she finds a new room to live in, which she shares with two women. After that, she works as many odd jobs as she can manage. LuLing often moves, going wherever she can find a cheap enough place to live.
LuLing shows remarkable resilience by enduring horrific living and working conditions to try to make a better life for herself. This provides context that gives the reader more sympathy for the unhappy woman LuLing is later in life. In her youth, she tried in vain to work hard and hold out hope that her life would improve, only to be struck down by endless setbacks.
Themes
LuLing finds a job working as an English family’s maid. Her employers, the Flowers family, consists of two elderly women: Miss Patsy, and Miss Patsy’s mother, Lady Ina. Lady Ina’s late husband, Sir Flowers, had made his fortune shipping opium between India, China, and England. The women also keep Sir Flowers’s old parrot, Cuckoo, whose rather impressive grasp on the English language inspires LuLing to hone her own skills. LuLing remains with the Flowerses for two years. She receives letters from GaoLing every month. GaoLing writes about how hard life in San Francisco is. The church that had sponsored GaoLing’s visa found her an old woman named Mrs. Wu to live with, but Mrs. Wu acts “cheap” despite being very wealthy. LuLing can’t believe this is GaoLing’s idea of a “hard” life.
LuLing’s exasperation with GaoLing is warranted. Having to live with a stubborn old woman is clearly preferable and not as “hard” as LuLing’s life in Hong Kong. This context makes LuLing’s future bitterness toward GaoLing, when the sisters are old women in California, much more understandable.
Themes
The following month, GaoLing writes with better news: she’s found two bachelors, brothers, who are willing to marry both sisters. GaoLing explains that one brother is studying to become a doctor while the other is studying to become a dentist. Soon after this, LuLing receives a letter from Sister Yu informing her that she’s better off not returning to Peking, for China’s civil war situation is getting worse. Furthermore, because the Nationalists are fighting against the Communists, LuLing’s connections to Kai Jing, who was considered a sympathizer with the Communists, will jeopardize her safety. At the same time, her employment with American missionaries will make her an enemy to the Nationalists.
These bachelors are the Young brothers, the older of whom will eventually become Ruth’s father. The conflict Sister Yu refers to is the Chinese Civil War, which lasted from 1927 to 1949. At this point, the victorious Chinese Communist Party gained control of mainland China and formed the People’s Republic of China. The second phase of the war began after World War Two and is known as the Chinese Communist Revolution. The novel interweaves details about the ongoing political turmoil to emphasize the immense difficulties LuLing endured before she emigrated to the U.S. Not only is she suffering from unresolved grief, but she is doing so against a backdrop of political and ideological chaos.
Themes
Later that day, when LuLing is in town to buy a new bird cage for Cuckoo, she runs into Fu Nan Chang, who looks horrible: his eyes are discolored, and he’s missing an entire hand. Fu Nan demands to know where GaoLing is. LuLing tells him the truth about GaoLing emigrating to the U.S. Fu Nan threatens to inform the officials that LuLing isn’t GaoLing’s real sister, complicating GaoLing’s ability to sponsor her visa unless LuLing agrees to give him GaoLing’s contact information in America. LuLing stares at Fu Nan, barely comprehending that someone could be capable of such evil. She runs away from him as fast as possible, finishes her business in town, and returns home.
LuLing’s illegitimate birth haunts her well beyond her departure from the Liu household. It’s as though her existence is itself a curse by virtue of her illegitimate conception. Fu Nan’s threats could have devastating consequences, but his apparent ineptitude and well-established drug habit would imply that LuLing needn’t worry about him going through with them.
Themes
LuLing writes GaoLing that night and informs her of Fu Nan’s threat, wanting her that he might try to alert the American authorities to the fact that GaoLing is already married, which would prevent her from going through with her American marriage. LuLing leaves to mail the letter the next day and runs into Fu Nan. He demands that LuLing give him money, implying that he’ll betray her true identity if she denies him.
Whereas secrets once imposed unthinkable harm onto LuLing’s life by depriving her of knowledge about her birth mother, now it is essential that she and GaoLing keep secrets to ensure their prosperity in the U.S. The life-or-death characteristic of many of the secrets in LuLing’s life explains why she’s so reticent about opening up with Ruth about her past. Her past experiences have taught her that speaking her truth can have grave consequences.
Themes
One day, Fu Nan stops appearing. LuLing wonders if he has died. The following week, LuLing receives GaoLing’s response to her earlier letter. This time, she has excellent news: her fiancé’s family, the Youngs, have the power to sponsor her as a Famous Visiting Artist. LuLing will have to pay her own way, but the Youngs have already completed the application.
This is a big moment for LuLing. GaoLing’s letter shows her that her suffering has paid off now that she has a real chance to emigrate to America. Perhaps she can really leave the past behind and make a happier life for herself in a new country.
Themes
Later that night, LuLing lights some incense and prays to Precious Auntie, begging her for forgiveness, for LuLing has decided that the time has come to sell her oracle bone. The money LuLing receives from the bone and her savings from working as a maid are enough to buy her a ticket in steerage. Finally, she is headed to the U.S., “a land without curses or ghosts.”
In selling the oracle bone, LuLing symbolically gives up the past with the hope of securing a brighter future. Her hope that the U.S. can be “a land without curses or ghosts” reflects her desire to finally leave the past behind.
Themes
