Polly’s neighbor in the Chinese village in which she grows up. Shortly after she leaves school for good in the eighth grade, Polly starts meeting Haifeng on a daily basis. In a secluded area by a river, they kiss for the first time, beginning a secretive relationship that ends abruptly when Polly moves to Fuzhou to work in the factories. Not long after she leaves, though, Haifeng also goes to the city to work, so they meet in a motel and have sex for the first time. Polly gets pregnant after this, but she doesn’t tell Haifeng because she knows he’ll want to marry her and settle down in their village—a future she does not want for herself. Keeping her pregnancy a secret, then, she travels to the United States.
Get the entire The Leavers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Haifeng Character Timeline in The Leavers
The timeline below shows where the character Haifeng appears in The Leavers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
...known as Peilan) is fifteen, she starts spending time with her neighbor, a boy named Haifeng. Before long, she and Haifeng kiss on a secluded riverbank, and they start seeing each...
(full context)
Around the time Peilan and Haifeng start seeing one another, news circulates throughout the village about the benefits of working in...
(full context)
...father that soon other families let their daughters follow her to the city. Before long, Haifeng comes to Fuzhou and works in a nearby factory, and though he’s eager to see...
(full context)
Two months later, Peilan realizes she’s pregnant, but she doesn’t want to tell Haifeng because he’ll expect her to marry him. When they were lying together in the motel,...
(full context)
...Keeping her pregnancy a secret, she ruminates about the fact that she’ll have to marry Haifeng once everyone finds out she’s having his baby. During this period, she and her father...
(full context)
...an alternative reality in China while Polly stands here on the shore. “Peilan would marry Haifeng or another village boy while Polly would walk the endless blocks of new cities,” she...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...week, she calls her father and talks to her child, who’s now five. One day, Haifeng’s mother answers the phone when Polly calls and tells her that her father has died....
(full context)
Chapter 17
...in Fuzhou again, she makes her way back to her childhood village, where she finds Haifeng’s mother living in Polly’s father’s old house. “We’ve been using it,” Haifeng’s mother explains, saying...
(full context)
