Dial A for Aunties

By nature, photography tends to remove the photographer from the scene, rendering them invisible. Throughout most of the wedding, Meddy’s camera emphasizes this aspect of photography. Though photography is also Meddy’s passion, at the start of the novel, she is mainly applying her skills in a commercial sense on behalf of a business she wants to leave. The camera therefore takes on a symbolic function, representing Meddy’s passiveness and feelings of isolation and emotional distance throughout the novel.

Meddy is very close to her loving family, but there is a clear divide between Meddy and Ma/the aunties. Part of it is generational: Meddy is younger, which puts a boundary between them already, compounded by cultural and environmental factors. Meddy grew up in the United States, while the aunties immigrated from Indonesia, resulting in linguistic and cultural barriers as well. Meddy feels this division more keenly at college, where she first experiences independence. There, she begins dating Nathan, forming her first real secret from her family; as a result, for the first time, she dares to imagine a life separate from her relatives. At college, she also fosters her passion for photography. However, Meddy’s failure to take any emotional risks with Nathan and her family coincides with her decision to give into her family and join their new business as a wedding photographer. Though she doesn’t necessarily hate the idea, her decision transforms how her photography affects her—and what her camera symbolizes.

Meddy’s new role in the Chan wedding business turns Meddy invisible. Though she is an intimate part of the wedding proceedings—recording everything, even the behind-the-scenes details—she stays distinctly separate: she is never part of the photos, and her “all black” uniform further renders her invisible. This role reflects her position in the family, in which Meddy is an integral but invisible part. As the quiet offspring, unable to share her true desires, she blends into the background compared to the vivacious and quirky aunties.

It isn’t until Meddy has her own drama that she—sort of—comes to the forefront for her family. Usually the fifth wheel to Big Aunt and Second Aunt’s squabbles and Ma/Fourth Aunt’s rivalry, the corpse brings her to their attention properly, and Meddy must learn to find her place between the obedient daughter she feels she is expected to be, and her own role as a (sort of) authority figure in her family. Uncertain, she spends much of the novel with her camera, indicating that she merely reacts to her aunts, rather than taking charge—her “Asian Auntie” scream is an accident, a reaction to her relatives moving the cooler unaware of Ah Guan’s visible hand. It is only when she begins taking charge—by stealing and hiding the stolen gifts, framing Maureen—that she starts setting down the camera and interacting with the scene, rather than just observing it.

By the time Ah Guan’s corpse is revealed, Meddy has no hesitation. She sets aside her camera to rescue Jacqueline from the pool, taking responsibility for her own actions without an extra push. This action continues when Meddy ditches her camera to masquerade as an attorney to rescue Nathan, angry that he’d considered her “helpless,” and finally when she leaves behind her camera lenses to hide Maureen’s gun before going to see Jacqueline and steal the gifts again—at which point she’ll inadvertently realize how to bring Maureen and Jacqueline together.

In this way, the camera is an important symbol through both its presence and its absence. While Meddy is keeping her true self hidden, the camera represents how Meddy is isolated, distanced, and removed from her desires, actions, and circumstances. When she learns to set it aside, she becomes confident and in charge, an actor rather than an observer.

The tea ceremony gifts are part of the Chinese Indonesian wedding celebrations: the bride and groom serve tea to their elders; in return, they receive gifts from family to celebrate the nuptials. Because the Wijayas and Sutopos are quite wealthy, and because the ceremony is a way for families to show off their resources and generosity, the gifts are extravagant, worth around $2 million. In the context of the novel’s tea ceremony, the valuable gifts represent the guests’ pride and desire to save face through their generous offerings. In a broader context, however, the gifts come to symbolize the desire/desperation of the characters in the story.

As the tea ceremony gifts are juggled from place to place during the story, their presence and disappearance provoke characters into revealing their true desires and the intensity of those desires. Ah Guan’s desire for material wealth becomes evident, as he planned to steal and run away with the valuables (280). Tom Cruise Sutopo’s desire for power and control also becomes clear during the search for the stolen gifts. That desire for power and control manifests further in his push for harsh legal action toward Maureen: “[T]he gifts were mostly from my relatives, so I think I get to decide what happens to the thief” (208).

The aunties try on the stolen jewelry and wistfully daydream about keeping some, but they ultimately return the treasure. Their attitude reflects that their desires lie elsewhere, namely with family, and are already satisfied. Similarly, Meddy strives to get rid of the gifts when they fall into her possession, as she is much more interested in protecting the people she loves. For Maureen, the wedding gifts are valuable not in material cost, but in figurative worth. In love with Jacqueline, Maureen recognizes how terrible Tom Cruise Sutopo is to Jacqueline. Her theft of the gifts is not for her own gain, but to save Jacqueline. By stopping the wedding, she hopes to protect Jacqueline from Tom and save her from a life of misery. Maureen’s intent to return the gifts afterward reflects this desire, and her theft in the first place reflects her desperation to fulfill it.