Falling Leaves

Adeline describes a particularly violent blowout with Byron. The blow-out begins when they go to the mall to purchase new clothes for a Chinese New Year celebration they’re hosting at their house that evening. After agreeing with a salesman at the mall who suggests Byron try on a smaller size jacket, Byron becomes furious and leaves without telling her where he is going.

Unsure what else she can do, Adeline drives home and calls her son’s nanny, a local woman named Mrs. Hsu. Mrs. Hsu reports that she does not know where Adeline’s husband is, but she comes over to help her decorate the house and prepare food for the party. After many hours go by and Byron does not arrive or call, Adeline cancels the party, anxious about the prospect of entertaining Byron’s friends without him.

When Byron finally comes home, he is enraged that Adeline has canceled the party. Byron overturns their son’s crib, and Adeline runs to protect her son. She retreats to the bedroom, carrying her baby, and locks the door. Byron acts out by breaking furniture, smashing dishes, and flinging party food all around the kitchen.

Mrs. Hsu comes to help Adeline clean up the mess. She tells her:

There are lots of men like your husband in China […] In the old days, men routinely mistreated their wives. Now he’s doing the same to you. The more you put up with it, the more savage he will be. If you have no other rice to eat, then you must swallow this bitterness. But, in your case, you have your profession (169).

Adeline and Byron enter into a marriage wherein they each live their separate lives and interact as little as possible. Adeline’s career flourishes while Byron flounderingly attempts to run a Chinese restaurant. He goes to visit Hong Kong with his father, stopping by the home of Niang and Joseph. Adeline’s parents are not impressed with his thickly accented English or the cheap fruit basket he brings as a gift.

In October of 1970, Niang and Adeline’s father come to visit California. The atmosphere is very tense for Adeline, who desires to please her parents while preventing one of Byron’s mood swings. On the drive from the airport, Adeline notes that her father—weary of Niang’s controlling behavior—resembles Ye Ye in his later years.

When Adeline shows her parents an income property she plans on purchasing, her father asks if the property will also be under Byron’s name. He then advises her to maintain control over her own accounts and “trust no one” (175). Niang affirms his response, saying, “‘There is something not quite right about that husband of yours. Remember, no matter what happens, your parents will always be your parents’” (176). Adeline reflects that these are “the kindest words she ever said to me” (176). Strengthened by her parents’ affirmation, Adeline presents Byron with divorce papers a few days later. He eventually signs and leaves for Hong Kong in 1971. After the divorce, she never sees or hears from Byron again.

During the Vietnam War, Joseph moves his latest business venture (an enamelware factory) to Harcourt, Nigeria. Initially, Gregory and his wife manage the factory; however, they find life in Nigeria difficult and contemplate going to Canada. Gregory writes to his father proposing this decision, then vacillates after a few days of thought. By the time he changes his mind, however, it is too late, and his father commits to installing James as the new manager of the factory.

James dates and eventually marries a girl named Louise, the daughter of Niang’s friend, at Niang’s bidding. Before taking Gregory’s place in Nigeria and becoming his father’s right-hand man, he is obliged to purchase one of his father’s exorbitantly priced houses in Hong Kong for temporary residency. When Louise worries about the Red Guard (a group of students dedicated to furthering the aims of Chairman Mao), James advises her “‘Suan le!’(Let it be!)’” (182) as he did in his childhood.

Meanwhile, Adeline’s tension with her brother Edgar deepens when he plans to come to America. Edgar writes to Adeline soliciting help, but her parents advise her not to answer his letter. She obeys their wishes, and Edgar never forgives her silence.

In Hong Kong, friction develops between Niang and Susan, who is now a beautiful young married woman and a darling of the society columns. Over dinner one evening, Niang speaks coldly and abusively toward Susan out of jealousy. Susan calls her out on her behavior, and Niang retaliates by saying, “‘you owe me everything!’” Susan coolly takes out her checkbook and says, “‘How much do I owe you?’ […] Remember, I am now a married woman, with a daughter of my own. Treat me as an adult, not your slave who owes you everything’” (187).

Niang is furious with Susan for daring to stand up for herself. She disowns her daughter and sends her husband as her messenger. Susan and Joseph later meet at a restaurant, where he produces a list of absurd conditions Susan must meet to return to the family fold. Refusing these conditions, Susan is disowned in a restaurant as a Beatles cover band plays “Let It Be.”

Chapter 20 focuses on Aunt Baba’s experiences living in Shanghai with Miss Chien during the Cultural Revolution, a movement intended to bring pure Communist practices and thought back to China. Mindful of the changing political climate, Aunt Baba builds a stockpile of goods in the garage, including sacks of rice, jars of oil, dried vegetables, salted fish, and soya sauce. The garage also contains bolts of high-quality silk cotton and wool left over from shares Ye Ye had purchased in a silk factory years ago.

Aunt Baba is transferred to a bank location closer to her house. Many customers know her, including the local tailor. One day, the tailor asks Aunt Baba to drop off a jacket he’s just finished for a nearby customer. When Aunt Baba sees the jacket, she realizes that the customer is Miss Chien and the jacket has been made from silk cotton from the garage.

Angry that Miss Chien has been stealing from her, Aunt Baba reports the theft to Joseph, who mysteriously forbids her to fire Miss Chien. Emboldened by this immunity, Miss Chien behaves disrespectfully toward Aunt Baba, inviting guests to socialize in the house and referring to her as that “upstairs character” (195). Miss Chien gossips with their neighbors about Aunt Baba, claiming she has been instructed to “guard and write reports” (195) on her activities.

Gong Gong’s bank is audited in 1951, and some stores of beeswax illegally purchased by Joseph under the name of a dead woman, Wang Jie-xiang, are discovered in the depository. The beeswax is traced to Aunt Baba, and she is summoned by the administrator of her dan wei, or work unit. Both Aunt Baba and Gong Gong are genuinely confused. She is interrogated, and ultimately the beeswax is confiscated without her arrest.

Aunt Baba does not fare as well during the “Great Leap Forward,” a movement intended to industrialize China, in 1958. She is assigned to work at banks far from home as a means of preventing embezzlement. The long trips are a major strain for her, and she develops an ulcer. After recovering from treatment she receives through a “back door” surgeon, she retires and writes to her brother, asking him to send her 400 yuan a month for her meager support.

In 1966, twenty-five Red Guards burst into Aunt Baba’s home and ransack all the rooms. They violently destroy many of her belongings and injure her in the process. They send Miss Chien back to Hangzhou, where she was born. For the first time in years, Miss Chien approaches Aunt Baba with respect and kindness, treating a wound on her head and comforting her after the Red Guards leave.

A week later, Aunt Baba is made to move into a single room of a neighbor’s house, and her bank account is frozen. She is allotted a mere fifteen yuan per month for living expenses and forced to wear a piece of black cloth on her chest that reads hei liu lei (six black categories). Adeline explains that “black” citizens received the worst treatment during the Cultural Revolution, being denied food, medical care, and often forced to perform the most grueling menial jobs.