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The transition is not so easy
I can understand what Brave Orchid is going through because my mother is a lot like Brave Orchid. I can understand why Brave Orchid misses China and never gets used to America even though she has lived in California for thirty years. She sees China as her native home and as somewhere she'll eventually--or hopefully--return. Furthermore, Orchid never quite figured out English, which makes her feel like an outcast: "[Brave Orchid] could never learn English" (149). She believes everything was better, slower, and different back in China. It is common sense that time is same everywhere on this planet, but Brave Orchid feels as if "time was different in China" (106). Since they have lived in America for such a long time, it is obvious that they are not returning home. Yet, Brave Orchid tells Kingston that "[Orchids] are not going back to China for sure now" (106), a phrase Brave Orchid constantly repeated since 1949. Brave Orchid says that they have gotten rid of the land they had in China and can no longer return: "We have no more China to go home to" (106). I imagine that she knew that they would never return; I bet having land in China made her feel like she always had a choice to go home when she wished, and she could play with the idea of returning in her head.
Brave Orchid thinks time flies in America
"At the Western Palace" was like a part of a Korean soap opera. I think Brave Orchid watched too many Asian dramas, or maybe she read too many novels. Brave Orchid is a strong Chinese woman who is also disillusioned by her "Chinese standards." Even Moon Orchid is doubtful of Brave's logic. Even after thirty years in America, Brave doesn't see how America works. Brave believes that Moon can just march into her husband's house and take away the sons from his current husband: "The children will go to their true mother--you" (125). Moon challenges this idea, "Don't you think [the sons] will be loyal to her, since she gave birth to them?" (125). When you think about it, Moon is right. Brave's logic is flawed in Chinese culture as well. No son will forsake his biological mother for another woman just because she is the "first wife." The conversation between Moon and Brave is ridiculous and even hysterical.
How could Brave possibly believe that sons will switch moms
just because one is the legitimate first wife?
"At the Western Palace" is full of ironies. Brave Orchid wants Moon to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Moon is reluctant and doesn't know why she should: "But he gives us everything anyway. What more do I have to ask for? If i see him face to face, what is there to say?" (126). These are the exact questions that arise when Moon meets her husband. When he asks, "What are you doing here?" (152), Moon cannot answer because she honestly doesn't know what she wants from him. The shock from this encounter with her husband drives Moon Orchid insane. I thought Brave Orchid's comment to her son, "You'll ruin your aunt's life if you don't. You can't understand business begun in China" (151), was really ironic because he ended up ruining his aunt's life by doing what Brave Orchid told him to do. And he apparently knew how things work in the world better than she did.
It's really sad that Moon Orchid ended up in one of these insane asylums
