Lost Sister by Cathy Song

Guided Reading Questions

 Look at the poem in some of the same terms in which you’d view a story. What is the setting (or settings)? What is the plot? Who is the speaker? What is the conflict?

The setting for the first half of the poem Lost Sister is in ancient China. The second half of the poem takes us overseas to modern America. Cathy Song again hints at an ambiguous wilderness where “loneliness can strangulate like jungle vines.” I believe this wilderness is an analogy to the angst Chinese women feel in their everyday lives in China. The plot of the poem is about two Chinese women who are sisters, one have immigrated to America and feels out of place, much like any foreigner who feels stuck between feelings of no longer inhabiting one’s native country versus being in a new country. The speaker is an outsider looking in at these two similar conflicts arising in the lives of the two Chinese women. 

The author Cathy Song uses these two characters as a means to explain her own cultural identity issues. The central conflict of the story is that both the women face degrees of isolation, helplessness and discrimination in their two different worlds. The Chinese woman is filled with sorrow and helplessness because in ancient China women’s lives were already predetermined from birth. From peasant women to the rich elite, women were just secondary characters in their own stories and lives. From the ancient cultural tradition of binding women and girls’ feet in shoes the sizes of teacups to the manual laboring on the rice fields, traditional Chinese women weren’t expected to do much other than menial work and mother-wifely duties. On the other hand, the other Chinese sister is a foreigner in America, a place she feels she do not belong and cannot completely assimilate into. These women both suffer from a sense of loss of their own individual identity.

        Jade is given special significance. What is the symbolism of Jade according to the poem?

Jade plays a very significant role in Chinese culture. Jade is a precious stone that can be found in China and Burma. The Chinese people have used this valuable stone for a variety of crafts, spiritual healing and jewelry. Jade’s meaning to the Chinese people is of beauty, purity and grace. The symbolism of Jade in the poem is that like Jade, Chinese women are very important to Chinese society. Chinese women are expected to be all of those characteristics listed above; pure, beautiful and graceful. 

In the second half of the poem Jade’s meaning is changed when Song writes, “You find you need China: your one fragile identification, a jade link handcuffed to your wrist.” Now Song uses Jade to mean a bridge of heritage to all Chinese people no matter where they may live in the world. They will always be Chinese and have a connection to Ancient China. Since this poem is about Cathy Song’s identity issues of being both of Chinese and Korean descent living in Hawaii, I can understand why Song would make such a poem about the lives of a traditional Chinese woman and an immigrant Chinese woman like her mother. Song feels a strong connection to the stone jade which gives her a sense of security while finding comfort in China. She overemphasizes Jade throughout the poem because the Chinese culture finds Jade invaluable.

 Find other images of nature in the poem. Where do those images exist? In what country? In what way is nature a significant part of the speaker’s culture?

The first three images of nature is talking about the stone Jade. According to the poem, Jade is found in mountains and hills where men were tempted to move them just to get to these treasurable stones. Then the author uses the image of a dormant rooted willow tree to describe the movement of Chinese women who would be forced to walk in shoes the size of tea cups. The author goes back to the imagery of Jade where female Chinese immigrants would dilute Jade green with the blue of the Pacific. Meaning the Chinese women would rather immigrate to a foreign land instead of staying in their native country. Another imagery is used when Song uses a tide of locust to describe Chinese people immigrating in great numbers to another country. 

The use of strangulation of jungle vines is also used in the middle half of the poem. Most of these images exist in China while some is in the America. The speaker uses nature to express the fact that she believe Chinese immigrants are leaving behind their customs, identity and their culture whenever they move to another country. She uses images of nature to showcase a mood of disapproval of Chinese immigration. She also uses imagery to highlight the challenges the Chinese face while getting accustom to foreign life.