Typical American

“As his father stared off into the Shanghai harbor—at the true ships in the distance, the ragtag boats by the shore—she slid a wristwatch into Yifeng’s hand.”

Ralph (then still known as Yifeng) has a difficult relationship with his father. His father rages against corruption and degeneracy but does not hesitate to bribe and scheme to get his son admitted to college even though he does not have the grades. Ralph prepares to depart for America to study, but his father struggles to express himself face-to-face. Ralph’s mother acts as an intermediary. Her husband stares out to the sea as she expresses the pride that he cannot verbalize toward their son. Ralph understands the strained relationship with his father. There is love and affection between them even though they struggle to express themselves.

“You think you’re different, but you’re exactly the same!”

Cammy rejects Ralph with a cry that he is exactly like all the other men who romantically proposition her. Ralph does not quite grasp the extent of what he is being told, so he cannot understand the subtle ironic compliment that he is being paid. Ralph is a perpetual outsider in New York. He is a Chinese man with broken English who struggles to come to grips with the culture, but Cammy views him as being just like every other man. For better or worse, Ralph has absorbed enough American cultural knowledge to fit into a mold of American masculinity.