Suyuan is the narrator's mother in Amy Tan's short story "Two Kinds". She is a Chinese woman who decides to make a child prodigy out of her daughter Jing-mei, sort of a Chinese Shirley Temple. She quizzes her on several subjects, changes her hair to make it curly and then short, and finally makes her take piano lessons. At first, Jing-mei is excited about the idea of being a prodigy. She likes to picture all the attention she'll receive, and believes problems won't exist if she is famous. She is not, however, willing to work hard to accomplish things. She chooses to be lazy and, since her mother is constantly nagging her, she chooses to fail. She even says she had the right to be a disappointment. She succeeds in letting her mother down at her piano recital, where she plays terribly. Suyuan is not fooled by her daughter's performance. She knows Jing-mei could have done better if she had been willing to apply herself. Years later, when Jing-mei is already grown up, Suyuan gives her the piano as a present and remarks precisely that:

"Well, I probably can't play anymore," I said. "It's been years." "You pick up fast," my mother said, as if she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You could be a genius if you want to." "No, I couldn't." "You just not trying," my mother said. And she was neither angry nor sad. She said it as if announcing a fact that could never be disproved. "Take it," she said.

8 0

3 years ago