Feathers From a Thousand Li Away: Scar

An-Mei Hsu
An-Mei Hsu tells the story of how her mother becomes one of the wives of man named Wu-Tsing. At the age of four, An-Mei and her younger brother are sent off to live with their grandmother. She talks of how her mother never used to visit and how her grandmother would say horrible things about her mother. Her grandmother, Popo, once said to the brother, "You are the son of a mother who has so little respect she has become ni, a traitor to our ancestors. She is so beneath others that even the devil must look down to see her," (44). Popo uses the adage, ni to describe how horrible of a person their mother is. Popo soon becomes very ill. Later, the mother returns after hearing news of Popo and begs for her daughter back. When An-Mei tries to go to her mother, a bowl of boiling soup spills on her neck, leaving a scar. The chapter ends with An-Mei's mother experiencing the same pain that Popo once did. This chapter is very easy to relate to because, everyone has scars from where others have once hurt them.