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Example does not sufficiently explain how it applies, Fixing formatting. Trope names in the main list shouldn't be hidden by spoiler tags
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* ArrangedMarriage: Pearl and May with Old Man Louie's sons, Sam and Vern.
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* ChekhovsGun: Vern's toy boats.
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Changed line(s) 19,22 (click to see context) from:
* CultureClash:
** Joy with Pearl and Sam as she gets older.
** When Pearl and May first come to America.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sam.]]
** Joy with Pearl and Sam as she gets older.
** When Pearl and May first come to America.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sam.]]
to:
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: May and Pearl, nacht. [[spoiler:Somewhat muddled at the end, when May reveals her side of the story.]]
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Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* HappilyMarried: Pearl and Sam actually achieve some semblance of this after several years. Enough for her to be genuinely devastated by his [[spoiler: suicide.]]
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Changed line(s) 32,33 (click to see context) from:
* AnImmigrantsTale
* [[spoiler: MySecretPregnancy: May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
* [[spoiler: MySecretPregnancy: May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
to:
* [[spoiler: MySecretPregnancy: May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
* MySecretPregnancy: [[spoiler:May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
Changed line(s) 43,45 (click to see context) from:
* RedScare: The Louie family is investigated in TheFifties for being Communist sympathizers because of their ties to China and because of Joy's political activity in college.
* RichesToRags: The girls, both in China and when they come to America.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.
* RichesToRags: The girls, both in China and when they come to America.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.
to:
* RedScare: The Louie family is investigated in TheFifties The50s for being Communist sympathizers because of their ties to China and because of Joy's political activity in college.
* %%* RichesToRags: The girls, both in China and when they come to America.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.America.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.
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* SexlessMarriage: Both girls marriages, initially, but Pearl and Sam finally begin a regular sex life after she tells him about her rape.
to:
* SexlessMarriage: Both girls girls' marriages, initially, but Pearl and Sam finally begin a regular sex life after she tells him about her rape.
Changed line(s) 53 (click to see context) from:
* TellMeAboutMyFather: [[spoiler:Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.]]
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* UnEqualPairing: May and Vernon, since he's... developmentally challenged.
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Changed line(s) 77 (click to see context) from:
* Foreshadowing: During the play that Green Dragon puts on about the new society, Tao plays the role of a young man asking a woman to marry him. Nearly all of his lines are poorly delivered, but the one line he does well with is one about how women belong solely in the home. The young woman in the play marries him anyway. [[spoiler: Joy eventually marries Tao against her parents' advice and ends up trapped in the commune and in an abusive marriage.]]
to:
* Foreshadowing: {{Foreshadowing}}: During the play that Green Dragon puts on about the new society, Tao plays the role of a young man asking a woman to marry him. Nearly all of his lines are poorly delivered, but the one line he does well with is one about how women belong solely in the home. The young woman in the play marries him anyway. [[spoiler: Joy eventually marries Tao against her parents' advice and ends up trapped in the commune and in an abusive marriage.]]
Changed line(s) 86,87 (click to see context) from:
* RedChina
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Joy has some trouble adjusting to life in rural China, and it takes her a long time to realize the truths about communism that she's missing.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Joy has some trouble adjusting to life in rural China, and it takes her a long time to realize the truths about communism that she's missing.
to:
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Dewicked trope
Deleted line(s) 65,70 (click to see context) :
* AdultFear: Where to even begin...
** Waking up and learning that your child has run away into a situation where their life could be in danger.
** Watching your child marry someone you know will be a terrible partner to them.
** Watching your children starve to death and not being able to do anything about it because you're starving to death along with them.
** Watching most of your family being BuriedAlive and the rest to UncertainDoom.
** There's a period of time in the middle of the book where Pearl becomes quite worried about not hearing from Joy; when Joy becomes the POV character again, it turns out that she ''is'' regularly writing to her mother, but none of the letters are going through, most likely because the government is trying to hide how bad things have gotten in the countryside.
** Waking up and learning that your child has run away into a situation where their life could be in danger.
** Watching your child marry someone you know will be a terrible partner to them.
** Watching your children starve to death and not being able to do anything about it because you're starving to death along with them.
** Watching most of your family being BuriedAlive and the rest to UncertainDoom.
** There's a period of time in the middle of the book where Pearl becomes quite worried about not hearing from Joy; when Joy becomes the POV character again, it turns out that she ''is'' regularly writing to her mother, but none of the letters are going through, most likely because the government is trying to hide how bad things have gotten in the countryside.
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* OnceMoreWithClarity: There's a period of time in the middle of the book where Pearl becomes quite worried about not hearing from Joy; when Joy becomes the POV character again, it turns out that she ''is'' regularly writing to her mother, but none of the letters are going through, most likely because the government is trying to hide how bad things have gotten in the countryside.
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* ArrangedMarriage: Subverted with Yong; she plays up the worst parts of her married life to remain under the radar, but eventually admits to Joy that she married the benefactor because she loved him.
Changed line(s) 72 (click to see context) from:
* ChekhovsGun: Pearl's camera. [[spoiler: She gives it to Joy as a wedding present, and Joy is eventually able to use it as part of a plan to save herself, Tao, Samantha, and Ta-ming from Green Dragon.]]
to:
* ChekhovsGun: Pearl's camera. [[spoiler: She gives it to Joy as a wedding present, and Joy is eventually able to use it as part of a plan to save herself, Tao, Samantha, and Ta-ming from starving to death in Green Dragon.]]
Added DiffLines:
* PetTheDog: When Joy's mother-in-law realizes that Joy is pregnant, she kindly makes her some tea with ginger to help calm her stomach.
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* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler: While the younger children in Tao's family are buried alive along with their mother, the older children are marched out of the village along with Sung-ling and her husband, never to be seen again.]]
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* SexualExtortion: Brigade Leader Lai's modus operandi. Once the famine sets in, he bribes women with food to get them to sleep with him. [[spoiler: He also extorts sex out of Kumei in exchange for extra food rations; when she turns him down one night, he retaliates by denouncing Yong and forcing her to unbind her feet in front of the entire village.]]
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Added DiffLines:
** There's a period of time in the middle of the book where Pearl becomes quite worried about not hearing from Joy; when Joy becomes the POV character again, it turns out that she ''is'' regularly writing to her mother, but none of the letters are going through, most likely because the government is trying to hide how bad things have gotten in the countryside.
Added DiffLines:
* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler: Kumei attempted suicide after finding out she was pregnant at age thirteen, but her master stopped her.]]
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Added DiffLines:
* ChekhovsGun: Pearl's camera. [[spoiler: She gives it to Joy as a wedding present, and Joy is eventually able to use it as part of a plan to save herself, Tao, Samantha, and Ta-ming from Green Dragon.]]
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Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules. A sequel, ''Dreams of Joy'', was published in 2011 about Joy's travel to China.
to:
Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules. rules.
A sequel, ''Dreams of Joy'', was published in 2011 about Joy's travel to China.
A sequel, ''Dreams of Joy'', was published in 2011 about Joy's travel to China.
Changed line(s) 67 (click to see context) from:
** Watching your family being BuriedAlive.
to:
** Watching most of your family being BuriedAlive.BuriedAlive and the rest to UncertainDoom.
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* EveryoneHasStandards: In the past, the villagers brutally murdered the landlord after Liberation, but they didn't attempt to hurt Kumei or Ta-ming, because they saw for themselves how badly the landlord treated Kumei and knew deep down that she was one of them.
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, pledging lifelong commitment to someone you don't know all that well isn't really a good idea.]]
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, pledging lifelong commitment to someone you don't know all that well isn't really a good idea.]]
to:
* EveryoneHasStandards: In the past, the villagers brutally murdered the landlord and most of the rest of his household after Liberation, but they didn't attempt to hurt Kumei or Ta-ming, because they saw Ta-ming. Kumei explains that despite her black label, she's from the village and for themselves years everyone had seen how badly the landlord and his household treated Kumei and knew deep down that she was one of them.
her.
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months total before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, pledging lifelong commitment to someone you don't know all that well isn't really a good idea.]]
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months total before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, pledging lifelong commitment to someone you don't know all that well isn't really a good idea.]]
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* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Kumei was thirteen when she became pregnant with Ta-ming.
Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
* DeathOfAChild: Dear God, [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]
to:
* DeathOfAChild: Dear God, [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]]]
Changed line(s) 75 (click to see context) from:
* EveryoneHasStandards: In the past, the villagers brutally murdered the landlord after Liberation, but they didn't attempt to hurt Kumei or Ta-ming, because they saw that Kumei had been treated horribly by the landlord as well, and that she had never demanded any sort of special treatment from them.
to:
* EveryoneHasStandards: In the past, the villagers brutally murdered the landlord after Liberation, but they didn't attempt to hurt Kumei or Ta-ming, because they saw that Kumei had been treated horribly by for themselves how badly the landlord as well, treated Kumei and knew deep down that she had never demanded any sort was one of special treatment from them.
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Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
* DeathOfAChild: And then the dead children get eaten.
to:
* DeathOfAChild: And then the dead Dear God, [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children get eaten.starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]
Deleted line(s) 79 (click to see context) :
* InfantImmortality: Dear God, averted. [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]
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Changed line(s) 71 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler: After Tao's family gets caught participating in Swap Child, Make Food, the youngest children are buried alive along with their mother as punishment.]]
to:
** [[spoiler: After Tao's family gets caught participating in Swap Child, Make Food, the youngest children are buried alive along with their mother as punishment.]]punishment, while the older ones are sent for reeducation through labor, which spells certain death for them as well.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: A wife kills herself in the fields to escape an abusive marriage. It's the first hint that Red China may not be as perfect as Joy thinks it is.
* DrivenToSuicide: A wife kills herself in the fields to escape an abusive marriage. It's the first hint that Red China may not be as perfect as Joy thinks it is.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In the past, the villagers brutally murdered the landlord after Liberation, but they didn't attempt to hurt Kumei or Ta-ming, because they saw that Kumei had been treated horribly by the landlord as well, and that she had never demanded any sort of special treatment from them.
Changed line(s) 77 (click to see context) from:
* InfantImmortality: Dear God, averted. [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]]
to:
* InfantImmortality: Dear God, averted. [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]]]
* MandatoryMotherhood: The government strongly encourages women to have as many children as possible, since one more child means one more hand to work in the fields. [[spoiler: This ends up being a contributing factor to the famine, straining what little food supply the commune has.]]
* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Tao is the oldest of nine children in his household, and it's implied that his parents had other children that have since passed away.
* MandatoryMotherhood: The government strongly encourages women to have as many children as possible, since one more child means one more hand to work in the fields. [[spoiler: This ends up being a contributing factor to the famine, straining what little food supply the commune has.]]
* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Tao is the oldest of nine children in his household, and it's implied that his parents had other children that have since passed away.
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Changed line(s) 45 (click to see context) from:
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:As noble as it was for Pearl to reveal herself to the Japanese soldiers, May points out near the end of the book that there was ''no reason'' for her to reveal herself, since their mama had already told the soldiers she was alone and none of them suspected, or even came looking for, other hiders.]]
to:
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:As noble as it was for Pearl to reveal herself to the Japanese soldiers, May points out near the end of the book that there was ''no reason'' for her to reveal herself, since their mama mother had already told the soldiers she was alone and none of them suspected, or even came looking for, other hiders.]]
* AdultFear: Where to even begin...
** Waking up and learning that your child has run away into a situation where their life could be in danger.
** Watching your child marry someone you know will be a terrible partner to them.
** Watching your children starve to death and not being able to do anything about it because you're starving to death along with them.
** Watching your family being BuriedAlive.
** Waking up and learning that your child has run away into a situation where their life could be in danger.
** Watching your child marry someone you know will be a terrible partner to them.
** Watching your children starve to death and not being able to do anything about it because you're starving to death along with them.
** Watching your family being BuriedAlive.
Changed line(s) 63 (click to see context) from:
* CommonalityConnection: Pearl and Yong are both educated women originally from wealthy families in Shanghai, and they immediately bond over it.
to:
* CommonalityConnection: Pearl and Yong are both educated women originally from wealthy families in Shanghai, and they immediately bond over it. Pearl also bonds with some of the older women in the commune while she's working there, and they even weep with her when she tells them about losing her son.
Changed line(s) 67 (click to see context) from:
* EatsBabies: [[spoiler: Joy catches Tao and his family waiting for baby Samantha to die so they can eat her.]]
to:
* EatsBabies: Swap Child, Make Food is a practice wherein families swap infants and wait for them to die so they can be eaten. [[spoiler: Joy catches Tao and his family waiting for baby trying to do this with Samantha and another couple's baby.]]
** There's also a couple on the road out of Green Dragon; the man is trying todie so they can eat her.sell "rabbit meat" and the woman just looks vacant. [[spoiler: Within a few days, they've both starved to death.]]
** There's also a couple on the road out of Green Dragon; the man is trying to
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Changed line(s) 72 (click to see context) from:
* NoNameGiven: Joy's mother-in-law is referred to by Pearl as "Joy's Mother-in-Law", because she literally had no name outside of her husband's surname. She went by Fu-shee when she got married. This was TruthInTelevision for poor Chinese women, who often weren't given names or were given names like "hope for a son".
to:
* NoNameGiven: NeverGivenAName: Joy's mother-in-law is referred to by Pearl as "Joy's Mother-in-Law", because she literally had no name outside of her husband's surname. She went by Fu-shee when she got married. This was TruthInTelevision for poor Chinese women, who often weren't given names or were given names like "hope for a son".
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Changed line(s) 58,59 (click to see context) from:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pearl and May never find out what happened to their father. [[spoiler: He appears towards the end of the sequel.]]
to:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pearl and May never find out what happened to their father. [[spoiler: He appears towards the end of the sequel.sequel, having made it to his home village.]]
* CommonalityConnection: Pearl and Yong are both educated women originally from wealthy families in Shanghai, and they immediately bond over it.
* Foreshadowing: During the play that Green Dragon puts on about the new society, Tao plays the role of a young man asking a woman to marry him. Nearly all of his lines are poorly delivered, but the one line he does well with is one about how women belong solely in the home. The young woman in the play marries him anyway. [[spoiler: Joy eventually marries Tao against her parents' advice and ends up trapped in the commune and in an abusive marriage.]]
* InfantImmortality: Dear God, averted. [[spoiler: Joy holds nothing back in describing how children starve to death and are then eaten. Ta-ming and Samantha narrowly avoid this fate thanks to the timely arrival of Pearl and Z.G.]]
Changed line(s) 75 (click to see context) from:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Auntie Hu gets an exit permit and leaves home, but we never learn if she made it out of China.]]
to:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Auntie Hu gets an exit permit and leaves home, home in the hopes of getting out of China, but we never learn if she made it out of China.was successful.]]
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Added DiffLines:
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: [[spoiler: Joy narrates the entire commune, including herself and her infant child, slowly starving to death with a very detached tone. She even draws a comparison between their situation and that of the Jews during World War II, stating that she's now realized why people didn't rebel back then and aren't rebelling now: because they're all simply too weak and scared to do so.]]
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Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
** May [[spoiler:directs Red Scare agents to investigate Pearl and Sam, thinking they'll "confess" to being Communists, receive amnesty and legal citizenship, and the whole family can stop living in fear of being caught or deported. Since May doesn't ''tell'' them this plan, so they hold fast to their lie of being citizens, and Sam is DrivenToSuicide.]]
to:
** May [[spoiler:directs Red Scare agents to investigate Pearl and Sam, thinking they'll "confess" to being Communists, receive amnesty and legal citizenship, and the whole family can stop living in fear of being caught or deported. Since May doesn't ''tell'' them this plan, so they hold fast to their lie of being citizens, and Sam is DrivenToSuicide.DrivenToSuicide by the pressure of the investigation.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pearl and May never find out what happened to their father. [[spoiler: He appears towards the end of the sequel.]]
** [[spoiler: After Tao's family gets caught participating in Swap Child, Make Food, the youngest children are buried alive along with their mother as punishment.]]
Changed line(s) 62 (click to see context) from:
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, not getting to know someone well before you marry them also means not learning about their more negative qualities until it's too late to escape.]]
to:
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, not getting pledging lifelong commitment to know someone you don't know all that well before you marry them also means not learning about their more negative qualities until it's too late to escape.isn't really a good idea.]]
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Changed one trope as appropriate ("Infant Immortality", as an aversion, to "Death of a Child").
* DeathOfAChild: And then the dead children get eaten.
Deleted line(s) 63 (click to see context) :
* InfantImmortality: Oh dear God, averted.
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Changed line(s) 12 (click to see context) from:
* BreakTheCutie: Pearl gets brutally gang-raped by Japanese soldiers.
to:
* BreakTheCutie: Pearl [[spoiler:Pearl gets brutally gang-raped by Japanese soldiers.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Pearl and May, big time. They start out as two frivolous models who think because they're beautiful and well-off, nothing can ever touch them. Then their father reveals he gambled their fortune away. [[FromBadToWorse Then the Japanese attack Shanghai...]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Pearl and May, big time. They start out as two frivolous models who think because they're beautiful and well-off, nothing can ever touch them. Then their father reveals he gambled their fortune away. [[FromBadToWorse Then the Japanese attack Shanghai...]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Near the end of the novel May calls Pearl out on never really acknowledging or appreciating [[spoiler:how much strength it took for her to bury their mother, nor risk her own safety to save Pearl's life after she [[SenselessSacrifice senselessly revealed herself to the Japanese soldiers]]]], nor how much money she earned for the family by getting acting roles in movies, which Pearl always turned up her nose at. (Nor her role in helping to raise Joy.)
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: May and Pearl, nacht. [[spoiler:Somewhat muddled at the end, when May reveals her side of the story.]]
* TheGamblingAddict: May and Pearl's father, who kicks off the book's plot by revealing that he's gambled the family's entire fortune away, and has to sell his two daughters into an ArrangedMarriage to pay off his debts.
* TheGamblingAddict: May and Pearl's father, who kicks off the book's plot by revealing that he's gambled the family's entire fortune away, and has to sell his two daughters into an ArrangedMarriage to pay off his debts.
* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler:After Sam confronts Old Man Louie about not really being a citizen and keeping all his "paper sons" on a tight leash, Louie reveals that he really does consider Sam to be his true heir, and his intention to leave the family business to him. After that, Sam and Louie's relationship improves vastly.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: May, much to Pearl's irritation.
** May turns this around on Pearl near the end, [[spoiler:pointing out that every "sacrifice" Pearl has ever made for the family has been a SenselessSacrifice she used as an excuse to wallow in self-pity and drag everyone else, including May, down with her. It's a bitter pill for Pearl to swallow.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Joy, who likes to lecture her family on what China is ''really'' like, despite never having been there herself. She learned all about it in university!
* ObnoxiousInLaws: Old Man Louie, who repulses the sisters with his domineering, controlling, misogynistic behavior. Less so for his wife, Jen-jen, since she immediately embraces the two girls as daughters.
* PoorCommunicationKills:
** Pearl and May's father tells them he gambled their fortune away and needs them to enter an ArrangedMarriage to pay off his debts. What he doesn't tell them is that he's indebted to the Green Gang, the girls are expected to go to Los Angeles to live with their new husbands as part of the arrangement, and if they don't go to live with their new husbands (which they don't) the Green Gang will come to collect in blood. The girls call him out on this.
** May [[spoiler:directs Red Scare agents to investigate Pearl and Sam, thinking they'll "confess" to being Communists, receive amnesty and legal citizenship, and the whole family can stop living in fear of being caught or deported. Since May doesn't ''tell'' them this plan, so they hold fast to their lie of being citizens, and Sam is DrivenToSuicide.]]
** May turns this around on Pearl near the end, [[spoiler:pointing out that every "sacrifice" Pearl has ever made for the family has been a SenselessSacrifice she used as an excuse to wallow in self-pity and drag everyone else, including May, down with her. It's a bitter pill for Pearl to swallow.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Joy, who likes to lecture her family on what China is ''really'' like, despite never having been there herself. She learned all about it in university!
* ObnoxiousInLaws: Old Man Louie, who repulses the sisters with his domineering, controlling, misogynistic behavior. Less so for his wife, Jen-jen, since she immediately embraces the two girls as daughters.
* PoorCommunicationKills:
** Pearl and May's father tells them he gambled their fortune away and needs them to enter an ArrangedMarriage to pay off his debts. What he doesn't tell them is that he's indebted to the Green Gang, the girls are expected to go to Los Angeles to live with their new husbands as part of the arrangement, and if they don't go to live with their new husbands (which they don't) the Green Gang will come to collect in blood. The girls call him out on this.
** May [[spoiler:directs Red Scare agents to investigate Pearl and Sam, thinking they'll "confess" to being Communists, receive amnesty and legal citizenship, and the whole family can stop living in fear of being caught or deported. Since May doesn't ''tell'' them this plan, so they hold fast to their lie of being citizens, and Sam is DrivenToSuicide.]]
* SelectiveObliviousness: May and Joy, whom Pearl secretly thinks as having a kind of "deliberate childish stupidity."
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:As noble as it was for Pearl to reveal herself to the Japanese soldiers, May points out near the end of the book that there was ''no reason'' for her to reveal herself, since their mama had already told the soldiers she was alone and none of them suspected, or even came looking for, other hiders.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:As noble as it was for Pearl to reveal herself to the Japanese soldiers, May points out near the end of the book that there was ''no reason'' for her to reveal herself, since their mama had already told the soldiers she was alone and none of them suspected, or even came looking for, other hiders.]]
Changed line(s) 35,36 (click to see context) from:
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism: Joy is raised as Pearl's baby.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.
to:
* SiblingYinYang: Pearl is plain but smart and dutiful, while May is beautiful but flighty and a bit air-headed. [[spoiler:This is somewhat muddled by the end, when May reveals from her side of the story that she's much stronger and smarter than Pearl had given her credit for.]]
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism:Joy [[spoiler:Joy is raised as Pearl's baby.
baby.]]
* TellMeAboutMyFather:Joy, [[spoiler:Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.]]
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism:
* TellMeAboutMyFather:
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* UnEqualPairing: May and Vernon, since he's... developmentally challenged.
* TheUnFavorite:
** Pearl, who is often criticized by her parents for not being pretty enough, while they coo and gush over May. [[spoiler:Inverted when May reveals near the end that they criticized Pearl as a way of showing love but ignored May, often spoke to Pearl in the dialect of their native village that only May couldn't speak, and they loved Pearl enough to send her off to college while they never even offered it to May.]]
** Sam is this to Old Man Louie and Jen-jen, despite being their eldest son. [[spoiler:He's a paper-son, while their "youngest" son, Vern, is really their only biological child.]]
* TheUnFavorite:
** Pearl, who is often criticized by her parents for not being pretty enough, while they coo and gush over May. [[spoiler:Inverted when May reveals near the end that they criticized Pearl as a way of showing love but ignored May, often spoke to Pearl in the dialect of their native village that only May couldn't speak, and they loved Pearl enough to send her off to college while they never even offered it to May.]]
** Sam is this to Old Man Louie and Jen-jen, despite being their eldest son. [[spoiler:He's a paper-son, while their "youngest" son, Vern, is really their only biological child.]]
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* HappilyMarried: Pearl and Sam actually achieve some semblance of this after several years. Enough for her to be genuinely devastated by his [[spoiler: suicide.]]
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* RagsToRiches: Eventually, after years of hard work, things improve for the clan in America.
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* RichesToRags: The girls, both in China and when they come to America.
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* SexlessMarriage: Both girls marriages, initially, but Pearl and Sam finally begin a regular sex life after she tells him about her rape.
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* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out.]]
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* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out. It's also deconstructed; as Joy finds out, not getting to know someone well before you marry them also means not learning about their more negative qualities until it's too late to escape.]]
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In 1937, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to find Chinese brides.
to:
In 1937, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life... life… until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to find Chinese brides.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ShanghaiGirls_cover_5340.jpg]]
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* FakePregnancy: [[spoiler: Pearl does this in order to cover up for her pregnant sister May, who while married, has never slept with her husband (who is only 14 and mentally challenged) from an ArrangedMarriage. She manages to keep this secret even while living in a dormitory with several other women.]]
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* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Auntie Hu gets an exit permit and leaves home, but we never learn if she made it out of China.]]
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ShanghaiGirls_cover_5340.jpg]]
A 2010 book by Lisa See.
In 1937, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to find Chinese brides.
Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules. A sequel, ''Dreams of Joy'', was published in 2011 about Joy's travel to China.
------
!!Tropes in this story include:
* ArrangedMarriage: Pearl and May with Old Man Louie's sons, Sam and Vern.
* BreakTheCutie: Pearl gets brutally gang-raped by Japanese soldiers.
* ChekhovsGun: Vern's toy boats.
* ChekhovsGunman: Z.G. [[spoiler: He turns out to be Joy's biological father.]]
* CitizenshipMarriage: In a way. Pearl, May and their mother had planned to get to Hong Kong and live with their father's family, but after being attacked by Japanese soldiers they decide to go to America and live with their husbands.
* CultureClash:
** Joy with Pearl and Sam as she gets older.
** When Pearl and May first come to America.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sam.]]
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: A variant from the usual; [[spoiler: May's illegitimate child Joy is raised as her sister Pearl's child, since even though May was married when she got pregnant, she never had sex with her husband.]]
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: With Pearl as the smart one and May as the beautiful one. This is exacerbated by the fact that [[spoiler: Pearl is raising May's child as her own, and they disagree over how to raise her.]]
* TheIllegal: [[spoiler: Sam and most of the other sons are not really Old Man Louie's sons. He is a "paper son", or a person brought over to America on a false birth certificate. By extension, Pearl is illegal as well.]]
* AnImmigrantsTale
* [[spoiler: MySecretPregnancy: May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Pearl and her mother are raped by Japanese soldiers.]]
* RedScare: The Louie family is investigated in TheFifties for being Communist sympathizers because of their ties to China and because of Joy's political activity in college.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.
* SequelHook: The ending sets up the sequel: [[spoiler: Pearl and May have just found Joy's note detailing her plans to travel to China, and Pearl resolves to follow her and bring her home.]]
* SiblingTriangle: Both Pearl and May want Z.G.[[spoiler: May turns out to have been involved with Z.G. while they were in Shanghai, and he fathers her daughter, Joy. In the sequel, Pearl and Z.G. hook up one night, but Pearl decides against going any further with him, knowing that May still loves him. The ending has May and Z.G. reunited and implies that they will get back together.]]
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism: Joy is raised as Pearl's baby.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.
* TruthInTelevision: The "paper sons" phenomenon. Families would either have a baby that died or they would say that a baby died and ask for a birth certificate, move to America, and wait 20 years and sell it to someone who wanted to get to America but for some reason couldn't come legally.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler: In college, Joy joins a group that gets investigated by the FBI as a possible front for communism, which gets her family questioned and threatened by the FBI, which causes Sam to kill himself.]]
!!Tropes in ''Dreams of Joy'':
* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler: Almost all of Tao's family when they are caught participating in Swap Child, Make Food. The ones that aren't are sent away for reeducation through labor.]]
* EatsBabies: [[spoiler: Joy catches Tao and his family waiting for baby Samantha to die so they can eat her.]]
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out.]]
* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Pearl rescues Ta-ming from Green Dragon along with Joy and Tao, and ends up adopting him.]]
* InfantImmortality: Oh dear God, averted.
* NoNameGiven: Joy's mother-in-law is referred to by Pearl as "Joy's Mother-in-Law", because she literally had no name outside of her husband's surname. She went by Fu-shee when she got married. This was TruthInTelevision for poor Chinese women, who often weren't given names or were given names like "hope for a son".
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: The peasants resort to this on the commune when times get tough, going so far to eat babies that have died. [[spoiler: Tao's family tries to do this with Samantha and Sung-ling's baby, and they are harshly punished for it.]]
* RedChina
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Joy has some trouble adjusting to life in rural China, and it takes her a long time to realize the truths about communism that she's missing.
* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Pearl remarries to Dun, a professor that boarded with her family when she was young.]]
* VirginityMakesYouStupid: [[spoiler: Joy marries Tao and commits to life in the commune against her parents' advice. It isn't until she spends her first night with her new husband that she realizes the mistake she's made.]]
* WideEyedIdealist: Like everyone else in the commune, Joy believes in communism. [[spoiler: The famine that kills off most of the commune changes her mind.]]
----
A 2010 book by Lisa See.
In 1937, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to find Chinese brides.
Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules. A sequel, ''Dreams of Joy'', was published in 2011 about Joy's travel to China.
------
!!Tropes in this story include:
* ArrangedMarriage: Pearl and May with Old Man Louie's sons, Sam and Vern.
* BreakTheCutie: Pearl gets brutally gang-raped by Japanese soldiers.
* ChekhovsGun: Vern's toy boats.
* ChekhovsGunman: Z.G. [[spoiler: He turns out to be Joy's biological father.]]
* CitizenshipMarriage: In a way. Pearl, May and their mother had planned to get to Hong Kong and live with their father's family, but after being attacked by Japanese soldiers they decide to go to America and live with their husbands.
* CultureClash:
** Joy with Pearl and Sam as she gets older.
** When Pearl and May first come to America.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sam.]]
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: A variant from the usual; [[spoiler: May's illegitimate child Joy is raised as her sister Pearl's child, since even though May was married when she got pregnant, she never had sex with her husband.]]
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: With Pearl as the smart one and May as the beautiful one. This is exacerbated by the fact that [[spoiler: Pearl is raising May's child as her own, and they disagree over how to raise her.]]
* TheIllegal: [[spoiler: Sam and most of the other sons are not really Old Man Louie's sons. He is a "paper son", or a person brought over to America on a false birth certificate. By extension, Pearl is illegal as well.]]
* AnImmigrantsTale
* [[spoiler: MySecretPregnancy: May gets pregnant. Pearl finds out while they are at Angel Island waiting to be let in to America.]]
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Pearl and her mother are raped by Japanese soldiers.]]
* RedScare: The Louie family is investigated in TheFifties for being Communist sympathizers because of their ties to China and because of Joy's political activity in college.
* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar: The story starts during that time period.
* SequelHook: The ending sets up the sequel: [[spoiler: Pearl and May have just found Joy's note detailing her plans to travel to China, and Pearl resolves to follow her and bring her home.]]
* SiblingTriangle: Both Pearl and May want Z.G.[[spoiler: May turns out to have been involved with Z.G. while they were in Shanghai, and he fathers her daughter, Joy. In the sequel, Pearl and Z.G. hook up one night, but Pearl decides against going any further with him, knowing that May still loves him. The ending has May and Z.G. reunited and implies that they will get back together.]]
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism: Joy is raised as Pearl's baby.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Joy, when she finds out the truth about herself.
* TruthInTelevision: The "paper sons" phenomenon. Families would either have a baby that died or they would say that a baby died and ask for a birth certificate, move to America, and wait 20 years and sell it to someone who wanted to get to America but for some reason couldn't come legally.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler: In college, Joy joins a group that gets investigated by the FBI as a possible front for communism, which gets her family questioned and threatened by the FBI, which causes Sam to kill himself.]]
!!Tropes in ''Dreams of Joy'':
* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler: Almost all of Tao's family when they are caught participating in Swap Child, Make Food. The ones that aren't are sent away for reeducation through labor.]]
* EatsBabies: [[spoiler: Joy catches Tao and his family waiting for baby Samantha to die so they can eat her.]]
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: Joy knows Tao for only a few months before marrying him. JustifiedTrope in Chinese society, as Tao points out.]]
* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Pearl rescues Ta-ming from Green Dragon along with Joy and Tao, and ends up adopting him.]]
* InfantImmortality: Oh dear God, averted.
* NoNameGiven: Joy's mother-in-law is referred to by Pearl as "Joy's Mother-in-Law", because she literally had no name outside of her husband's surname. She went by Fu-shee when she got married. This was TruthInTelevision for poor Chinese women, who often weren't given names or were given names like "hope for a son".
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: The peasants resort to this on the commune when times get tough, going so far to eat babies that have died. [[spoiler: Tao's family tries to do this with Samantha and Sung-ling's baby, and they are harshly punished for it.]]
* RedChina
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Joy has some trouble adjusting to life in rural China, and it takes her a long time to realize the truths about communism that she's missing.
* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Pearl remarries to Dun, a professor that boarded with her family when she was young.]]
* VirginityMakesYouStupid: [[spoiler: Joy marries Tao and commits to life in the commune against her parents' advice. It isn't until she spends her first night with her new husband that she realizes the mistake she's made.]]
* WideEyedIdealist: Like everyone else in the commune, Joy believes in communism. [[spoiler: The famine that kills off most of the commune changes her mind.]]
----
