Homeseeking

Haiwen (who goes by Howard in the United States), now 78 years old, runs into Suchi at the grocery store in Los Angeles. They talk, and Haiwen tells Suchi that his wife of 30 years, Linyee, died “a little over a year ago” (9). They are happy to see one another, but Haiwen leaves without getting her number.

When Haiwen arrives home, his older daughter, Yiping, calls from Maryland. She shares news about her children and Haiwen’s grandchildren and encourages him to move in with them. He declines. That night, Haiwen has a nightmare about the war in Shanghai.

A few days later, Haiwen attends his friend Wei’s 80th birthday party at a Chinese restaurant. His friend Winston arrives with two women, a glamorous woman named Annie and Suchi. At the party, Haiwen and Suchi talk. Haiwen admits that he does not play the violin very much anymore because of his arthritis, but he is happy to hear that Suchi still sings. Suchi tells him that her sister, Sulan, died in 1990 after a long illness. He tells her that he is “afraid.” She tells him that she felt the same way when he left, but “what’s past is past” (25).

Seven-year-old Suchi (who currently goes by Suji) wanders her neighborhood in Shanghai. She has been trying to explore as much as she can before she starts school in a week. In November 1937, the Japanese took over the city, and a year later, with the (temporary) cessation of hostilities, the schools are reopening. Suchi comes across a house where a small boy in a courtyard is playing a strange instrument. That night, she asks her parents about the instrument. Her father tells her that it is a violin. Suchi says that she wants to learn violin, but her parents encourage her to learn a Chinese instrument like a guzheng instead.

When school starts, she sees a small boy who is in her class. His name is Wang Haiwen. The other boys bully him because his parents forgot to pack him a lunch, so she shares some of her meal with him. The next day, he brings her a pastry to say thank you. They walk home from school together, and Suchi learns that Haiwen’s family is rich and came from Hong Kong. That night, her sister, Sulan (who currently goes by Sulae), teases her that she wants to marry Haiwen, which Suchi vigorously denies.

Suchi excels at school. One day, she and her sister go to Haiwen’s house after school and listen to him play violin. They begin to spend a lot of afternoons together at his house. One day, Sulan decides to spend time with her friend Yizhen after school, so Suchi and Haiwen decide to go to Suchi’s house instead. When they arrive, Suchi’s M’ma (mother) is furious to learn that Suchi has been spending time with a boy, Haiwen, especially because she thinks Haiwen’s mother looks like “a cheap song girl” (58). She beats Suchi and Sulan for lying about where they have been after school. When their Apa (father) returns home, he chastises M’ma for disciplining them because he thinks Haiwen and his mother seem fine, but the girls hide from him that M’ma beat them because they don’t want her “to get in more trouble” (63).

A week after the birthday party, Winston calls Haiwen and invites him to spend time with himself and Annie at his retirement community, Coral Sunset. When Haiwen arrives, Annie and Suchi are rehearsing a duet in the community clubhouse. Over lunch, Winston tells them slightly tall tales from his time serving in the military when he was forcibly conscripted to serve in the Nationalist Army under Chang Kai-shek in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War. Haiwen declines to share his stories from that time. When the women are in the bathroom, Winston tells Haiwen that he really likes “Sue” (Suchi), even though she is a divorcée. Winston tells him that Sue met her ex-husband while waitressing in a nightclub in Hong Kong; he was a wealthy businessman but left Sue with nothing.

After the meal, Haiwen volunteers to drive Suchi home. In the car, Haiwen confronts Suchi with what he learned about her past from Winston and chastises her for not telling him that she waitressed in a nightclub “when [they] were in Hong Kong” (73). She tells him that the job was “shameful” and that she didn’t want his pity. He feels hurt that she lied, even though “he’d been the one to break her trust first” (75). Suchi tells him about how she lives with her son, his white wife, and their two young children. Haiwen tells her that he came to the United States in 1976 with the garment manufacturing company he worked for in Taiwan. While they sit in traffic, someone drives along the shoulder. Haiwen is furious, and Suchi teases him for being such a rule follower. To prove a point, Haiwen likewise drives along the shoulder to get off the highway. Haiwen drops Suchi off at her house and asks for her number, which she gives him.

When Haiwen gets home, he misses his late wife. He calls his younger daughter, Yijun, and they catch up briefly. He tells her about how Winston is trying to set him up with Annie, but Haiwen doesn’t feel ready to move on.

Then, he puts on Brahm’s “Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.” This makes him think about how he used to listen to this symphony in his head to block out the horrors of war when he was serving in the military. After the war, he found that he couldn’t remember most of the music he had listened to in his head during that time. He began to buy records to remind himself of the music, and he would cry while he listened to it. His wife understood but warned him that his behavior was “scaring” his daughters. The next night, instead of crying, he played a Chinese folk song for his daughters on his violin.

Suchi is 14 years old and living amid the Pacific Theater of World War II. Her father attempts to explain the geopolitics of the war to her, but she finds it hard to care beyond her daily experience of hunger, bombings, and dead bodies in the streets. Suchi is also distracted because she has realized that she is in love with Haiwen. Suchi goes over to his house to confess her love, but she is nervous. Instead, they talk about music, and Suchi tells him that she dreams of being a singer because she wants to travel and see the world, of which her father disapproves. Haiwen is preparing for a big recital, and he is nervous.

Suchi decides that they will go see a fortune teller who she figures will calm Haiwen’s nerves about the recital. On their way there, they are stopped at a checkpoint. Suchi charms a Japanese soldier with the Japanese she has learned in school, and he lets them through. They go to a slum neighborhood and find the fortune teller. Suchi is surprised that the fortune teller is a middle-aged woman instead of an old man. The fortune teller tells Haiwen that he will have a mixed two years followed by hardship, but “the further [he] journey[s] from the place of [his] birth, the better [his] fortune” (112). The fortune teller tells Suchi that she will have a good two years and that her luck will be better the more she says close to home. She also notes that Suchi and Haiwen have “yoefen” (a soul connection).

That night, Suchi’s father berates her for her grades dropping at school. He is even more furious when he learns that she will be singing a song glorifying the Japanese-controlled Chinese Republic at school.

A few days later, Haiwen takes Suchi to see his music conservatory. While he talks excitedly about his musical ambitions, Suchi begins to wonder if she could be his wife. Then, Haiwen gives her a classified ad for a job as a “stewardess” and says that perhaps she could get a job doing that after the war; that way, she can fulfill her dreams of travel.

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese surrender to the Allied forces. Everyone in Shanghai celebrates. Suchi runs to tell Haiwen the good news. On their way back, they see a mob beating someone who was a collaborator with the Japanese. The chain on Haiwen’s bike gets twisted, and they have to stop on the side of the road. He becomes worried about their safety when he can’t fix it quickly. When she sees how concerned he is about her, Suchi kisses him.