Homeseeking

Suchi, now 16 years old, goes to see Haiwen who is practicing his violin in the park. He is memorizing a piece of music for his audition at the music conservatory. Suchi and Haiwen have been dating for the past two years. As they walk away from the park, they overhear an anti-American protest. After the Japanese surrendered, American troops occupied Shanghai, and their presence was controversial. Suchi and Haiwen argue about politics; Suchi supports the communists, while Haiwen’s family are nationalists. After they reconcile, Haiwen tells Suchi that the Central Air Transport Corp. airline is accepting applications for flight attendants and encourages her to apply.

A week later, the republican government announces a draft order. Later, Suchi gets her picture taken for her flight attendant application. She gives Haiwen a copy of the picture.

On New Year’s Eve, Sulan gives Suchi a beautiful qipao (a traditional Chinese dress). Sulan encourages Suchi to marry Haiwen even though Sulan herself says that she will never marry because “[she’s] just different from [her]” (171). At dinner, Sulan lets slip that Suchi has applied to be a flight attendant. Her father is furious because he intended to leave the bookshop he runs to her.

After a few weeks apart, Suchi goes to see Haiwen. He has been distracted because of his rehearsals, but he agrees to take her out for her birthday. On her birthday, Suchi waits for Haiwen outside school for an hour, but he never appears. She goes to his house. He tells her that his father has been arrested because he had dealings with a businessman who turned out to be a “Communist spy.” In exchange for his father’s release, his brother, Haiming, will have to join the nationalist military to meet draft requirements.

Suchi hasn’t seen Haiwen for weeks. One night, she overhears her parents arguing about him, and her father says that Haiwen will not marry Suchi because Suchi’s family is middle class and Haiwen’s is wealthy.

One day, Junjun, Haiwen’s sister, comes to the house with a gift for Suchi from Haiwen. It is an airplane pin. After a month, Haiwen comes to see her. They go to the park, and he plays his audition piece for her. Then, he plays a pop song that he knows she likes, “Lovesick Dream.” Afterward, Suchi proposes to him. He says that they cannot get married, and they argue. They kiss, and Haiwen leaves.

The next morning, Suchi finds Haiwen’s violin on her doorstep with a note that says, “Forgive me.” She is despondent.

In April 1993, Haiwen, now 62, returns to Shanghai for the first time since he left at 16. He is there to reunite with his brother, Haiming, and his sister, Junjun. He is shocked by how much has changed.

After enlisting, Haiwen ended up in Taiwan under the nationalist government without any way to contact his family in communist China. In 1971, the nationalist government lost legitimate control of China to the communist government. In 1976, Haiwen emigrated to the United States. In 1978, he began to make efforts to find and contact his family in China. After years of fruitless effort, in 1983, he got a call one night from Junjun. A few weeks later, his brother called as well. Haiwen was devasted to learn that his mother had died 10 months before they called.

Haiwen reunites with his sister and meets his niece, Xuenong, and his brother-in-law. They drive to the neighborhood he grew up in and visit their old house. Junjun rents it out to several tenants. Over lunch, they talk about the “liberalization” of the Chinese economy, which Junjun, as a higher-ranking member of the Communist Party, defends, despite its seeming incongruence with communist ideals.

That afternoon, Haiwen reunites with Haiming and meets his nephew, Jiwen, and his family. They all go to dinner together. Haiwen notices that things seem tense between Haiming and Junjun. The next morning, Haiwen has breakfast with Haiming. Haiming explains to Haiwen that things are tense between Haiming and Junjun because the communists killed their father after Junjun denounced him as a capitalist to get a better position in the party. She hadn’t thought that their father would be killed, just imprisoned. Meanwhile, Haiming had been sent with his family to a reeducation camp, where his wife died.

Later, the family goes to Haiwen’s mother’s grave. Haiwen cries, knowing that he will never get her forgiveness.

The day before he leaves, Haiwen confronts Junjun with what he learned from Haiming. She is defensive of her actions, explaining that she had a sick child and did what she felt she had to do for her family. At dinner with the family that evening, Haiwen is happy to see them all together despite their differences. He asks Junjun to try and find Suchi for him, but she never does.

In September 1948, Suchi, now 19 years old, says goodbye to her parents at the train platform in Shanghai. Suchi and Sulan are going to Hong Kong for what Suchi thinks is a business trip. The next day, they arrive in Hong Kong. They had expected that their father’s contact would meet them there, but they see no one. Eventually, they find a boarding house to stay in. They return to the train station every day for a week, but the contact never materializes. Sulan says that they need to start looking for work. Sulan reveals that she knew their parents had sent them away to keep them safe from further fighting between the nationalists and the communists in Shanghai. Suchi is shocked.

Sulan finds a job as a tailor’s assistant. Suchi begins to work at the boarding house assisting the landlady, Mrs. Chan, who has two daughters, Shirley and Betty. Sulan and Suchi initially have trouble communicating with others because they speak Mandarin and Shanghainese, whereas people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese. Periodically, they get letters from their father. In May, the communists take over Shanghai.

By 1952, they have not received a letter from their parents for months. Suchi has settled into her life in Hong Kong, but she still carries a torch for Haiwen. Sulan still insists that she will never get married.

One afternoon, Mrs. Chan gives Suchi a letter addressed to Sulan from Shanghai. The letter is from her family’s former boarder, Siau Zi, informing her that their father has been accused of “betraying his country” for criticizing the Communist Party (257), running an underground publishing house, and tax evasion. Zi says that as a party leader, he can help their father, but only if Sulan agrees to marry him.

Before Suchi can decide what to do, Mrs. Chan comes in and tells her that her daughters are very sick. Sulan and some of the boarders take Mrs. Chan and the girls to a doctor whom Sulan knows who lives in a nearby shantytown. The doctor diagnoses the girls with measles. Sulan and Suchi spend all their savings buying them aspirin and penicillin.

In the middle of the night, Suchi wakes up to the sound of sirens. She sees that the shantytown, where Mrs. Chan and the girls are staying with the doctor, is on fire. They never return home. Sulan blames herself for their deaths because she took them to the doctor there.