Joan Is Okay

In Fang’s guest house, Joan struggles to sleep. She thinks about her brother, her parents, and what it is like to grow up as a child of immigrants. Fang is particularly attuned to the history of Chinese people in the United States, and he has pointed out to Joan on many occasions that Americans have been particularly biased against various waves of Chinese immigrants; moreover, unlike with other immigrant groups, this bias has been evident not only in person-to-person interactions but also in government policy. Joan knows that, although her brother believes that he personally has much to overcome, Fang is laser-focused on building wealth so that he can provide a safety net for his children. For Fang, “success” for immigrants is a three-step process: The first generation takes any job that they can find in order to help the second generation obtain a high-quality education. The second generation then does its best to guarantee the long-term financial health of the third generation. Although there is much about Fang that Joan criticizes, she understands that for each of them, albeit in different ways, regaining the control and self-determination that their parents lost when they immigrated is of the utmost importance. For Fang, his path back to that power is through financial success. For Joan, it is through her work.

Joan’s mother brings a large meal that she has prepared herself using family recipes to Joan, then criticizes her daughter for showing up in the middle of the night without calling first. Joan is moved by the gesture and thinks to herself how much of any culture is bound up in its traditions surrounding food. For the first time in as long as Joan can remember, she feels like crying.

The number of COVID-19 cases in China increases rapidly as the country prepares to celebrate the new year. Preparations for Fang and Tami’s party are also underway, and Joan tells her brother that she does not plan to attend. Between her desire to remain in the guest house during the festivities and what Tami perceives as Joan’s lack of interest in their children, both Tami and Fang are irritated with Joan. That said, Tami points out that although Joan is difficult, Fang is too. Fang raises his eyebrow, but he does not verbally respond to this assertion. Joan spends the party in the guest house, but after a few hours, her mother joins her. It is still too loud in the house, and her mother would like to sleep in the guest house with Joan.

Flights to China have largely been suspended, and Joan’s mother texts daily with her family to check on the situation there. She is assured that although cases are rising, the population has been locked down and new hospital facilities are being built daily. Everyone assumes that she will be able to fly back to Shanghai in March, the following month.

Joan thinks about her sister-in-law, Tami. Tami had moved to the United States to obtain a master’s degree, and her parents (who only had one child because of Chinese state policy) had hoped that she would next complete a doctorate, and then return home. They were disappointed that she chose to marry and remain in the United States instead of continuing with their plan. Joan realizes that although she didn’t understand Tami’s choices, perhaps parenthood was, for Tami, more radical than Joan had previously thought.

Joan texts Madeline and learns that Reese has returned from his wellness retreat, but he’s been given shifts that he dislikes and is clearly being punished by the director. Joan further learns that the hospital is preparing for an influx of COVID-19 cases and that cases are on the rise in Europe also. Madeline’s mother, in Germany, is not as worried as Madeline thinks that she should be. Joan’s mother’s March flight is canceled. Her mother is upset, and Tami and Fang are hurt that she wants to leave their home so badly. The flight is rescheduled for April.

Joan and Mark exchange texts, and Mark asks if the two are okay, or if he has overstepped. Although Joan does not want to get into an argument, she does feel that he has overstepped. She realizes that for Mark, overbearing behavior is “normal,” and that because Joan didn’t explicitly tell him that she did not want gifts of furniture, unannounced visits, and to co-host a party, he had assumed that he had her consent. For Joan, consent works differently: A person should ask to obtain permission before giving gifts, stopping by, or planning an event together. It strikes her that Mark and Reese are similar: They can be clueless given how accustomed they are to taking up space, to asserting themselves. They ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Joan understands that this is a cultural value that she does not share. She thinks that Mark should be able to understand that, as a person with knowledge of two cultures, Joan might know more than he does about the world. She does not, however, think that he will listen if she were to try to explain this to him.

Joan and Tami begin to argue. Tami objects to much of how Joan has chosen to live her life, failing to realize that Joan has merely made different choices. Joan tries to point this out to Tami, but to no avail. Tami explains that once Joan has children, people will leave her alone and take her more seriously.

The pandemic is growing, and Joan is called back to work. Instances of anti-Asian hate are also on the rise, and it upsets Joan to see so many people blaming the pandemic on China and Chinese people. Fang is worried that Joan will be unsafe in the city. She wonders if he is right and thinks about his experiences as an immigrant and her father’s. She realizes that she is forgetting details about her father and his life.

Joan returns to her apartment in New York. She installs a deadbolt, but Mark still knocks on her door every day. Reese is back at work and has a new, happier attitude. She is busy with a steady stream of COVID-19 patients until she contracts the illness herself. When she improves, she goes downstairs to get her mail and finds that now her face, rather than Reese’s, is on the brochure for the hospital where she works.

Joan’s mother is still stuck in the United States. Although China has declared itself the winner in its war against COVID-19, it has begun to strictly limit the number of international flights that it allows into the country, retaliation for the world’s refusal to let Chinese flights land during the early days of the pandemic. Joan’s mother declares that once she finally makes it back to China, she will not visit the United States again: This will be her last trip.

Cases continue to rise in Joan’s hospital. Patients are not allowed to receive visitors, and Joan and her colleagues begin to hold up phones and iPads so that patients can communicate with their loved ones. Joan helps one man to provide his wife with all of their financial information in case he does not make it.

On the way to work the next day, Joan thinks about her father. She recalls once seeing another Asian father-daughter pair purchase a Powerball ticket. The girl asked her father what they could buy if they win, and he replies that the real “win” has been his ability to make a life for them in the United States.