Secrets and silence are a foundational motif in the novel, representing the oppressive forces, both familial and political, that perpetuate trauma across generations. The narrative is built upon The Enduring Weight of Generational and Personal Trauma, beginning with the central secret of Yili’s existence and disappearance. This initial act of concealment, dictated by unilateral patriarchal action, metastasizes into a pervasive silence that governs the Wang household. As Liv’s mother recalls, “There are a lot of things that weren’t spoken about in the household, and we learned not to ask too many questions” (31). This learned silence becomes a tool of control and a symptom of unresolved grief, preventing genuine connection and forcing characters to carry their burdens in isolation. Secrets do not simply hide the past but actively poison the present.

The novel parallels private secrets with public, political silences to underscore the inescapable weight of a hidden past. Ziyi’s abuse is concealed behind lies about clumsiness, a secret she maintains to survive. This is juxtaposed with the unspoken political atrocities of the White Terror, an era when people in their neighborhood “would disappear, often because of my father” (30). By linking the trauma of a hidden family history to a suppressed national history, the narrative argues that both forms of silence are profoundly damaging. The plot is driven by the process of revelation, whether through Yi-ping’s quest for Yili or the discovery of Ang-Li’s journal, which corrects the family’s sanitized history. The motif reinforces that healing, for a person, a family, or a nation, can only begin when secrets are brought into the light and silence is finally broken.