The Hundred Secret Senses

Kwan Li is the deuteragonist of the novel, a spiritual guide whose unwavering presence challenges and ultimately transforms the narrator, Olivia. A round and largely static character, Kwan’s wisdom and beliefs remain consistent, serving as a constant spiritual anchor in a world of doubt. Her most defining characteristic is her possession of “yin eyes” (3), the ability to see and communicate with “yin people” (14), or ghosts. This intuitive, spiritual way of knowing transcends logic and the five senses. Kwan acts as a bridge between Olivia’s rational world and the World of Yin, consistently offering a perspective rooted in memory, emotion, and karmic connection. She embodies the novel’s central argument that a purely logical worldview is insufficient, forcing Olivia to confront truths that are felt rather than proven.

Kwan’s devotion to Olivia is absolute, a bond she describes as a “cosmic Chinese umbilical cord” that connects them across time and even across lifetimes (20). Despite Olivia’s childhood cruelty, adult resentment, and the betrayal that leads to Kwan’s institutionalization, Kwan’s love remains unconditional. This steadfast loyalty is a guiding force in Olivia’s life. The novel presents this bond as a fulfillment of a promise made in a past life, where Kwan was a Hakka girl named Nunumu and Olivia was an American missionary named Miss Banner. This cyclical, karmic loyalty suggests that the deepest connections are fated and demand recognition beyond the confines of a single existence.

As the novel’s primary storyteller, Kwan uses her recurring tales about her past life during the Taiping Rebellion to convey emotional and spiritual truths. This motif of storytelling and past lives serves as her primary method for healing her own trauma and for teaching Olivia about the inescapable influence of the past. By weaving together historical events, personal memories, and supernatural occurrences, Kwan’s stories blur the distinctions between fact and myth, suggesting that the truth of a story lies in its emotional resonance rather than its literal accuracy. Through these narratives, she guides Olivia toward an understanding that a complete identity can only be formed by embracing a fractured history.

Simon Bishop is Olivia’s husband and a significant supporting character whose own past haunts their marriage. A round but mostly static character, he is primarily defined by his unresolved grief for his deceased former girlfriend, Elza. This ongoing attachment makes him a compelling parallel to Olivia. While Olivia struggles with the literal ghosts Kwan sees, Simon is haunted by a metaphorical one. He keeps Elza’s memory alive by speaking of her in the present tense, preserving her belongings, and secretly writing a novel based on her life. This inability to let go of the past creates the central conflict in his marriage, as Olivia constantly feels she is competing with a ghost and living as Elza’s replacement.

Simon’s relationship with Olivia begins under the shadow of this idealized past love, establishing a dynamic that questions whether love can truly be shared with the dead. He admits that he was initially drawn to Olivia because her voice reminded him of Elza’s, confirming Olivia’s deepest insecurities. Although he eventually commits to Olivia, his emotional world remains partially occupied by Elza, a fact that prevents true intimacy and fuels the couple’s eventual separation. His journey, though less central than Olivia’s, explores the complexities of loyalty and loss.

Olivia’s mother, Louise Kenfield, is a minor but pivotal character whose actions establish the novel’s central relationships. Characterized by her flightiness and superficial idealism, Louise’s love and attention are inconsistent. She marries Olivia’s father to fulfill a dream of being different and later agrees to bring Kwan to the US as another project. However, her maternal unreliability and emotional neglect create a void in Olivia’s childhood, which Kwan comes to fill. This dynamic is the catalyst for the complicated, codependent bond between the two sisters, as Kwan becomes the steadfast maternal figure that Louise is not.

Miss Banner is one of the most symbolically rich figures in text, functioning as both a historical character within Kwan’s past-life narrative and a metaphoric reflection of Olivia’s struggle with identity and belonging. Though she exists primarily within the embedded story of Nunumu’s life during the Taiping Rebellion, Miss Banner is a fully realized, round character whose emotional arc embodies themes of cultural dislocation, moral conflict, and the fragile hope of human connection. As an American missionary in mid-19th-century China, she is defined by her position at a cultural crossroads: an outsider who arrives with the intention to civilize but ultimately becomes transformed—and undone—by the world she enters.

Like Olivia, Miss Banner initially embodies a Western worldview grounded in discipline, propriety, and moral certainty. She attempts to impose order and religious structure on the chaos of civil war, believing that education and Christian instruction can uplift the local population. Yet her encounter with Nunumu destabilizes this rigid framework. Nunumu’s bravery, resourcefulness, and fierce loyalty defy Miss Banner’s preconceived hierarchies. Their relationship evolves from obligation and gratitude into genuine affection, marking Miss Banner as a character capable of growth and moral complexity. 



Miss Banner’s vulnerability and isolation also mark her as a figure shaped by trauma. She enters China already grieving a past she cannot return to, and the instability of wartime magnifies her emotional fragility. Nunumu observes that Miss Banner suffers from loneliness, mirroring Olivia’s experience. Tan uses Miss Banner as a mirror through which the reader recognizes how displacement and yearning operate across centuries.