Chapter 16: Hong Kong Summary and Analysis

Adeline made fast friends with Reine's two children, Claudine and Victor. For the first time in her life, she was treated like she counted. Reine was kind and caring and treated Adeline just like she did her own children. When they arrived at her father's apartment in Hong Kong, neither her father or Niang greeted her directly. The one bright spot was that Ye Ye was there. She sensed a difference in his attitude and finally figured out that it was "defeat." He had given up.

One thing Ye Ye didn't give up on was the Chinese language. He told Adeline that it was fine to learn English but she should never forget her Chinese. He predicted one day that English, Chinese and Spanish would be the only languages. He agreed that Chinese was the more difficult...