Hong Kong

Ma wants to take her daughter away from Hong Kong because she believes there are more opportunities in the United States. However, Ma and Kim are actually better suited to their lives in Hong Kong. There, they live in a clean, warm apartment, and Kim succeeds in school. Ma can pursue her passion, playing and teaching the violin. Yet, they are lured from their modest, stable lives there to an America that is much more difficult.

Ma and Kim's Apartment

Aunt Paula secures a would-be-condemned apartment for her sister and niece to live in when they arrive in the United States. The apartment is unheated and vermin-infested. No one else lives in the apartment complex, and the apartment's windows do not have glass in them. Ma and Kim must sit by the stove in order to stay warm in the winter. Their first American apartment is in...