Summary

In Chapter 16, Daniel sneaks into to the Conference for English Educators at the Park Hotel in Beijing, where is mother is speaking. She looks polished and refined; Daniel thinks that she “looked like someone else’s mom” (283). Deming asks a question during the Question and Answer session. Later, when the conference is over, Polly and Daniel talk. They talk about how both China and New York are changing. Deming’s mother skips the rest of the conference and takes him to a fancy café in a well-developed neighborhood. He reflects on how much he looks like his mother, especially after these past years in which no one looked like him.

They go for a fancy dinner and head home. Daniel shows his mother a photo of him and her from twenty years ago, given to Kay from Vivian. As Polly is about to...