Summary

Jing-Mei Woo's mother arrives in the United States in 1949 after losing her entire family including her first husband, their infant twin daughters, and her parents. Once she settles in America, she never looks back. She thinks that if you live in America, you can do and be anything you want. Not only can you open your own business, but you can buy a house and become rich.

When Jing-Mei is nine years old, her mother tells her that she can become a child prodigy. Initially, Jing-Mei's mother struggles to determine the type of prodigy her daughter can become. She attempts to transform Jing-Mei into a Chinese Shirley Temple. To accomplish this, she makes her daughter watch old movies and takes her to a beauty salon to get sausage curls. Instead of curls, the girl ends up with crinkly black frizz and...