How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He pressed his palms together at his chest and gave them a slow, deep, Japanese bow from the waist. They received this with a moment of careful, indecisive silence. He was unforgivably a foreigner then, foreign to them, foreign to me, foreign to everyone but Mama, who sat next to him smiling with pleased modesty. Twelve years old at the time, I wanted to scream. I wanted to slide out of sight under the table and dissolve. (2.20.32)
All this horror because Papa does a "deep, Japanese bow" to show his gratitude… Jeanne definitely seems to be overreacting, but she is—as she points out—"twelve years old at the time." Parental mortification is the norm at this age.
Quote #8
At that age I was too young to consciously use my sexuality or to understand how an Oriental female can fascinate Caucasian men, and of course far too young to see that even this is usually just another form of invisibility. (2.19.21)
Here's a puzzle for you: how is an Asian woman's sexuality "just another form of invisibility" if that sexuality is all about being exotic (like Jeanne showing off her body in a skimpy sarong)? What kind of invisibility as Jeanne talking about?
Quote #9
[The old geisha] was offering lessons in the traditional dancing called odori…. She was about seventy, a tiny, aristocratic-looking woman…. She would kneel in her kimono and speak very softly in Japanese, while her young assistant would gracefully swing closed knees or bend her swanlike neck to the geisha's instructions…. It was all a mystery. I had never learned the language. And this woman was so old, even her dialect was foreign to me. She seemed an occult figure, more spirit than human…. Something about her fascinated me though. (2.13.11-14)
Here is a moment when Jeanne comes in contact with a whole bunch of traditional things from Japanese culture—language, dance, dress—and it all baffles her. It must be hard to have dominant white normative culture label you as Other and yet also find so much of your heritage foreign.